Administrator Guide

Table Of Contents
Managing NDMP
The FluidFS cluster supports Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP), which is an open standard protocol that facilitates
backup operations for network attached storage, including FluidFS cluster NAS volumes. NDMP should be used for longer-term
data protection, such as weekly backups with long retention periods.
The FluidFS cluster supports remote and three-way backup architecture implementations, wherein a supported, external Data
Management Application (DMA) server mediates the data transfer between the FluidFS cluster and the storage device. The
FluidFS cluster supports full, differential, and incremental NDMP Level Based Backup (levels 0-9), Full, Incremental/Differential
Token Based Backup, and Direct Access Recovery (DAR). The FluidFS cluster supports NDMP versions 3 and 4 (default mode).
The FluidFS cluster includes an NDMP server that is responsible for the following operations:
Processing all NDMP backup and restore requests sent from DMA servers
Sending all NDMP replies and notification messages to DMA servers
Transferring data over the network to or from remote NDMP tape or data servers
The NDMP server handles all communications with the DMA servers and other NDMP devices through an XDR encoded TCP
(Transmission Control Protocol) data stream.
The NDMP server supports two backup types:
dump: Generates inode-based NDMP file history
tar: Generates path-based NDMP file history
The backup type is controlled by the NDMP environment variable TYPE. Both backup types support the same functionalities,
but the tar backup type might be able to process the information more efficiently for certain DMA servers.
Backup and Restore NDMP
Backup and Restore Applications on page 434 lists the supported backup and restore applications. See the Dell Fluid File System
Support Matrix for the latest information.
Table 18. Backup and Restore Applications
Application Supported Version
CommVault Simpana 11.x
Dell Quest NetVault 10.x, 11.x
EMC Networker 9.x
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 6.3
Symantec BackupExec 2014, 2015
Symantec NetBackup 7.x
Refer to the application documentation for the minimal revision/service pack supporting Dell FluidFS systems.
Supported Tape Libraries on page 434 lists the supported tape libraries for 2way NDMP backup (Fibre Channel connections
only).
Table 19. Supported Tape Libraries
Supplier Models
Dell TL-2000, TL-4000, ML-6000
NDMP Agent Characteristics on page 434 lists the supported range for each of the NDMP characteristics.
Table 20. NDMP Agent Characteristics
Functionality Supported Range
NDMP version v2, v3, v4
DMA address type IPv4 only
DMA servers configured Up to 10
434 FluidFS Administration