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Veritas NetBackup™ Upgrade Guide

Last Published: 2017-09-26

Product(s): NetBackup (8.1)

Installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux describes the requirements to prepare your UNIX and Linux systems for NetBackup installation. Use this table as a checklist to address each item.

For the most up-to-date information about installation requirements, Veritas recommends use of the SORT website. More information about SORT is available.

See About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools.

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux

Check	Requirement	Details
	Operating System	For a complete list of compatible UNIX and Linux operating systems, refer to the Software Compatibility List (SCL) at the following website: http://www.netbackup.com/compatibility https://sort.veritas.com/netbackup
	Memory	Master servers in a production environment with several database agents enabled should have a minimum of 16 GB of memory and four cores each. Media servers in a production environment with several database agents enabled should have a minimum of 4 GB of memory each. Any client in a production environment should have a minimum of 512 MB of memory. For reasonable performance of the NetBackup interfaces, you need 512 MB of RAM. Of that space, 256 MB must be available to the interface program (jnbSA or jbpSA). For additional information about memory requirements, refer to the NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide. http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332
	Disk space	The exact amount of space that is required depends on the hardware platform. More information about this topic is available. NetBackup Release Notes for 8.1 http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332 NetBackup catalogs contain information about your backups that become larger as you use the product. The disk space that the catalogs require depends primarily on the following aspects of your backup configuration: The number of files that are backed up. The frequency of your backups. The amount of time that you set to retain your backup data. If space is an issue, you can install NetBackup on an alternate file system. The installation lets you select an alternate install location, and creates the appropriate link from /usr/openv. Note: The value for disk space is for initial installation only. The NetBackup catalog requires considerably more space once the master server is placed in a production environment. For additional information on sizing requirements for the NetBackup catalog, refer to the NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide. http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332
	General requirements	Ensure that the gzip and the gunzip commands are installed on the local system. The directories where these commands are installed must be part of the root user's path environment variable setting. All NetBackup installation DVDs or ESD images, appropriate licenses, and the root password for all servers. A server of a supported hardware type that runs a supported version of its operating system (with applicable patches), adequate disk space, and supported peripherals. For details on these requirements, refer to the NetBackup Release Notes. http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332 All NetBackup servers must recognize and be recognizable by their client systems. In some environments, this means that each must be defined in the other's /etc/hosts file. Other environments may use the Network Information Service (NIS) or Domain Name Service (DNS). The minimum screen resolution configuration is 1024x768, 256 colors.
	Clustered systems	Ensure that each node in the NetBackup cluster can run the ssh command or its equivalent. The root user must be able to perform a remote logon to each node in the cluster without entering a password. This remote logon is necessary for installation and configuration of the NetBackup server and any NetBackup agents and options. After installation and configuration are complete, it is no longer required. You must install, configure, and start the cluster framework before you install NetBackup. You must have defined a virtual name using DNS, NIS, or the /etc/hosts file. The IP address is defined at the same time. (The virtual name is a label for the IP address.) Begin the upgrade from the active node, and then upgrade the inactive nodes. More information about cluster requirements is available. Veritas NetBackup Clustered Master Server Administrator's Guide http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332
	NFS compatibility	Veritas does not support installation of NetBackup in an NFS-mounted directory. File locking in NFS-mounted file systems can be unreliable.
	Kernel reconfiguration	For some peripherals and platforms, kernel reconfiguration is required. For more details, see the NetBackup Device Configuration Guide. http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332
	Red Hat Linux	For Red Hat Linux, NetBackup requires server networking.
	Other backup software	Veritas recommends that you remove any other vendor backup software currently configured on your system before you install this product. Other vendor backup software can negatively affect how NetBackup installs and functions.
	Web Services	Beginning with NetBackup 8.0, the NetBackup master server includes a configured Tomcat web server to support critical backup operations. This web server operates under user account elements with limited privileges. These user account elements must be available on each master server (or each node of a clustered master server). You must create these required account elements before installation. More information is available: See NetBackup master server web server user and group creation. Note: Veritas recommends that you save the details of the user account that you use for the NetBackup Web Services. A master server recovery requires the same NetBackup Web Services user account and credentials that were used when the NetBackup catalog was backed up. Note: If the NetBackup PBX is running in secure mode, please add the web service user as authorized user in PBX. More information about determining PBX mode and how to correctly add users is available. http://www.veritas.com/docs/000115774 By default, the UNIX installation script attempts to associate the web server with user account nbwebsvc and group account nbwebgrp. You can override these default values with the NetBackup installation answer file. You must populate the NetBackup installation answer file on the target host before you start the UNIX installation script. Populate the NetBackup installation answer file with custom web server account names as shown. Log in to the server as root. Open the file /tmp/NBInstallAnswer.conf with your preferred text editor. Create the file if it does not exist. Override the default web server user account name by adding the line shown: WEBSVC_USER=custom_user_account_name Override the default web server group account name by adding the line shown: WEBSVC_GROUP=custom_group_account_name Save and close the file.