Best Practices for Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library (nVTL) on a DR Disk Backup Appliance A Dell Technical White Paper
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Table of contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1 Technical Setup/configuration Best Practices ........................................................
Introduction The Dell™ DR4X00 is a high-performance, disk-based backup and recovery appliance that delivers innovative features such as inline deduplication and compression, advanced data protection, and replication. Additionally, the management features, ease of deployment, and an architecture that enables core backup data to remain on disk and online longer can help organizations reduce the complexity associated with backup.
Executive Summary ™ This paper provides detailed information about how to set up a Dell DR Series Disk Backup Appliance as a ® target for NetVault nVTL software. In this configuration, NetVault nVTL is configured for target object store use for data protection operations. This use case with nVTL requires more factoring with out-ofband maintenance and forethought as the space would need to be preformatted and properly managed for use.
NOTES: 6 The DR4X00 build version and screen shots used for this paper may vary slightly, depending on the version of the DR4X00 operating system. See NetVault DR Series Backup Appliance Application notes, DR4X00 and NetVault nVTL documentation for additional information.
1 Technical Setup/configuration Best Practices This section highlights key configuration and setup best practices to successfully add the DR backup Disk appliance for the use with NetVault Backup native Virtual Tape Library (nVTL) instance(s). 1.1 General Setup /configuration Best Practices Refer to the manufacture’s documentation for additional details on the following prerequisites. Ensure cabling configured correctly. Configure interfaces, protocol and addressing.
and to set the drive count to equal the number of simultaneous jobs or data streams desired without exceeding the maximum guidelines set forth by the vendor. For Example: Starting with a storage appliance with 2TB of physical disk space. Based on the 10x usage recommendation, one can create a VTL of 20TB of total storage. But given that the data backed up per week is 2TB and data retention is 4 weeks, the total amount of data stored at any given time would only be 8TB.
1.4 Using and Managing a NetVault: Backup nVTL on DR4X00 appliance. General guidelines and best practices for using a NVBU VTL on a DR4x00 unit: Only create enough media to cope with one full cycle of backups, and the relevant retention policies. Set the “Automatically Label Blank Media” parameter to off to prevent erroneous use of blank media and to ensure efficient use of available media within a tape pool. A tightly managed tape pool will ease the space reclamation process.
Another recommendation would be automating a media utilization report (job ID 13) to be sent to the sysop on a reoccurring basis to track the media usage. This will allow the sys-op to pre-add media to help prevent the above scenario.
2 Install and Configure the DR4X00 1. Rack and cable the DR4X00 appliance, and power it on. 2. Log into iDRAC using the default address 192.168.0.1, user name root, and the password calvin. 3. Launch the virtual console. 4. Once the virtual console is open, log in to the system as user administrator and the password St0r@ge! (The “0” in the password is the numeral zero.).
5. Set the user-defined networking preferences. 6. View the summary of preferences and confirm that it is correct.
7. Log into the DR4X00 administrator console, using the IP address you just provided for the DR4X00, user administrator and the password St0r@ge! (The “0” in the password is the numeral zero.). 8. Join the DR4X00 to Active Directory. NOTE: if you do not want to add DR4X00 to Active Directory, see the Owner’s Manual for guest login instructions. a. 13 Select Active Directory in the tree on the left hand side of the dashboard.
b. Enter your Active Directory credentials. 9. Create and mount the container. c. 14 Select Containers in the tree on the left side of the dashboard, and then click the Create link at the top of the page.
d. Enter a Container Name and select the Enable CIFS check box. e. Select the client access credentials preferred.
Backup console (NetVault Server) Hyper-V hosts (on-host proxy for Hyper-V environments)s Off-host proxies (for Hyper-V environments) Backup proxies (for vSphere environments) f. Click Create a New Container. g. Confirm that the container was added.
h. Click Edit, and write down the container path, which you will use later to target the DR4X00. i. 17 Click Cancel to exit.
3 Configure NetVault Backup nVTL NOTE: This Chapter assumes that the user has already created the needed CIFS, NFS, CIFS/NFS container and assigned the desired permissions as detailed in the Install and configure the DR4X00 chapter. 1. In the NetVault: Backup Configurator and select the Plugin Options tab. 2. Select Disk Devices Plugin sub tab. 3. Deselect Check available disk space before creating libraries option as shown and apply the changes. 4.
5. In the NetVault: Backup Configurator and select the Media Manager tab. 6. Deselect Use barcodes as labels option as shown and apply the changes.
7. 20 In the NetVault: Backup Console and select the Device Manager icon.
8. In the Device Manager select Add Library.
Before the library creation takes place create a directory in the CIFS share on the DR4x00 unit. In our example (Figure c) we have created a directory called VTL. An NVBU Virtual Tape Library with 10 drives, 100 media slots, and 100GB virtual tape each will be constructed within the VTL directory. This will yield an approximately 10TB of usable VTL space. The example also show entry/exit ports configured for the VTL to facilitate moving virtual media out of the library during the space reclamation process.
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
4 Set up the DR4X00 Cleaner Once all the backup jobs are setup the DR4X00 cleaner must be scheduled. The DR4X00 cleaner should run at least 6 hours per week when backups are not taking place, generally after a backup job has completed. Performing scheduled disk space reclamation operations are recommended as a method for recovering disk space from system containers in which files were deleted as a result of deduplication.
5 Monitoring Dedupe, Compression & Performance After backup jobs have run the DR4X00 will track Capacity, Storage Savings and Throughput on the DR4X00 dashboard. This information is valuable in understanding the benefits the DR4X00. NOTE: Deduplication ratios increase over time, it is not uncommon to see a 2-4x reduction (25-50% total savings) on the initial backup. As additional full backup jobs complete the ratios will increase.
The DR4x00 units are capable of running a cleaning cycle on a regular basis to recover data space that is no longer required by the deduplication process. Using a DR4x00 unit as a NVBU VTL repository will require periodic maintenance to achieve the best usage from the DR4x00 unit. Space reclamation from virtual media of a NVBU VTL hosted on the DR4x00 has some specific requirements.
7. Select OK in the Device Added Successfully window. 8. Close the Add Library window. 5.2.1.1 Disk Space Reclamation Blanking of used media in NVBU VTL created on the DR4x00 share will not reclaim physical disk space. To reclaim this space the nvmakemedia utility must be used to create a “clean” identical ‘.media’ file, in name and size, to replace the old media file. Before this is done all drives must be unloaded and Open Door command issued in NetVault: Backup Device Manager.
Appendix A Additional Resources Dell online support resources: Dell technical support site: http://support.dell.com Dell TechCenter is an online IT community where IT professionals connect with Dell customers and employees to share knowledge, best practices, and other information about Dell products and installations: http://DellTechCenter.com Dell DR4X00 -NetVault resources: Dell DR4X00 manuals/guides: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/DR4X00/en/index.
Appendix B Configure DR4X00 replication for NetVault backup for nVTL This section details the process for changing the device path to a nVTL that has been replicated from one DR4X00 to a secondary DR4X00. This process will show the steps to complete this for a CIFS mounted DR4X00 container that has a NVBU nVTL configured on a primary DR4X00 and is being replicated to a secondary DR4X00.
Screen 2 show the diskdevice config file edited for the nVTL on the second DR4X00. Screen 2 1. 36 Check the NVBU Device Manager to see the offline nVTL.
2. To add the new VTL, click on the Add tab, select Auto Device Configuration. Select the Client hosting the nVTL and Re-Scan for devices.
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
3. The new path to the library is detected and will be added to the configuration. Click on Next to add the library.
4. In the Device Manager Screen, the new VTL path will be seen as well as the old VTL path. 5. 41 The old VTL can be deleted now. Right click on the old VTL and select Remove.
6. Check the Media Manager for the media volumes. 7. 42 Check the savesets for a client by opening the Restore screen. Verify the media volume used by right clicking on the saveset and selecting Media List.
Restores can be read and new backups will be written to the new container. Once the first DR4X00 is back online, the new container on the second DR4X00 can be replicated to the first DR4X00 and when needed, the process of changing the devices paths can be repeated to insure access to the VTL.
Appendix C Moving an nVTL NetVault Backup residing on DR4X00 replicated container to another NetVault backup server 1. Verify that the replicated container contains the nVTL. Once the DR4X00 container replication has been deleted. Assign Network connections for the replicated container and mount the container to verify the nVTL configuration. 2. Adding the library to a second NVBU server.
Original config file: 45 Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
New config file after adding the new nVTL paths: 3. Once the file has been edited, Select the NVBU Device Manager and run AutoConfigure Device under the Add Tab 4.
5. Click Next. 6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish. 8.
The media will be marked as Foreign. A Force Scan will be needed to scan the Media in. Note: Bug#2883 – Right clicking on any library and selecting scan will only scan as many tapes as there are drives currently available. This requires that multiple scans will be needed to get all the media scanned into the NVBU database. 9. Force Scan an nVTL. This was introduced in NVBU 8.6. Right Click on the new library and select Force Scan.
10. Click on Yes to perform the Force Scan. 11. Media volumes will need to be loaded and unloaded into the drives in order to scan the media. Right click on the media volume and select Load. 12. To unload the media volume, right click on the drive and select Unload.
13. Once all the media has been scanned, the Media Manager will list the media volumes and the savesets.
14. Verify Savesets from Replicated VTL. 15. Launch the Restore and the Client/Server from the Replicated VTL will be listed. Select a saveset and restore data to verify the saveset.
Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
Appendix D Sample Scripts For Management Of Replication Failover And Reclamation Of Disk Space NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library Physical Space Reclamation Script Windows Platform Script: @echo off :: ================================================================== :: The following parameters must be configured for the script example provided as follows: :: vtlpath = This should be the UNC path of the root share used to host the nVTL instance.
:: ****************************************************** :_clean @echo =========================================== @echo Clean Media with Label %ML% @echo Clean Media with Label %ML% >> "%logfile%" @echo =========================================== :: ============================================== :: Open and close I/O Port, to remove a :: remaining media, wait 5 seconds :: ============================================== @echo "%nvutil%\nvopeneeport.exe" -libraryname "%library_name%" "%nvutil%\nvopeneeport.
media_prefix=”YN1D” vtlpath=/vtl2/VTL2 library_name=VTL2 logfile=/tmp/logddclean.
$nvutil/nvmakemedia $media_size mediafiles $vtlpath/media/${labels[$array_num_avail]} wait echo "closing the Entry/Exit Port in $library_name" echo $nvutil/nvcloseeeport -libraryname $library_name $nvutil/nvcloseeeport -libraryname $library_name wait echo "Blanking media ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]} - ${labels[$array_num_avail]}" echo $nvutil/nvblankmedia -barcode ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]} $nvutil/nvblankmedia -barcode ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]} # Wait a second before issuing label request to overco
:: ==================================================================== :: Begin Works :: ==================================================================== echo Stage 1 - Begin: Setup Logging @echo. > "%logfile%" @echo.
if [[ -z "${media_prefix}" ]] then echo "That was empty, try again." else if [ $media_prefix = "." ] then echo "Exiting..." exit 0 fi echo "Executing now...with $media_prefix" break fi done # End of the loop nv_home=`head -n -1 /etc/.nv6_home` nvutil=$nv_home/util logfile=/tmp/logddclean.
exec 10>&# Clean up temporary rubbish left behind rm -rf /tmp/mediapurge NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library Bulk Mark for Reuse script Windows Platform @echo off :: ==================================================================== :: Setup Vars :: ==================================================================== set nvutil=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Quest Software\NetVault Backup\util setlocal enabledelayedexpansion set logfile=%tmp%\logdd430-1purge.
:_expire @echo =========================================== @echo Expire Media with Label %ML% @echo Expire Media with Label %ML% >> "%logfile%" @echo =========================================== "%nvutil%\nvreusemedia.exe" -barcode "%ML%" goto :eof Linux /Unix Platform #!/bin/bash # !*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!* # Specify the beginning of the barcodes of the # media you wish to work with here.
barcodes[$count]=$(echo $LINE | awk '{print $1}') tempstring=${barcodes[$count]} barcodes[$count]=${tempstring%" "} media_avail[$count]=$LINE ((count++)) done array_num_avail=0 62 Setting up NetVault Backup Native Virtual Tape Library on the Dell™ DR4X00 Disk Backup Appliance
while [ $count -gt 0 ]; do echo "================================================" echo "Expring Media with label ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]}" echo "================================================" sleep 1 echo $nvutil/nvreusemedia -barcode ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]} echo "================================================" $nvutil/nvreusemedia -barcode ${barcodes[$array_num_avail]} wait sleep 2 let array_num_avail=array_num_avail+1 let count=count-1 done # close file exec 10>&# Clean up temporary rubbi
