Veritas Appliance Management Guide
Adding an appliance to the Appliance Management Console
You can add multiple appliances to be managed by an AMS. You can add these appliances from the Appliance Management Console. Only 3.1 or later appliances that are configured as a master or media server can be added.
Adding an appliance requires that mutual authentication be performed between agent and management server before the exchange of information between them. To secure the authentication process between the two, each agent must be registered to the AMS by using an access key. The access key should be copied from the Add Appliance page on the Appliance Management Console and then pasted it into the shell menu of each agent. This leads to secure communication between AMS and the agent.
Review the following pointers about the access key:
The access key is 32 characters in length.
You can use the same access key for multiple agents.
The access key does not expire unless you click .
You can always regenerate the access key and command as needed. Once you regenerate the access key, the previous access key and command are not valid.
Review the following considerations before adding an appliance to the Appliance Management Console:
You must add an appliance to only one AMS. Adding an appliance to two or more different management servers is not supported
Before adding 3.1.1 appliances, upgrade the appliance software version on the AMS to 3.1.1 from the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu. See the NetBackup Appliance Upgrade Guide for information about upgrading the appliance software version on the AMS.
To add or upgrade appliances with versions 2.7.3 or 3.0 from the Appliance Management Console, you must first apply specific EEBs on those appliances. Check this link for more information.
If an appliance is already managed by the AMS and you add the same appliance to the same AMS again, it does not result in an error message. The AMS and agent will continue to work normally.
Consider a scenario where an agent is being managed by an AMS and then a factory reset is performed on the specific agent. In this case, the agent is still displayed on the Home page in the AMS but some of the operations performed on that agent will fail. There will be no other indication on the AMS that the agent is no longer added to the AMS. To resolve this issue, you can remove the agent from the Appliance Management Console and then add the agent again to the specific AMS.
Once an appliance is configured as an agent, changing its management role to AMS is not supported.
To add an agent
- Open the NetBackup Appliance Web Console login page on the AMS. Log on as a user with AMS role to access the Appliance Management Console.
- On the Home page, click Add.
- On the Add Appliance page, you have the option of either copying the full command or only the access key. Do one of the following:
Click Copy Command to copy the full command.
or
Click Copy Access Key to copy only the access key. With this option, you need to type the command into the agent shell menu in step 4.
You can click Regenerate if you want to generate a new access key. Once you regenerate the access key, the previous access key and command are not valid.
- Log on to the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu on the agent appliance. Do one of the following based on if you copied the access key or the whole command:
If you clicked Copy Command, browse to the Appliance menu and then right-click to paste the command. Proceed to step 5.
If you clicked Copy Access Key, browse to the Appliance menu.
Type the following command to configure the appliance as an agent:
Management Agent Register <server> <access key>
Here <server> is the hostname or IP address of the AMS. Paste the access key into the shell menu.
- The following information is displayed on the agent shell menu:
[INFO] Preparing to set this appliance as an agent... [INFO] Establishing a secure connection with the AMS... [INFO] This appliance is now set as an agent and registered to the AMS <hostname>.
- Go to the Appliance Management Console and refresh the browser. The agent should be there in the list of appliances on the Home page.
