NetBackup™ Deployment Guide for Kubernetes Clusters

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (10.2)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About NetBackup deployment on Kubernetes clusters
    2.  
      Required terminology
    3.  
      User roles and permissions
    4. About MSDP Scaleout
      1.  
        MSDP Scaleout components
      2.  
        Limitations in MSDP Scaleout
    5.  
      About NetBackup Snapshot Manager
  2. Section I. Deployment
    1. Prerequisites for Kubernetes cluster configuration
      1. Config-Checker utility
        1.  
          How does the Config-Checker utility work
        2.  
          Config-Checker execution and status details
      2. Data-Migration for AKS
        1.  
          How Data-Migration works
        2.  
          Data-Migration execution and status details
      3. Webhooks validation for EKS
        1.  
          How does the webhook validation works
        2.  
          Webhooks validation execution details
    2. Deployment with environment operators
      1. About deployment with the environment operator
        1.  
          Prerequisites
        2.  
          Contents of the TAR file
        3.  
          Known limitations
      2. Manual deployment
        1.  
          Deploying the operators
        2.  
          Deploying NetBackup and MSDP Scaleout
        3.  
          Deploying NetBackup and Snapshot Manager
      3.  
        Configuring the environment.yaml file
      4.  
        Uninstalling NetBackup environment and the operators
      5.  
        Applying security patches
    3. Deploying NetBackup
      1.  
        Preparing the environment for NetBackup installation on Kubernetes cluster
      2.  
        Recommendations of NetBackup deployment on Kubernetes cluster
      3.  
        Limitations of NetBackup deployment on Kubernetes cluster
      4. Primary and media server CR
        1. About primary server CR and media server CR
          1.  
            After installing primary server CR
          2.  
            After Installing the media server CR
        2.  
          Elastic media server
        3.  
          Monitoring the status of the CRs
        4.  
          Updating the CRs
        5.  
          Deleting the CRs
      5.  
        Configuring NetBackup IT Analytics for NetBackup deployment
      6.  
        Managing NetBackup deployment using VxUpdate
      7.  
        Migrating the cloud node for primary or media servers
    4. Deploying NetBackup using Helm charts
      1.  
        Overview
      2.  
        Installing NetBackup using Helm charts
      3.  
        Uninstalling NetBackup using Helm charts
    5. Deploying MSDP Scaleout
      1.  
        Deploying MSDP Scaleout
      2.  
        Prerequisites for AKS
      3.  
        Prerequisites for EKS
      4.  
        Installing the docker images and binaries
      5.  
        Initializing the MSDP operator
      6.  
        Configuring MSDP Scaleout
      7.  
        Using MSDP Scaleout as a single storage pool in NetBackup
      8.  
        Configuring the MSDP cloud in MSDP Scaleout
      9.  
        Using S3 service in MSDP Scaleout for AKS
      10.  
        Enabling MSDP S3 service after MSDP Scaleout is deployed for AKS
    6. Deploying Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        Prerequisites
      2.  
        Installing the docker images
  3. Section II. Monitoring and Management
    1. Monitoring NetBackup
      1.  
        Monitoring the application health
      2.  
        Telemetry reporting
      3.  
        About NetBackup operator logs
      4.  
        Expanding storage volumes
      5. Allocating static PV for Primary and Media pods
        1.  
          (AKS-specific) Allocating static PV for Media pods
        2.  
          (EKS-specific) Allocating static PV for Primary and Media pods
    2. Monitoring MSDP Scaleout
      1.  
        About MSDP Scaleout status and events
      2.  
        Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch
      3.  
        Monitoring with Azure Container insights
      4.  
        The Kubernetes resources for MSDP Scaleout and MSDP operator
    3. Monitoring Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        Overview
      2.  
        Logs of Snapshot Manager
      3.  
        Configuration parameters
    4. Managing the Load Balancer service
      1.  
        About the Load Balancer service
      2.  
        Notes for Load Balancer service
      3.  
        Opening the ports from the Load Balancer service
    5. Managing MSDP Scaleout
      1.  
        Adding MSDP engines
      2.  
        Adding data volumes
      3. Expanding existing data or catalog volumes
        1.  
          Manual storage expansion
      4.  
        MSDP Scaleout scaling recommendations
      5. MSDP Cloud backup and disaster recovery
        1.  
          About the reserved storage space
        2.  
          Cloud LSU disaster recovery
      6.  
        MSDP multi-domain support
      7.  
        Configuring Auto Image Replication
      8. About MSDP Scaleout logging and troubleshooting
        1.  
          Collecting the logs and the inspection information
    6. Performing catalog backup and recovery
      1.  
        Backing up a catalog
      2.  
        Restoring a catalog
  4. Section III. Maintenance
    1. MSDP Scaleout Maintenance
      1.  
        Pausing the MSDP Scaleout operator for maintenance
      2.  
        Logging in to the pods
      3.  
        Reinstalling MSDP Scaleout operator
      4.  
        Migrating the MSDP Scaleout to another node pool
    2. Upgrading
      1. Upgrading NetBackup
        1.  
          Preparing for NetBackup upgrade
        2.  
          Upgrading NetBackup operator
        3.  
          Upgrading NetBackup application
        4.  
          Upgrade NetBackup from previous versions
        5.  
          Procedure to rollback when upgrade fails
      2.  
        Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
      3. Upgrading Snapshot Manager
        1.  
          Upgrading Snapshot Manager operator
        2.  
          Upgrading Snapshot Manager
        3.  
          Post-migration tasks
    3. Uninstalling
      1. Uninstalling MSDP Scalout from Kubernetes cluster
        1.  
          Cleaning up MSDP Scaleout
        2.  
          Cleaning up the MSDP Scaleout operator
      2.  
        Uninstalling Snapshot Manager from Kubernetes cluster
    4. Troubleshooting
      1. Troubleshooting AKS and EKS issues
        1.  
          View the list of operator resources
        2.  
          View the list of product resources
        3.  
          View operator logs
        4.  
          View primary logs
        5.  
          Socket connection failure
        6.  
          Resolving an invalid license key issue
        7.  
          Resolving an issue where external IP address is not assigned to a NetBackup server's load balancer services
        8.  
          Resolving the issue where the NetBackup server pod is not scheduled for long time
        9.  
          Resolving an issue where the Storage class does not exist
        10.  
          Resolving an issue where the primary server or media server deployment does not proceed
        11.  
          Resolving an issue of failed probes
        12.  
          Resolving token issues
        13.  
          Resolving an issue related to insufficient storage
        14.  
          Resolving an issue related to invalid nodepool
        15.  
          Resolving a token expiry issue
        16.  
          Resolve an issue related to KMS database
        17.  
          Resolve an issue related to pulling an image from the container registry
        18.  
          Resolving an issue related to recovery of data
        19.  
          Check primary server status
        20.  
          Pod status field shows as pending
        21.  
          Ensure that the container is running the patched image
        22.  
          Getting EEB information from an image, a running container, or persistent data
        23.  
          Resolving the certificate error issue in NetBackup operator pod logs
        24.  
          Pod restart failure due to liveness probe time-out
        25.  
          NetBackup messaging queue broker take more time to start
        26.  
          Host mapping conflict in NetBackup
        27.  
          Issue with capacity licensing reporting which takes longer time
        28.  
          Local connection is getting treated as insecure connection
        29.  
          Primary pod is in pending state for a long duration
        30.  
          Backing up data from Primary server's /mnt/nbdata/ directory fails with primary server as a client
        31.  
          Storage server not supporting Instant Access capability on Web UI after upgrading NetBackup
        32.  
          Taint, Toleration, and Node affinity related issues in cpServer
        33.  
          Operations performed on cpServer in environment.yaml file are not reflected
        34.  
          Elastic media server related issues
      2. Troubleshooting AKS-specific issues
        1.  
          Data migration unsuccessful even after changing the storage class through the storage yaml file
        2.  
          Host validation failed on the target host
        3.  
          Primary pod goes in non-ready state
      3. Troubleshooting EKS-specific issues
        1.  
          Resolving the primary server connection issue
        2.  
          NetBackup Snapshot Manager deployment on EKS fails
        3.  
          Wrong EFS ID is provided in environment.yaml file
        4.  
          Primary pod is in ContainerCreating state
        5.  
          Webhook displays an error for PV not found
  5. Appendix A. CR template
    1.  
      Secret
    2. MSDP Scaleout CR
      1.  
        MSDP Scaleout CR template for AKS
      2.  
        MSDP Scaleout CR template for EKS

Prerequisites for AKS

A working Azure Kubernetes cluster

  • Azure Kubernetes cluster

    • Your Azure Kubernetes cluster must be created with appropriate network and configuration settings.

      Supported Azure Kubernetes cluster version is 1.21.x and later.

    • Availability zone for AKS cluster must be disabled.

    • At least one storage class is backed with Azure disk CSI storage driver "disk.csi.azure.com", and allows volume expansion. It must be in LRS category with Premium SSD. For example, the built-in storage class "managed-csi-premium". It is recommended that the storage class has "Retain" reclaim.

    • Cert-Manager must be installed.

    • A Kubernetes Secret that contains the MSDP credentials is required.

      See Secret.

    • Enable AKS Uptime SLA.

      AKS Uptime SLA is recommended for a better resiliency.

      For information about AKS Uptime SLA and to enable it, see Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Uptime SLA.

  • Azure container registry (ACR)

    Use existing ACR or create a new one. Your Kubernetes cluster must be able to access this registry to pull the images from.

  • Node Pool

    You must have a dedicated node pool for MSDP Scaleout created. Azure availability zone must be disabled.

    The Azure autoscaling allows your node pool to scale dynamically as required. If Azure autoscaling is not enabled, ensure the node number is not less than MSDP Scaleout size.

    It is recommended that you set the minimum node number to 1 or more to bypass some limitations in AKS.

  • Client machine to access AKS cluster

    • A separate computer that can access and manage your AKS cluster and ACR.

    • It must have Linux operating system.

    • It must have Docker daemon, the Kubernetes command-line tool (kubectl), and Azure CLI installed.

      The Docker storage size must be more than 6 GB. The version of kubectl must be v1.19.x or later. The version of Azure CLI must meet the AKS cluster requirements.

    • If AKS is a private cluster, see Create a private Azure Kubernetes Service cluster.

  • Static Internal IPs

    If the internal IPs are used, reserve the internal IPs (avoid the IPs that are reserved by other systems) for MSDP Scaleout and add DNS records for all of them in your DNS configuration.

    The Azure static public IPs can be used but is not recommended.

    If Azure static public IPs are used, create them in the node resource group for the AKS cluster. A DNS name must be assigned to each static public IP. The IPs must be in the same location of the AKS cluster.

Existing NetBackup environment

MSDP Scaleout connects to the existing NetBackup environment with the required network ports 1556 and 443. The NetBackup primary server should be 10.0 or later. The NetBackup environment can be anywhere, locally or remotely. It may or may not be in AKS cluster. It may or may not be in the same AKS cluster.

If the NetBackup servers are on Azure cloud, besides the NetBackup configuration requirements, the following settings are recommended. They are not MSDP-specific requirements, they just help your NetBackup environment run smoothly on Azure cloud.

  • Add the following in /usr/openv/netbackup/bp.conf

    HOST_HAS_NAT_ENDPOINTS = YES

  • Tune sysctl parameters as follows:

    net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time=120

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 14000 65535

net.core.somaxconn = 1024

    Tune the max open files to 1048576 if you run concurrent jobs.