NetBackup™ in Highly Available Environments Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.2)
  1. About in this guide
    1.  
      What's in this guide
    2.  
      Documents related to NetBackup in highly available environments
  2. NetBackup protection against single points of failure
    1. Protecting against component failures
      1.  
        Network link failures
      2. Storage device connection failures
        1.  
          SAN connection failures
        2.  
          Robotic control connection failures
      3.  
        Storage device failure
      4.  
        Media availability failures
      5.  
        Primary server failures
      6. Media server failures
        1.  
          Dedicated media server failures
        2.  
          Non-dedicated media servers failures
        3.  
          SAN media server failures
        4.  
          Restoring tape backups using an alternative media server
        5.  
          Restoring disk backups using an alternative media server
      7.  
        LAN client failures
      8.  
        SAN client failures
    2.  
      Site failures
    3.  
      Protecting the catalog in highly available environments
  3. About site disaster recovery with catalog backup and recovery
    1.  
      Disaster recovery packages
    2. About catalog recovery
      1.  
        About full catalog recovery
      2.  
        Performing full catalog restore
      3.  
        Making the DR environment consistent after a full catalog restore
      4.  
        About partial catalog recovery
      5.  
        Performing a partial catalog restore
      6.  
        Making the DR environment consistent after a partial catalog restore
    3. About disk recovery in DR domain
      1.  
        Disk recovery in single-domain replication DR environment
      2.  
        Auto Image Replication
      3.  
        Disk recovery in cross-domain replication DR environment
  4. About site loss protection with auto image and catalog replication
    1.  
      About Auto Image Replication (AIR)
    2. About NetBackup catalog replication
      1.  
        About conditions for support of replicated NetBackup catalogs
      2.  
        About catalog synchronization
      3. About multi-site single domain replication
        1.  
          About multi-site single domain with stretched SAN
        2.  
          About multi-site single domain with optimized duplication
      4. About multi-site cross domain replication
        1.  
          About multi-site cross domain and BasicDisk storage
        2.  
          Planning a cross domain replication disaster recovery domain
      5. About full catalog replication
        1.  
          Recovering the catalog with full catalog replication
        2.  
          Making the DR environment consistent with full catalog replication
      6. About partial catalog replication
        1.  
          Preparing an environment for partial catalog replication
        2.  
          Recovering the environment with partial catalog replication
        3.  
          Making the disaster recovery environment consistent with partial catalog replication
        4.  
          Considerations for managing tapes with partial catalog replication
  5. Deploying NetBackup primary servers with full catalog replication
    1.  
      About replication considerations
    2. About non-clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
      1. Installing and configuring non-clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
        1.  
          Installing and configuring the main NetBackup primary server
        2.  
          Installing and configuring an alternate NetBackup primary server
        3.  
          Upgrading NetBackup primary server in a non-clustered replicated configuration
    3. About globally clustered NetBackup primary servers with catalog replication
      1. Installing and configuring a globally clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
        1.  
          About clustering considerations
        2.  
          Installing and configuring the main NetBackup primary server cluster
        3.  
          Installing and configuring an alternate NetBackup primary server cluster
      2.  
        Populating the server tables in the NetBackup database
      3.  
        Upgrading NetBackup in a clustered replication configuration
      4.  
        Failing over to an alternate primary server cluster
      5.  
        Testing the NetBackup primary server cluster in clustered replication environment
  6. Using NetBackup to perform backups and restores in a cluster
    1. About backups and restores with NetBackup in a cluster
      1.  
        Performing user-directed backups with NetBackup in a cluster
      2. About restoring data in a cluster
        1.  
          Example: Performing a user-directed restore in a NetBackup cluster
    2.  
      About supported NetBackup application agents in a cluster

Installing and configuring the main NetBackup primary server

The main primary server is the server that normally functions as the primary server. It must be installed first.

The following procedure provides guidelines for installing and configuring the main non-clustered primary server with catalog replication.

To install and configure the main non-clustered primary server with catalog replication

  1. You must use a DNS alias name for the primary server. The DNS alias name ensures a smooth failover to the alternate primary server. Before you start the installation, define this alias name in DNS and map it to the main primary server. Configure all the media servers and clients in the NetBackup domain to use this alias name for the primary server.
  2. Install the NetBackup primary server on the main primary server node. Specify the alias name for the primary server.
  3. Shut down NetBackup after the installation is complete.
  4. To ensure that NetBackup starts correctly when switching to the alternate primary server, verify the NB_<alias name> string in the vxdbms.conf file.

    Verify that the string is NB_<alias name> and not NB_<hostname> and modify as necessary.

    This file is located in the following directory:

    <install path>\VERITAS\netbackupdb\data\vxdmbs.conf

    /usr/openv/db/data/vxdbms.conf

  5. Move the catalog components to the volume that is replicated to the alternate primary server.

    For Windows installations, map the following paths to a common volume. Use symbolic links.

    • <install path>\VERITAS\netbackup\db

    • <install path>\VERITAS\netbackupdb\data

    • <install path>\VERITAS\netbackup\vault\sessions

    • <install path>\VERITAS\volmgr\misc

    • <install path>\VERITAS\netbackup\var

    • <install path>\VERITAS\kms

    For Linux installations, soft link the following paths to locations on a common volume:

    • /usr/openv/netbackup/db

    • /usr/openv/db/data

    • /usr/openv/netbackup/vault/sessions

    • /usr/openv/volmgr/database

    • /usr/openv/var

    • /usr/openv/kms

  6. Configure NetBackup so that it can be manually started and stopped on the main primary server. By default, NetBackup is started automatically when the primary server is started.

    To prevent this automatic start, make the changes in step 7 and step 8 after the initial installation and after applying patches or upgrades.

  7. Make the following changes on the NetBackup primary server.

    • On a Linux primary server, remove the links to /etc/init.d/netbackup created during the installation to enable automatic startup.

      Refer to the NetBackup Installation Guide for details of links for each operating system.

    • On a Windows primary server, go to the Services Manager and set the Startup type for all the NetBackup services to Manual.

  8. Start NetBackup on the main primary server to confirm that it comes up correctly and then shut it down again.

    At this stage, you can configure media servers and storage devices.

    To start and stop NetBackup, manually run the following commands. It is recommended to document these commands in the failover procedure.

    On a Linux primary server:

    • To start NetBackup, run the following command:

      /etc/init.d/netbackup start command

    • To stop NetBackup, run the following command:

      /etc/init.d/netbackup stop

    On a Windows primary server:

    • To start NetBackup, run the following command:

      <install path>\VERITAS\NetBackup\bin\bpup

    • To stop NetBackup, run the following command:

      <install path>\VERITAS\NetBackup\bin\bpdown