NetBackup™ Deployment Guide for Kubernetes Clusters

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.3.0.1, 10.3)
  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
    7. Verifying Cloud Scale deployment
      1.  
        Verifying Cloud Scale deployment
  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 Primary and 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.  
          Recommendation for media server volume expansion
        2.  
          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
          1.  
            Recovering AKS MSDP S3 IAM configurations from cloud LSU
      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. Managing PostrgreSQL DBaaS
      1.  
        Changing database server password in DBaaS
      2.  
        Updating database certificate in DBaaS
      3.  
        Disabling non-SSL access to remote DBaaS on Azure
    7. Performing catalog backup and recovery
      1.  
        Backing up a catalog
      2. Restoring a catalog
        1.  
          Primary server corrupted
        2.  
          MSDP-X corrupted
        3.  
          MSDP-X and Primary server corrupted
    8. Setting key parameters in Cloud Scale deployments
      1.  
        Tuning touch files
      2.  
        Setting maximum jobs
      3.  
        Enabling intelligent catalog archiving
      4.  
        Enabling security settings
      5.  
        Configuring email server
      6.  
        Reducing catalog storage management
      7.  
        Configuring zone redundancy
      8.  
        Enabling client-side deduplication capabilities
  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. PostgreSQL DBaaS Maintenance
      1.  
        Configuring maintenance window for PostgreSQL database in AWS
      2.  
        Setting up alarms for PostgreSQL DBaaS instance
    3. Upgrading
      1. Upgrading NetBackup
        1.  
          Preparing for NetBackup upgrade
        2.  
          Upgrading NetBackup operator
        3.  
          Upgrading NetBackup application
        4.  
          Upgrade NetBackup from previous versions
        5.  
          Upgrading NetBackup using Helm charts
        6.  
          Procedure to rollback when upgrade of NetBackup fails
      2.  
        Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
      3. Upgrading Snapshot Manager
        1.  
          Upgrading Snapshot Manager operator
        2. Upgrading Snapshot Manager
          1.  
            Procedure to rollback when upgrade of Snapshot Manager fails
        3.  
          Post-migration tasks
    4. 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
    5. 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 issue where external IP address is not assigned to a NetBackup server's load balancer services
        7.  
          Resolving the issue where the NetBackup server pod is not scheduled for long time
        8.  
          Resolving an issue where the Storage class does not exist
        9.  
          Resolving an issue where the primary server or media server deployment does not proceed
        10.  
          Resolving an issue of failed probes
        11.  
          Resolving token issues
        12.  
          Resolving an issue related to insufficient storage
        13.  
          Resolving an issue related to invalid nodepool
        14.  
          Resolving a token expiry issue
        15.  
          Resolve an issue related to KMS database
        16.  
          Resolve an issue related to pulling an image from the container registry
        17.  
          Resolving an issue related to recovery of data
        18.  
          Check primary server status
        19.  
          Pod status field shows as pending
        20.  
          Ensure that the container is running the patched image
        21.  
          Getting EEB information from an image, a running container, or persistent data
        22.  
          Resolving the certificate error issue in NetBackup operator pod logs
        23.  
          Pod restart failure due to liveness probe time-out
        24.  
          NetBackup messaging queue broker take more time to start
        25.  
          Host mapping conflict in NetBackup
        26.  
          Issue with capacity licensing reporting which takes longer time
        27.  
          Local connection is getting treated as insecure connection
        28.  
          Primary pod is in pending state for a long duration
        29.  
          Backing up data from Primary server's /mnt/nbdata/ directory fails with primary server as a client
        30.  
          Storage server not supporting Instant Access capability on Web UI after upgrading NetBackup
        31.  
          Taint, Toleration, and Node affinity related issues in cpServer
        32.  
          Operations performed on cpServer in environment.yaml file are not reflected
        33.  
          Elastic media server related issues
        34.  
          Failed to register Snapshot Manager with NetBackup
        35.  
          Pods unable to connect to flexsnap-rabbitmq post Kubernetes cluster restart
      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

Applying security patches

This section describes how to apply security patches for operator and application images.

In the instructions below, we assume that the operators were deployed to the netbackup-operator-system namespace (the default namespace suggested by the deployment script), and that an environment resource named nb-env was deployed to a namespace named nb-example.

Although it is not necessary to manually shut down NetBackup primary server or media servers, it's still a good idea to quiesce scheduling so that no jobs get interrupted while pods are taken down and restarted.

Prepare the images

To prepare the images to apply patches

  1. Unpack the tar file on a system where docker is able to push to the container registry, and kubectl can access the cluster.
  2. Decide on a unique tag value to use for MSDP Scaleout images. The unique tag should be in version-postfix format, For example, 18.0-update1. Set the DD_TAG environment variable accordingly and run deploy.sh:

    DD_TAG=18.0-update1 ./deploy.sh

  3. In the menu that appears, select option 1 to install the operators.
  4. Enter the fully qualified domain name of the container registry.

    For example:

    (AKS-specific) exampleacr.azurecr.io

    (EKS-specific) example.dkr.ecr.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/

    When the script prompts to load images, answer yes.

  5. When the script prompts to tag and push images, wait. Open another terminal window and re-tag the MSDP Scaleout images as:

    docker tag msdp-operator:18.0 msdp-operator:18.0-update1

    docker tag uss-controller:18.0 uss-controller:18.0-update1

    docker tag uss-engine:18.0 uss-engine:18.0-update1

    docker tag uss-mds:18.0 uss-mds:18.0-update1

  6. Return to the deploy script and when prompted, enter yes to tag and push the images. Wait for the images to be pushed, and then the script will pause to ask another question. The remaining questions are not required, so press Ctrl+c to exit the deploy script.
Update the NetBackup operator
  1. Get the image ID of the existing NetBackup operator container and record it for later. Run:

    kubectl get pod -n netbackup-operator-system -l nb-control-plane=nb-controller-manager -o jsonpath --template "{.items[*].status.containerStatuses[?(@.name=='netbackup-operator')].imageID}{'\n'}"

    The command prints the name of the image and includes the SHA-256 hash identifying the image. For example:

    (AKS-specific) exampleacr.azurecr.io/netbackup/operator @sha256:59d4d46d82024a1ab6353 33774c8e19eb5691f3fe988d86ae16a0c5fb636e30c

    (EKS-specific) example.dkr.ecr.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/

  2. To restart the NetBackup operator, run:

    pod=$(kubectl get pod -n netbackup-operator-system -l nb-control-plane=nb-controller-manager -o jsonpath --template '{.items[*].metadata.name}')

    kubectl delete pod -n netbackup-operator-system $pod

  3. Re-run the kubectl command from earlier to get the image ID of the NetBackup operator. Confirm that it's different from what it was before the update.
Update the MSDP Scaleout operator
  1. Get the image ID of the existing MSDP Scaleout operator container and save it for later use. Run:

    kubectl get pods -n netbackup-operator-system -l control-plane=controller-manager -o jsonpath --template "{.items[*].status.containerStatuses[?(@.name=='manager')].imageID}{'\n'}"

  2. Re-initialize the MSDP Scaleout operator using the new image.

    (AKS-specific) kubectl msdp init -n netbackup-operator-system --image exampleacr.azurecr.io/msdp-operator:<msdpCluster_version>-update1 --storageclass managed-csi-hdd

    (EKS-specific) kubectl msdp init -n netbackup-operator-system --image <accountid>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/<registry>:<tag>/msdp-operator:<msdpCluster_version>-update1 --storageclass managed-csi-hdd

  3. Re-run the kubectl command from earlier to get the image ID of the MSDP Scaleout operator. Confirm that it's different from what it was before the update.
Update the primary server or media servers
  1. Look at the list of pods in the application namespace and identify the pod or pods to update. The primary-server pod's name typically end with "primary-0" and media-server pods end with "media-0", "media-1", etc. Hereafter, pod will be referred to as $pod. Run:

    kubectl get pods -n nb-example

  2. Get the image ID of the existing NetBackup container and record it for later. Run:

    kubectl get pods -n nb-example $pod -o jsonpath --template "{.status.containerStatuses[*].imageID}{'\n'}"

  3. Look at the list of StatefulSets in the application namespace and identify the one that corresponds to the pod or pods to be updated. The name is typically the same as the pod, but without the number at the end. For example, a pod named nb-primary-0 is associated with statefulset nb-primary. Hereafter the statefulset will be referred to as $set. Run:

    kubectl get statefulsets -n nb-example

  4. Restart the statefulset. Run:

    kubectl rollout restart -n nb-example statefulset $set

    The pod or pods associated with the statefulset are terminated and be re-created. It may take several minutes to reach the "Running" state.

  5. Once the pods are running, re-run the kubectl command from step 2 to get the image ID of the new NetBackup container. Confirm that it's different from what it was before the update.
Update the MSDP Scaleout containers
  1. Look at the list of pods in the application namespace and identify the pods to update. The controller pod have "uss-controller" in its name, the MDS pods have "uss-mds" in their names, and the engine pods are be named like their fully qualified domain names. Run:

    kubectl get pods -n nb-example

  2. Get the image IDs of the existing MSDP Scaleout containers and record them for later. All the MDS pods use the same image, and all the engine pods use the same image, so it's only necessary to get three image IDs, one for each type of pod.

    kubectl get pods -n nb-example $engine $controller $mds -o jsonpath --template "{range .items[*]}{.status.containerStatuses[*].imageID}{'\n'}{end}"

  3. Edit the Environment resource and change the spec.msdpScaleouts[*].tag values to the new tag used earlier in these instructions.

    kubectl edit environment -n nb-example nb-env

    ...
    spec:
      ...
      msdpScaleouts:
      - ...
        tag: "18.0-update1"
  4. Save the file and close the editor. The MSDP Scaleout pods are terminated and re-created. It may take several minutes for all the pods to reach the "Running" state.
  5. Run kubectl get pods, to check the list of pods and note the new name of the uss-controller pod. Then, once the pods are all ready, re-run the kubectl command above to get the image IDs of the new MSDP Scaleout containers. Confirm that they're different from what they were before the update.