Setting up the Dell™ DR Series System on Symantec™ NetBackup™ Dell Engineering July 2015 A Dell Technical White Paper
Revisions Date Description February 2014 Initial release July 2015 Added content about creating and configuring NDMP target container(s) for NetBackup. Consolidated content for the various container types and updated cleaner recommendation. This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. © 2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Table of contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1 2 Installing and configuring the DR Series system for use with Symantec NetBackup ....................................................... 6 1.1 Symantec NetBackup prerequisites ................................................................................................................
B.1.2 NDMP account details and management....................................................................................................................... 82 B.1.3 VTL default account summary table ................................................................................................................................ 83 B.2 Managing VTL media and space use ............................................................................................................................... 83 B.2.
Executive summary This paper provides information about how to set up the Dell DR Series system as: • • • A CIFS or NFS backup target for Symantec NetBackup An OST backup target for Symantec NetBackup A VTL backup target for Symantec NetBackup This document is a quick reference guide and does not include all DR Series system deployment best practices.
1 Installing and configuring the DR Series system for use with Symantec NetBackup 1.1 Symantec NetBackup prerequisites The instructions in this document apply to Symantec NetBackup version 8.1 and later. 1.2 Installing and configuring the DR Series system 1. Rack and cable the DR Series system and power it on. 2. Initialize the DR Series system.
4. Launch the virtual console. 5. After the virtual console is open, log on to the system with the username administrator and password St0r@ge! (the “0” in the password is the numeral zero). 6. Set the user-defined networking preferences. 7. 7 View the summary of preferences and confirm that it is correct.
. Log on to the DR Series system administrator console using the IP address you just provided for the DR Series system, the username administrator, and the password St0r@ge! (the “0” in the password is the numeral zero). 9. Join the DR Series system to Active Directory. Note: If you do not want to add the DR Series system to Active Directory, see the DR Series System Owner’s Manual for guest logon instructions. a. 8 Select Active Directory from left navigation area of the DR Series system GUI.
b. Enter your Active Directory credentials.
2 Configuring a CIFS or NFS target container 1. Create and mount a CIFS container by selecting Containers in left navigation area of the DR Series system GUI, and then clicking Create at the top of the page. 2. Enter a Container Name, select Enable CIFS or Enable NFS check box as needed. NOTE: Symantec NetBackup supports both CIFS and NFS protocols. 3. Select the preferred client access credentials and then click Create a New Container.
4. Confirm that the container is added. 5. Click Edit. Note down the container share/export path, which you will use later to target the DR Series system.
2.1 Setting up Symantec NetBackup storage units - Windows 6. Open the NetBackup Administration Console, and then expand Storage, which displays the Storage Units section.
7. Right-click Storage Units and then click New Storage Unit. 8. In the New Storage Unit window, enter the Storage unit name and select BasicDisk for the Disk Type. 9. Enter the Absolute pathname to directory (the UNC path to the DR Series system container share) and click OK.
Note: The Windows service account for Symantec NetBackup requires appropriate permissions to the DR Series system CIFS Share for the step below to complete successfully. See Appendix A for information about setting up the Symantec NetBackup service account correctly. This should be done before the next step. 10. Click View Properties to view the Directory Properties.
11. Close Directory Properties, and then click OK.
2.2 Setting up Symantec NetBackup storage units - Unix/Linux For this procedure, ensure that you can mount/verify the NFS share from the UNIX/Linux client system. See Appendix B for information about how to mount/verify the NFS share. The procedure for the Unix/Linux Environment is similar to the procedure for the Windows Environment as described in the preceding section.
2.3 Creating a new backup job with the DR Series system as the target 1. In the NetBackup Administration Console, right-click Policies, and then select New Policy. 2. Enter a new policy name, and then click OK.
3. In the Attributes tab, select Policy type and Policy storage. 4. In the Schedules tab, click New, and then specify a schedule Name, and select Type of backup.
5. Click OK and verify that one full backup type schedule was added into the policy. 6. In the Clients tab, click New, enter the client name, and press Enter.
7. In the Backup Selections tab, click New and then click Remote Folder. 8. Select a backup path, and then click OK.
9. Click OK. A new policy is added. 10. To run a manual backup right away and monitor the status, right-click the new policy, and select Manual Backup.
11. Select the new schedule, and then click OK. 12. Click Activity Monitor to monitor the job status.
13. Double-click the job to view job details. 2.4 Setting up native replication & restore from the target container 2.4.1 Building the replication relationship between two DR Series systems 1. 23 Create a source container on the first DR Series system.
2. Create a target container on the second DR Series system. 3. On the first DR Series system, go to the Replication page, and then click Create.
4. Select a local container as the source container, and then enter the information for the second DR Series system. 5. Click Retrieve Containers, and then select the target container on the list.
6. Click Create Replication 7. 26 Verify that the replication relationship between the DR Series systems is created.
2.4.2 Backing up the image to the source DR Series system This procedure is optional – if the source DR Series system container is newly created without having data backed up. 1. 27 Add the source container to NetBackup.
2. Create a new backup policy. 3. Run the backup job.
2.4.3 Cleaning up the image from NetBackup This procedure is optional and is only required when importing of images reports a failure (The image import procedure is described in later in this document). The purpose of this procedure is to clean up residual images that could have conflicts with imported images. 1. Stop replication between the DR Series systems. Note: Before cleaning up the image from NetBackup, you should stop/delete replication first.
2.4.4 Importing the image from the target DR Series system 1. Go to Catalog, and then click Initiate Import. Enter the target container path, and then click OK. 2. Click the Results tab, and check the import results.
3. Go back to the Search tab, select Import, and then click Search Now. 4. Select the import image, and then click Import.
5. Go to the Activity Monitor or run the bpimagelist command, and check the image import status.
2.5 Restoring the image from the target DR Series system 1. Click the NetBackup Administrator Console. 2. Select the files that you want to restore, and then click Start Restore of Marked Files.
3. Run the restore job.
3 Creating and configuring OST target container(s) for NetBackup 1. Create an OST container in the DR Series system GUI by selecting Containers in the left navigation area and then clicking Create at the top of the page. 2. Enter a container name and select the connection type as RDA. Then select the RDA type as Symantec OpenStorage (OST).
3. Click Create a New Container and confirm that the container was added. 3.1.1 Setting up NetBackup for virtual synthetic backup on a Windows or Linux client Note: Make sure that the Dell OST plugin is installed on the DMA client that is used for NetBackup. 1. 36 Launch the NetBackup Console.
2. Right-click Media and Device Management and select Credentials > Storage Server, and then click New. 3. In the Storage server configuration wizard dialog box, select OpenStorage from the list and click Next.
4. Under Storage server name, enter the DR Series system IP address or hostname, and under Storage server type, enter DELL. 5. In the Media server list, select the media server and enter the user name: backup_user, password: St0r@ge! 6. Make sure the storage server creation is successful and that authentication is working.
The created storage server should now be listed. 7. 39 Right-click Media and Device Management and select Devices -> Disk Pool, and then click New.
8. In the Disk Pool Configuration Wizard dialog box, select OpenStorage (DELL) for Type.
9. In the Storage server list, select the DR storage server created previously. 10. Select the OST container created previously, which will be used for backup. 11. Enter the Disk pool name.
12. Confirm that disk pool creation is successful.
13. Make sure the disk pool is listed. 14. Right-click NetBackup Management and select Storage > Storage Unit, and then click New Storage Unit.
15. For the New Storage Unit, enter a Storage unit name, and then specify the Storage unit type as Disk, the Disk type as OpenStorage (DELL), and Storage unit configured for as Backup. Select the disk pool that was created previous steps, and select the media server that will be used for backup. 16. Make sure that the Storage Unit is listed after creation.
17. Right-click Netbackup Management > Policies and click New Policy. 18. Enter a Policy name.
19. Enter the following policy attributes on the Attributes tab: Policy type as MS-Windows (for Windows) or Standard (for Linux); Policy storage as the DR storage unit that was created in previous steps; select Collect true image restore information > with move detection. 20. On the Schedules tab, create three schedules: one for Full Backup, a second one for either Differential Incremental Backup or Cumulative Incremental Backup, and a third one for Full Backup with the Synthetic backup option enabled.
Setting up the Dell™ DR Series System on Symantec™ NetBackup™ | July 2015
21. On the Clients tab, select the client(s) from which data is backed up. 22. On the Backup Selection tab, provide the data set that needs to be backed up. 23. Make sure that the policy is created successfully. 24. Activate the policy before proceeding to backup. Right-click the policy and click Activate.
3.1.2 Backing up using NetBackup virtual synthetic backup 1. Before running backup, ensure that you have decided on a backup mode to use: Passthrough or Dedupe. This can be done by setting the RDA mode in the DR Series system command line interface (CLI), as shown in the following example screenshot. Note: You can schedule the backups or run them at a convenient time. This procedure uses a manual backup configuration. 2.
3. Run a manual Full Backup and check the status in the Activity Monitor. Double-click the job to see the detailed status. 4. Run one or more configured Incremental backups to generate a set of backups that can make a synthetic full backup.
5. Then, run a Full Backup with the synthetic backup option enabled. 6. Confirm that the final full backup is synthesized. Note: The throughput of the final backup should be much faster as it synthesizes the full and incremental backups.
4 Configuring VTL type containers for use with Symantec NetBackup 4.1 Creating and configuring NDMP target container(s) for NetBackup 4.1.1 Creating the NDMP VTL container Before you begin, ensure that the NetBackup OEM patch is installed. Contact Dell Support for the instructions. 1. Create a VTL container in the DR Series system GUI by selecting Containers in the left navigation area, and then clicking Create at the top of the page. 2.
3. Select the Is OEM checkbox, NDMP Access Protocol radio button, Unix Dump Marker Type and enter the Access Control IP address. Click Next. 4. Click Create a New Container to finish container creation.
4.1.2 Setting up NetBackup to use the newly created NDMP VTL 1. Open the NetBackup Administration Console, go to Media and Device Management > Credentials, right-click NDMP Hosts, and select New. 2. Enter the NDMP host name of the filer from which you want to back up and click OK.
3. Enter the backup user logon information for the filer and click OK. 4. Click Add again and specify the DR Series system host name and click OK.
5. Enter the backup user logon information for the DR Series system, and click OK. 6. Click the master server in the navigation pane, and then click Configure Storage Devices.
7. Click Next>. 8. Click Change, select the NDMP Host check box, and click OK. Click Next>.
9. Ensure that the DR’s host name is selected and click Next.
10. Verify that the VTL was detected successfully and click Next. 11. Click Next.
12. Click Next. 13. Click Next.
14. Click Yes to confirm you want to continue. 15. Click Next.
16. Click Next. 17. Click Finish.
18. Go to Media and Device Management > Devices and then select Robots > Inventory Robot.
19. Select the Robot you want to inventory. Select the Update Volume Configuration and Preview Changes options, and then click Start. 20. When it completes, click Yes.
21. Click Close. 22. Select NetBackup Management > Policies and then select New Policy.
23. Enter a policy name for the backup job and click OK. 24. Select NDMP for the Policy Type, and select the Allow Multiple Data Streams check box on the Attributes tab. Click the Schedules tab.
25. Click New on the Schedules tab. 26. Select Full Backup for the initial backup, enter a name, and click OK.
27. Verify the results, and click the Clients tab.
28. Click New… on the Clients tab to specify the client you want to backup. 29. Enter the name of the filer and click outside of the edit box.
30. Select NDMP, NDMP in the drop down menu, and click OK. Then, click the Backup Selections tab. 31. Click New… and enter the path to the location you want to back up. Click OK.
32. Right-click the policy that you just added and select Manual Backup… to start the backup. 33. Click OK.
34. Select the Activity Monitor in the navigation pane to watch the progress of the backup job. 35. Select File > Backup, Archive, Restore to start the restore process.
36. Select File > Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type. 37. Select the Clients you want to restore to and from and click OK.
38. Select the backup you want to restore (green check mark for a full backup). Select the checkbox of the data you want to restore in the bottom left pane. Click the restore icon button in the left toolbar.
39. Select the location you want to restore to and restore options. Click Start Restore. 40. Monitor the restore progress from the Activity Monitor in the NetBackup Administration Console.
5 Setting up the DR Series system cleaner 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. The cleaner runs during idle time. If your workflow does not have a sufficient amount of idle time on a daily basis, then you should consider scheduling the cleaner to force it to run during a scheduled time.
6 Monitoring deduplication, compression, and performance After backup jobs have run, the DR Series system tracks capacity, storage savings, and throughput on the DR Series system dashboard. This information is valuable in understanding the benefits of the DR Series system. 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 are completed, the ratios will increase.
A Creating Symantec NetBackup storage units for CIFS and NFS A.1 Creating a storage unit for CIFS There are two options for Symantec NetBackup to authenticate to a DR Series system through CIFS as described below. • Integrating Symantec NetBackup Server and the DR Series system with Active Directory o Ensure the AD user has appropriate ACLs to the DR Series Deduplication Appliance Container share o Set the Symantec NetBackup service to run with this AD user • Ensure that the following se
Note: Do this step only when no backups are currently running, as restarting the services causes backup jobs to fail. Double-click on the services one at a time. If you are using local synced accounts rather than the AD account, make sure that there is a “.\”in front of the user name. [move this before the step – that’s when the user needs this info] v. Click OK. vi. Restart the NetBackup services from the command line to take effect. For example: \Veritas\NetBackup\bin\bpdown –v –f
A.2 Creating a storage unit for NFS For NFS backup using Symantec NetBackup, you need to create a target folder as the NFS share directory. This is the location to which backup objects will be written. (This is not required while adding a CIFS share.) 1. Mount the DR Series system NFS share onto the NFS share directory to which backup objects will be written in the Symantec NetBackup environment. 2. Verify the NFS share. One way is to use the Linux command “cat /proc/mounts”.
B VTL configuration guidelines B.1 Managing VTL protocol accounts and credentials B.1.1 iSCSI Account Details and Management By default, the iSCSI username is the hostname of the DR Series system and can be confirmed by reviewing the output of the iscsi –account --user CLI command. For example: >iscsi --show --user user : dr9-interop-a7 The default iSCSI password is St0r@ge!iscsi. You can modify this password in the iSCSI tab of the Clients page.
B.1.2 NDMP account details and management The default username for the NDMP service is “ndmp_user.” This can be confirmed on the NDMP tab of the Clients page in the DR Series system GUI. You can also use the CLI command ndmp –show as shown in the following example.
B.1.3 VTL default account summary table Service NDMP iSCSI Account ndmp_user Default Credentials St0r@ge! St0r@ge!iscsi CLI Modifier ndmp --setpassword iscsi--setpassword B.2 Managing VTL media and space use B.2.1 General performance guidelines for DMA configuration The DR Series system version 3.2 (and later) provides inline VTL deduplication, compression, and encryption at rest.
4. Calculate the data footprint during the retention period for existing data sets based on a 10-1 deduplication ratio 5. Calculate the data footprint during the retention period for change rate data sets based on a 10-1 deduplication ratio 6. Calculate the ratios within the retention period for each of the data sets 7.
20TB Total initial footprint with a 10% change rate Pre-Deduplication Week Logical Size B.2.4 Logical Full Metrics 10% Change Rate Logical Incremental Metrics 1 24.2TB 20TB 2TB 2 24.2TB 20TB 2TB 3 24.2TB 20TB 2TB 4 24.2TB 20TB 2TB 5 24.2TB 20TB 2TB Total 121TB Media retention and grouping Due to the nature of VTL, media must be managed to insure that physical capacity is reclaimed in an orderly fashion to avoid running out of space and disrupting operations.
B.2.6 Adding media to a VTL container To add media to an existing VTL container, navigate to the Containers menu in the DR Series system GUI. Select and edit the target VTL container. In the resulting dialog box, in the Add More Tape (no of Tape) field, enter the number of tapes to add to the VTL container. Alternatively, you may also use the “vtl –create_carts” CLI command. For example: > vtl --create_carts --name TEST_VTL_LALA --tapes 10 Created 10 cartridges B.2.
2. Select the options, Update Volume Configuration and Preview Changes, and then click Start. 3. Verify that the media is found, and click Yes.
4. Verify that the media is added and click Close. B.2.8 Space reclamation guidelines General Guidelines The DR Series system version 3.2 VTL feature is presented to operating systems and data management applications alike as devices either through iSCSI or NDMP protocol connectivity. The DMA interfaces with the virtual tape library and all its underlying components including the drives and media though these specific protocols.
Note: In general the guidelines provided above should be sufficient for normal operations to insure proper reclamation of space is conducted preemptively. Refer your individual DMA applications for best practices and guidelines regarding tape reuse. Product Specific Guidelines In the event that space becomes an issue or a user impact requires manual cleaning, media can either be manually Erased, Blanked, Scratched or otherwise recycled and a manual cleaning cycle initiated on the DR Series system.
3. The tapes may now be re-labeled, which will clear the data from the tapes. 4. Click OK in the Label dialog box. 5. Click OK in the warning dialog box.
6. Click OK in this message dialog box. 7. Monitor the progress of the media labeling from the Activity Monitor. 8. Once the reconciliation process has completed on the NetBackup software, from the DR Series system, initiate a cleaning cycle either via the GUI or via the command line. For example: > maintenance --filesystem --reclaim_space Successfully started cleaner. 9. Ensure the space has been reclaimed via the GUI or via the command line.
