Search <book_title>...

Veritas™ Usage Insights for NetBackup Getting Started Guide

Last Published: 2023-10-27

Product(s): NetBackup (10.3, 10.2, 10.1.1, 10.1, 10.0, 9.1, 9.0, 8.3)

Veritas™ Usage Insights for NetBackup

Frequently asked questions about Usage Insights

This section includes some of the frequently asked questions about Veritas Usage Insights.

The following topic includes frequently asked questions about licensing.

See Frequently asked questions about licensing.

Table: Frequently asked questions

Question	Answer
Usage Insights overview
What browsers does Usage Insights support?	Usage Insights is compatible with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It is not recommended to use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, as it does not render all information correctly.
Why do I sometimes not see the Customer Registration Keys screen when I click it on the left?	An intermittent issue exists with the URLs for Usage Insights screens. If you click another one of the options on the left and then click Customer Registration Keys again, the URL resets to https://taas.veritas.com/#/enableTelemetry.
Which license types are supported by Usage Insights?	The following license types are supported by Usage Insights: 8.1.2 Platform Base Complete Edition 8.1.2 with EEB or 8.2 or later Platform Base Complete Edition with Flexible Licensing Platform Base Complete Edition Platform Base Limited Edition Platform Base Big Data Workload Edition Platform Base NDMP Edition Enterprise Virtual Client Edition Traditional Licensing Model Edition Flex Scale 2.1 or later Flex Scale Edition Alta Data Protection Alta Data Protection for Cloud 10.3 or later Enterprise Edition Data Mover Edition Your capacity license usage is displayed under the Platform Base Complete Edition license type by default, unless you set the license type using the Web UI or the bpsetconfig command as given in step 3 of the following section. See Enable Veritas Usage Insights. With 10.0 or later, you can set the license types using the Web UI. You can use the bpsetconfig command to set the license types from 8.2 to 9.x. If you have purchased Base Complete Edition with Flexible Licensing, your capacity license usage is displayed under the Platform Base Complete Edition Flex type in Usage Insights. If you have both Complete Edition and Base Complete Edition with Flexible Licensing, your capacity license usage is displayed under the Platform Base Complete Edition + Flex type in Usage Insights. If you have only Alta Data Protection for Cloud license, the usage reported for that license is displayed. If you have both Alta Data Protection (ADP) and other licenses, the usage of cloud policies are reported within ADP and the usage from remaining policies are reported for other license types.
If I do not use capacity licensing, do I still need a customer registration key during installation or upgrade?	Yes! To complete the installation or upgrade, you must download a registration key with your current license. By adding a registration key, you can manage and track licensing in Usage Insights.
How does Usage Insights handle misspelled customer names?	This situation would occur in less than 1% of the cases. In such cases, call customer support to correct the customer names in the ERP system.
Does Usage Insights work with 360 data management bundles?	The usage and entitlement is displayed only for the NetBackup software component.
Can you tell me about how Usage Insights handles the telemetry information?	Usage Insights does not collect user or business data. Additionally, Usage Insights does not collect any data that describes files, databases, and other proprietary information. After the data is collected on your local computers, any unique customer information is obscured using a hash algorithm (MD5 and SHA256). Usage Insights obfuscates any fields for which you are prompted to enter user information. Policy names and server names are examples of obfuscated data. Veritas uses a cryptographic hash algorithm to mask customer-specific data. See Which fields are obfuscated from Usage Insights?. See Data types collected and data collection events. After the data is collected and any unique customer information is obscured, the data is transmitted securely to Veritas using industry standard encryption methods. In addition, all Usage Insights traffic from your network is outbound only. Usage Insights uses the HTTPS protocol (SSL/TLS encrypted) to secure the data in transit. You must configure your firewall to allow HTTPS traffic out of your network to take advantage of Usage Insights.
How does my telemetry data travel to the Usage Insights portal?	The nbtelemetry process securely sends the data to https://telemetry.veritas.com that is part of the Veritas SORT infrastructure. The data is then transmitted securely to the Usage Insights for processing and display on the portal.
How can I confirm that the data that is shared with Veritas Usage Insights is secure and masked?	In the usage reports, .out and .xls files (created by `nbdeployutil`) the data is not masked because you might want to work with the reports. The usage reports are NOT shared with Veritas Usage Insights. For The JSON file that is shared with Veritas Usage Insights is located on your primary server at the following location: UNIX and Linux: `/usr/openv/var/global/incremental/` Windows: `install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\var\global\incremental` File name: `hostuuid_startinterval_netbackup_capacity-utilization.json` The JSON file is different than the standard `nbdeployutil` reports (`.out` and `.xls` files). For example, you can see in this sample that the master_server, client_name, and policy_name have all been masked. If you use Usage Insights, then you can review the JSON files to confirm. Note: You can use Firefox or any other JSON viewer tool to review the JSON file. For Flex Scale Capacity utilization files for both Flex Scale and must be uploaded from the Flex Scale 2.1 converged environment. For Flex Scale, go to the following location: /vx/MASTER_FS/data/usr/openv/var/global/telemetry/tmp File name: `clusterhealthid_startinterval_flexscale_capacity-utilization.json` For , go to the following location: /vx/MASTER_FS/data/usr/openv/var/global/incremental/ File name: `hostuuid_startinterval_netbackup_capacity-utilization.json`
How does Veritas manage data privacy?	For more information about how Veritas manages customer privacy and our commitment to GDPR refer to the following site: https://www.veritas.com/about/privacy/
Does Usage Insights replace nbdeployutil for license audits?	Usage Insights is the official tool for license usage measurement. The nbdeployutil command is, however, what provides information to Usage Insights. As such, nbdeployutil is still used. Additionally, nbdeployutil remains the source of record for all other NetBackup software licensing models.
Can I use Usage Insights if I'm not connected to the Internet?	Yes, but you need to manually upload the capacity usage information from a computer with Internet connectivity.
Can I use Usage Insights for log forwarding?	This capability is not currently available.
I would like to try out the Usage Insights. How can I get the customer registration key?	If you have an ERP account with Veritas, you can access the Usage Insights and download the key from registration keys.
Currently, I am not a Veritas customer but would like to try out NetBackup 8.1.2 or later and Usage Insights.	Contact Support for the customer registration key that is required for NetBackup 8.1.2 or later installation. You will also need an ERP account with Veritas to access the Usage Insights.
Does the NetBackup Support Utility (NBSU) collect any information about nbdeployutil, Usage Insights, and so on. Such as confirming the presence of a (valid) registration key, type of key (temporary, aggregate, normal), nbdeployutil configuration file settings, and any other relevant touch points that would provide evidence to assist in troubleshooting?	No information is collected about the nbdeployutil utility or its configuration in NBSU.
Who should I contact to know more about telemetry collections or pings?	Contact Support directly if you are impacted by telemetry collection or pings. Sales Engineers and/or Sales Representatives can contact Support on your behalf as well.
I would like to be able to export the content in Usage Insights for my management and Audit teams. Can I do that?	You can export the tabular content from Usage Insights to CSV.
What are the convergence plans for OpsCenter, Usage Insights, and so on?	Veritas is working to determine the best solution for you to visualize all of your data needs.
How can I specify proxy servers?	You can specify authenticated and unauthenticated proxy servers that NetBackup uses to relay Usage Insights data to Veritas. See Proxy support in Usage Insights.
How can I view the System Health Insights appliance details from Primary Servers?	Go to Usage Insights > Primary Servers. On the upper-right corner, from the column selection list, select Appliance serial number. The list of appliances on which you are running your NetBackup primary servers is displayed. You can click the serial number to navigate to System Health Insights where information about the appliance is displayed.
Accounts, entitlement, and licensing
As a user with traditional licensing, do I still required the registration key?	Yes, the registration key is required for upgrade and install.
How does the Usage Insights workflow affect the proof of concepts when we use Type 2 trialware and get entitlements from VEMS?	The Usage Insights workflow does not affect the proof of concepts. Data that is consumed under a proof of concept is measured against that entitlement, thus showing no overage in that particular environment. Proof of concept primary server installs must contact support to get a temporary customer registration key.
How does Veritas ensure that my current customer information is correct in Usage Insights?	The customer is responsible to confirm that all information is accurate. If the information is entered inaccurately, Usage Insights reports the information inaccurately.
What happens when customers split and or merge their businesses?	Open a non-technical case to solve customer merge or split account requests. Refer to the following article for more information: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100044856.html Usage Insights pulls the usage information when other systems are updated and the following steps are taken: Primary servers are running version 8.1.2 or later The updated registration keys are added to the primary servers Data transmission is set up (manually or automatically)
Can service providers use Usage Insights for charge back?	Yes. Since both the partner and customer have access to this portal, they can look at the same data together and work through the capacity overages.
If I buy a new entitlement to expand my capacity, will I get a new customer registration key?	If the new entitlement is tied to the same account, the capacity will refresh and show the new total entitlement the next time you log in to the Usage Insights portal. If the new entitlement is not tied to the same account: Contact Customer Support. Download the new registration key(s) and follow the instructions on the Usage Insights to add the key(s) on the appropriate primary server.
If my entitlements seem incorrect, how do I fix that?	Contact Support or your Sales team.
How do I reduce the number of account IDs that I have within the Veritas Entitlement Management System (VEMS)?	Open a non-technical case to update customer account information. Refer to the following article for more information: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100044856.html Alternatively, when you place a new order ensure that the account name is congruent with the one that you already have. For example, if you already have an account as ABCD Incorporated avoid submitting the name as ABC Inc.
As a user how can I work with my business partner to grant them view access to the Usage Insights data?	Use the following steps to grant view access to the Usage Insights data: Request your partner to: Create a Veritas account from the Support page (https://www.veritas.com/support/) and share the credentials (user ID and password). Work with your partner to: Identify the VEMS account you want the partner to view using the Usage Insights. Once you have identified the VEMS account: Log in to VEMS. Note: You need to have the administrator rights to grant view access to the partner. Click Entitlements on the main menu to view all entitlements and review the Accounts column to identify the accounts that you want the partner to view. From the main menu, click the gear icon and from the Manage Users page, click Add User. Add the partner's information and set the partner's access rights for every VEMS account. The following rights or privileges are possible: Administrator, Generate License Keys, Download Software or View. Note: Ensure that you give appropriate access rights to the partners. The View option will enable the partners to view your data in Usage Insights. For more information, refer to the VEMS user guide: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100040083
How do I get a registration key for a trial or a Proof Of Concept (POC)?	If you cannot locate your registration keys or require a new registration key for the trial or POC, please contact your Sales team.
How can I change the account for which the usage from the primary server will be tracked by Usage Insights?	Use the following steps: In Usage Insights, go to the Registration keys tab, and click Download aggregate key or click the download icon next to the each account number to download the registration key. Replace the existing registration key located at the following path with the new registration key: `<install dir>/var/global/customer_registration/veritas_customer_registration_key.json` Note: If you downloaded the aggregate key, you must select the appropriate account when you logon to the NetBackup web UI.
How can I retire expired or invalid license entitlements?	A Certificate of Destruction form is provided by Sales, which requires information about entitlement IDs. After you update the form, the Sales team sends the form to the Order Management team for processing. Veritas Center of Excellence then retires and removes the licenses from the records and the changes are updated in Usage Insights.
What are the steps to identify a primary server using the host UUID?	The primary server name is obfuscated in Usage Insights to comply with the data privacy requirements (sensitive information). You can identify the server name using the following steps: On the Primary server, the Host UUID is available at the following location. For VMWare, hostUUID files: `/var/veritas/telemetry and /usr/openv/var/global/telemetry`. For Unix: `/usr/openv/var/global/telemetry/hostuuid` file and for Windows: `<Install Path>\NetBackup\var\global\telemetry\hostuuid`. (Optional) After the primary server is identified, logon to Usage Insights and click the Primary Server tab. In the list of primary servers, click Unassigned corresponding to the host UUID (of the server) that you want to edit and assign a name for the primary server. The display name can be different from the actual server name.
Setup for Usage Insights
What assistance can Veritas customer support provide during a domain upgrade when I need a registration key but I do not know the Veritas account?	Customer support is available to help acclimatize as many customers to Usage Insights as possible. They can provide you all the relevant information and provide keys to get your NetBackup environment running. You must, however, connect your actual keys to the primary servers to get accurate information.
If I am a new backup administrator, do I need to download all customer registration keys again?	No. Once you are given visibility to the accounts in VEMS by your administrator, you can sign in to Usage Insights. The view should automatically populate with the same usage and entitlement information that had populated for the previous administrator.
How is the Usage Insights process affected if a person with Veritas Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials leaves their organization?	The customer's organization should provide new customer contact information for Veritas Support and the VEMS systems for updated credentials and access.
If there is a network outage in my NetBackup setup, how is the data gap on the portal managed by NetBackup and Usage Insights?	There will be an attempt to upload the usage data automatically, but if attempt fails, the data will not be uploaded. In such a case, you can manually upload the usage data.
Does the nbdeployutil configuration file get backed up with the catalog?	Yes. The nbdeployutil configuration file (`nbdeployutilconfig.txt` ) gets backed up with catalog backup.
How are the registration keys affected during disaster recovery scenarios? Is the customer ID file included in the catalog backup or DR package?	The key file is not included in the DR package. It must be re-applied at install time, just like the base license key.
Usage reporting
How does Usage Insights resolve the duplicate or the inaccurate data that we had to manually resolve after we generated a report using the nbdeployutil tool?	The overlap reduction and accuracy improvements that are in NetBackup 8.1.2 or later resolve the duplicate data issues. Overlap and accuracy have improved across all of the major traditional workloads (Oracle, File System, SQL, Exchange, VMware, and NDMP), as well as the emerging workloads (Parallel Streaming Framework).
Along with using Usage Insights, can I still run the nbdeployutil tool manually or schedule the tool to gather and report usage data?	Yes.
I don't see any usage date on Usage Insights after I configure the automated data collection or manually uploading the utilization file. What should I do?	Ensure that you have set up scheduled runs of nbdeployutil, the tool that generates the usage data used by Usage Insights.
How do I set the schedule for when the data transmits?	You can only control the upload of data based on the FREQUENCY_IN_DAYS value. The telemetry schedule launches every 15 minutes and transmits whenever the `UsageData_Sanitized.out` file is present.
If a primary server is decommissioned does it automatically stop showing up in Usage Insights?	Yes. The server stops showing up in Usage Insights Dashboard summary section after three months of decommissioning. The decommissioned server and it's usage can still be seen from the Primary Servers page. The status of the primary goes to inactive automatically after three months.
What happens when a primary server that I had set up for usage reporting in the portal is decommissioned?	The historical usage reporting data will be available with the Usage Insights portal but after the decommissioning, the portal will not receive any new data.
Will there be a special IP address to route the nbdeployutil reports coming over for Usage Insights?	NetBackup Telemetry and Usage Insights data both use https://telemetry.veritas.com, so you must open a port to that URL. By default, HTTPS traffic uses port 443.
How do I know if everything was set up correctly for Usage Insights?	When usage data begins to populate into Usage Insights. By default NetBackup uses port 443.
Why is the usage data not reported or updated on the NetBackup web user interface or Usage Insights?	For one of the likely reasons, refer to the following article: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100044028.html
The nbdeployutil command can be configured with a PURGE_INTERVAL value for saving information. Will the Usage Insights portal report intervals longer than the 90 days? If you set the PURGE_INTERVAL for nbdeployutil to 365 days, will the Usage Insights Portal show 365 days' worth of data?	There is NO relation between purge interval in nbdeployutil and Usage Insights. Purge interval in nbdeployutil is related only to the report files (`.xls`) that are generated locally on the primary server.
Why can I see the same hashed name for two or Alta Data Protection primary servers?	Likely reasons for the same hashed name appearing for two primary servers: You have set the same name for two primary servers. The hash value depends on the primary server name. After you change the primary server name, the hash value is also updated. You have upgraded from an older version to a newer version within 90 days of installing the older version. After you change the primary server name, the hash value is also updated.