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Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2021-07-11

Product(s): Appliances (1.3)

Platform: NetBackup Flex Scale OS

Adding a node to the cluster using the NetBackup Flex Scale web interface

Add a new node to the cluster to increase the usable storage of the cluster and its compute resources. When the add node operation is in progress, the backup and restore jobs continue to run on the cluster nodes. You can add multiple nodes at a time. The new node must have the same hardware configuration as the existing cluster nodes. When you add a node to the cluster, data is rebalanced to distribute it evenly across the cluster nodes. The time it takes to rebalance the data depends on the amount of data being moved between nodes and whether you choose to prioritize NetBackup jobs or data rebalancing.

Note:

The fd00:200/120 network is reserved and used internally by NetBackup Flex Scale, and it should not be used anywhere.

You cannot perform the following operations when the add node operation is in progress:

Add another node to the cluster.
Replace an existing node in the cluster.
Upgrade a node in the cluster.
Add or modify existing data networks.
Create, edit, or delete a network bond.

Note:

The add node operation is irreversible; once you start the add node operation, you cannot cancel it midway through or revert the operation. Contact Veritas Support if you face any issues.

Before you add a new node to the cluster, ensure that the following requirements are met.

Health of the cluster nodes

Verify that all the existing nodes in the cluster are in a healthy state. You cannot add a node if a cluster node is not healthy.

ISO image

Power on the node and install the NetBackup Flex Scale ISO image on the node that you want to add to the cluster. For more details, see the NetBackup Flex Scale Installation and Configuration Guide. After the ISO is installed, perform a factory reset to reset the node to its default factory settings. Ensure that the management network interface (eth1) of the node is not configured with the management IP address.

You must format the disks and ensure that no data is present on the disks; else the add node operation will fail.

Network cabling

The node that you want to add must be connected to the same private and public network as that of the existing cluster. For details about the cabling information, See NetBackup Flex Scale network cabling.

Jumbo frames

Set the maximum transmission unit (MTU) property, which controls the maximum transmission unit size for an Ethernet frame to 9000 bytes. By default the MTU is set to 1500 bytes. For optimal performance, it is recommended to set a larger frame size to enable jumbo frames for the eth4, eth5, eth6, and eth7 network interfaces. To take advantage of jumbo frames, the Ethernet cards, drivers, and switching must all support jumbo frames.

IP address requirements

Ensure that you have the following details for each node that you want to add:

Table:

Number of IP addresses	Description
1	Public IP address and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the media server. If multiple data networks are configured for the cluster, you require one public IP address for each data network. For example, for n data networks, you need n number of public IP addresses for the media server.
1	Virtual IP address and an FQDN for the storage server. If multiple data networks are configured for the cluster, you require one virtual IP address for each data network. For example, for n data networks, you need n number of virtual IP addresses for the storage server.
1	Public IP address for the management network interface. Note: If the management network is on a VLAN and the primary data network is on a different VLAN, the management gateway cannot communicate with NetBackup web services.
1	Public IP address for the IPMI interface if the IPMI network is configured for the cluster.

Note:

If disaster recovery is configured, See Considerations for adding a node when disaster recovery is configured. before you add a new node.

To add a new node the cluster, complete the following steps:

Use any one of the following options to log in using the user account that you created when you configured the cluster:
- Using an user account with an Appliance Administrator and NetBackup Administrator role, log in to the NetBackup web interface https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address that you specified for the NetBackup Flex Scale management server and API gateway during the cluster configuration, and then in the left pane click Appliance management.
- Using an user account with an Appliance Administrator role, log in to the NetBackup Flex Scale web interface https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN:14161 where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address that you specified for the NetBackup Flex Scale management server and API gateway during the cluster configuration.
In the left navigation pane, click Monitor and then click Infrastructure.
On the Nodes tab, click Scan for nodes to discover the nodes that can be added to the cluster.
The nodes connected to the private network of the cluster are discovered and displayed under the Discovered nodes section with details such as the node name, storage capacity, serial number, status, and the data network and the management network of the node.
Under the Discovered nodes section, select the nodes that you want to add and click Add nodes to the cluster.
Note:
You can only add healthy nodes to the cluster.
The node and storage details of the existing cluster and the projected storage summary after you add the nodes is displayed.
Specify whether you want to set the priority for NetBackup backup and recovery jobs or data rebalancing. By default, the priority is set to backup and recovery jobs while data rebalancing runs in the background at a lower priority (option Overall system performance). Click Faster reconfiguration to set the priority to rebalancing data across the cluster. This option increases the speed of node addition operations so that the new node can begin participating in backup and recovery operations faster but can affect the backup and recovery jobs.
Enter the following information for the selected nodes:
- Host name: Name for the node. The node name can contain a maximum of 63 characters, excluding the domain name.
  By default, the auto-generated node name based on cluster and domain name is displayed.
- Data-Network-<device-name>:
  You have the option to specify both the IP address and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), or you can specify only the IP address for the media and the storage server.
  On the Automatic tab, specify a single IP range, multiple IP ranges separated by a comma, comma-separated individual IP addresses, a combination of individual IP addresses and IP ranges separated by a comma, or IP addresses in CIDR format, and then click Add. You are not required to enter the FQDN for the media and the storage server. The FQDN is calculated based on the specified IP addresses.
  Click the Custom tab to specify a fully qualified domain name and the IP address of the media server and the storage server for each node. The media server and the storage server names can contain a maximum of 64 characters, including the domain name.
- Management Network:
  You have the option to specify both the IP address and an FQDN, or you can specify only the IP address to assign to the management network of the nodes that you want to add.
  On the Automatic tab, specify a single IP range, multiple IP ranges separated by a comma, comma-separated individual IP addresses, a combination of individual IP addresses and IP ranges separated by a comma, or IP addresses in CIDR format to assign to the eth1 management network interface, and then click Add. You are not required to enter the FQDN. The FQDN is calculated based on the specified IP addresses.
  Click the Custom tab to specify a fully qualified domain name and the IP address to assign to the eth1 management network interface. If you have already configured the IP address for eth1, the IP address is displayed.
- IPMI Network: If an IPMI network is configured for the cluster, specify a public IP address to assign to the IPMI interface.
  On the Automatic tab, you can specify a single IP range, multiple IP ranges separated by a comma, comma-separated individual IP addresses, a combination of individual IP addresses and IP ranges separated by a comma, or IP addresses in CIDR format to assign to the IPMI network interface, and then click Add.
Click the Custom tab to specify a public IP address to assign to the IPMI network interface of each of the selected nodes.
Click Add nodes to the cluster.
The progress of the add node operation is displayed on the Infrastructure page.
To monitor the status of each of the tasks, click View details on the Infrastructure page. The ongoing and completed tasks for the add node operation are also displayed in Recent activity.
Before adding the selected nodes to the cluster, the add node operation synchronizes the patches or add-ons that are installed on the cluster with the nodes. However if the version on the selected nodes is later than the cluster nodes, the add operation cannot proceed. If AutoSupport and Call Home settings are configured for the cluster, these settings are synchronized with the nodes.
Note:
If the add node operation fails during rebalancing of data, contact Veritas Support to resolve the issue. Do not reimage the node or perform a factory reset.
After the node is added, you can view the new node and its details on the Nodes tab. The STIG status of cluster is synchronized with the newly added nodes. If the STIG option is enabled for the cluster, the STIG option is also enabled for the newly added nodes and vice versa. The FIPS option is enabled for the added nodes as this option is enabled with the default factory settings for the Veritas Operating System (VxOS) and for NetBackup MSDP when you create a NetBackup Flex Scale cluster.