NetBackup™ Deployment Guide for Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) Cluster

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.1)
  1. Introduction to NetBackup on AKS
    1.  
      About NetBackup deployment on Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) cluster
    2.  
      Required terminology
    3.  
      User roles and permissions
    4.  
      About MSDP Scaleout
    5.  
      About MSDP Scaleout components
    6.  
      Limitations in MSDP Scaleout
  2. Deployment with environment operators
    1. About deployment with the environment operator
      1.  
        Prerequisites
      2.  
        Contents of the TAR file
      3.  
        Known limitations
    2.  
      Deploying the operators manually
    3.  
      Deploying NetBackup and MSDP Scaleout manually
    4.  
      Deploying NetBackup and Snapshot Manager manually
    5.  
      Configuring the environment.yaml file
    6.  
      Uninstalling NetBackup environment and the operators
    7.  
      Applying security patches
  3. Assessing cluster configuration before deployment
    1.  
      How does the Config-Checker utility work
    2.  
      Config-Checker execution and status details
    3.  
      How Data-Migration works
    4.  
      Data-Migration execution and status details
  4. Deploying NetBackup
    1.  
      Preparing the environment for NetBackup installation on AKS
    2.  
      Recommendations of NetBackup deployment on AKS
    3.  
      Limitations of NetBackup deployment on AKS
    4. About primary server CR and media server CR
      1.  
        After installing primary server CR
      2.  
        After Installing the media server CR
    5.  
      Monitoring the status of the CRs
    6.  
      Updating the CRs
    7.  
      Deleting the CRs
    8.  
      Configuring NetBackup IT Analytics for NetBackup deployment
    9.  
      Managing NetBackup deployment using VxUpdate
    10.  
      Migrating the node pool for primary or media servers
  5. Upgrading NetBackup
    1.  
      Preparing for NetBackup upgrade
    2.  
      Upgrading NetBackup operator
    3.  
      Upgrading Snapshot Manager operator
    4.  
      Upgrading NetBackup application
    5.  
      Upgrading Snapshot Manager
    6.  
      Post-migration tasks
    7.  
      Upgrade NetBackup during data migration
    8.  
      Procedure to rollback when upgrade fails
  6. Deploying Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Overview
    2.  
      Prerequisites
    3.  
      Installing the docker images
  7. Migration and upgrade of Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Migration and upgrade of Snapshot Manager
  8. Deploying MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Deploying MSDP Scaleout
    2.  
      Prerequisites
    3.  
      Installing the docker images and binaries
    4.  
      Initializing the MSDP operator
    5.  
      Configuring MSDP Scaleout
    6.  
      Using MSDP Scaleout as a single storage pool in NetBackup
    7.  
      Configuring the MSDP cloud in MSDP Scaleout
  9. Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
  10. Monitoring NetBackup
    1.  
      Monitoring the application health
    2.  
      Telemetry reporting
    3.  
      About NetBackup operator logs
    4.  
      Expanding storage volumes
    5.  
      Allocating static PV for Media pods
  11. Monitoring MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      About MSDP Scaleout status and events
    2.  
      Monitoring with Azure Container insights
    3.  
      The Kubernetes resources for MSDP Scaleout and MSDP operator
  12. Monitoring Snapshot Manager deployment
    1.  
      Overview
    2.  
      Logs of Snapshot Manager
    3.  
      Configuration parameters
  13. Managing the Load Balancer service
    1.  
      About the Load Balancer service
    2.  
      Notes for Load Balancer service
    3.  
      Opening the ports from the Load Balancer service
  14. Performing catalog backup and recovery
    1.  
      Backing up a catalog
    2.  
      Restoring a catalog
  15. Managing MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Adding MSDP engines
    2.  
      Adding data volumes
    3. Expanding existing data or catalog volumes
      1.  
        Manual storage expansion
    4.  
      MSDP Scaleout scaling recommendations
    5. MSDP Cloud backup and disaster recovery
      1.  
        About the reserved storage space
      2.  
        Cloud LSU disaster recovery
    6.  
      MSDP multi-domain support
    7.  
      Configuring Auto Image Replication
    8. About MSDP Scaleout logging and troubleshooting
      1.  
        Collecting the logs and the inspection information
  16. About MSDP Scaleout maintenance
    1.  
      Pausing the MSDP Scaleout operator for maintenance
    2.  
      Logging in to the pods
    3.  
      Reinstalling MSDP Scaleout operator
    4.  
      Migrating the MSDP Scaleout to another node pool
  17. Uninstalling MSDP Scaleout from AKS
    1.  
      Cleaning up MSDP Scaleout
    2.  
      Cleaning up the MSDP Scaleout operator
  18. Uninstalling Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Uninstalling Snapshot Manager from AKS
  19. Troubleshooting
    1.  
      View the list of operator resources
    2.  
      View the list of product resources
    3.  
      View operator logs
    4.  
      View primary logs
    5.  
      Pod restart failure due to liveness probe time-out
    6.  
      Socket connection failure
    7.  
      Resolving an invalid license key issue
    8.  
      Resolving an issue where external IP address is not assigned to a NetBackup server's load balancer services
    9.  
      Resolving the issue where the NetBackup server pod is not scheduled for long time
    10.  
      Resolving an issue where the Storage class does not exist
    11.  
      Resolving an issue where the primary server or media server deployment does not proceed
    12.  
      Resolving an issue of failed probes
    13.  
      Resolving token issues
    14.  
      Resolving an issue related to insufficient storage
    15.  
      Resolving an issue related to invalid nodepool
    16.  
      Resolving a token expiry issue
    17.  
      Resolve an issue related to KMS database
    18.  
      Resolve an issue related to pulling an image from the container registry
    19.  
      Resolving an issue related to recovery of data
    20.  
      Check primary server status
    21.  
      Pod status field shows as pending
    22.  
      Ensure that the container is running the patched image
    23.  
      Getting EEB information from an image, a running container, or persistent data
    24.  
      Resolving the certificate error issue in NetBackup operator pod logs
    25.  
      Data migration unsuccessful even after changing the storage class through the storage yaml file
    26.  
      Host validation failed on the target host
    27.  
      Primary pod is in pending state for a long duration
    28.  
      Taint, Toleration, and Node affinity related issues in cpServer
    29.  
      Operations performed on cpServer in environment.yaml file are not reflected
    30.  
      Host mapping conflict in NetBackup
    31.  
      NetBackup messaging queue broker take more time to start
    32.  
      Local connection is getting treated as insecure connection
    33.  
      Issue with capacity licensing reporting which takes longer time
    34.  
      Backing up data from Primary server's /mnt/nbdata/ directory fails with primary server as a client
    35.  
      Primary pod goes in non-ready state
  20. Appendix A. CR template
    1.  
      Secret
    2.  
      MSDP Scaleout CR

User roles and permissions

Note the following for user authentication:

  • An Administrator must define the custom user credentials by creating a secret; and then provide the secret name at the time of primary server deployment.

  • A custom user is assigned the role of a NetBackup Security Administrator and can access the NetBackup Web UI after deployment.

  • A custom user will be persisted during the pods restart or upgrade.

  • For the custom user, you can change only the password after the deployment. The changed password will be persisted. If the username is changed after the deployment, an error message will be logged in the Operator pod.

  • You can delete the secret after the primary server deployment. In that case, if you want to deploy or scale the media servers, you must create a new secret with the same username which was used in the primary server CR. The password can be the same or different. If you change the password, it is also changed in the primary server pod, and gets persisted.

  • Do not create a local user in the pods (using the kubectl exec or useradd commands) as this user may or may not be persisted.

  • The Azure Active Directory user is supported through Single Sign-on (SSO). For the detailed user integration information, refer to the NetBackup Administrator's Guide Volume I.

  • An nbitanalyticsadmin user is available in primary server container. This user is used as Master Server User ID while creating data collector policy for data collection on NetBackup IT Analytics portal.

  • Service account that is used for this deployment is netbackup-account and it is defined in the operator_deployment.yaml.

  • NetBackup runs most of the primary server services and daemons as non-root user (nbsvcusr) and only root and nbsvcusr are supported as a service account user.

  • ClusterRole named netbackup-role is set in the NetBackup Operator to define the cluster wide permissions to the resources. This is defined in the operator_deployment.yaml.

  • Appropriate roles and AKS specific permissions are set to the cluster at the time of cluster creation.

  • After successful deployment of the primary and media servers, the operator creates a custom Kubernetes role with name ResourceName-admin whereas Resource Name is given in primary server or media server CR specification.

    The following permissions are provided in the respective namespaces:

    Resource name

    API group

    Allowed operations

    ConfigMaps

    default

    • Create

    • Delete

    • Get

    • List

    • Patch

    • Update

    • Watch

    Nodes

    default

    • Get

    • List

    This role can be assigned to the NetBackup Administrator to view the pods that were created, and to execute into them. For more information on the access control, see Kubernetes Access Control Documentation.

    Note:

    One role would be created, only if primary and media servers are in same namespace with the same resource name prefix.

  • Your AKS cluster must have the RBAC enabled. To view the permissions set for the AKS cluster, use one of the following methods and verify if enbleRBAC is set to true:

    • Run the following command:

      az resource show -g <resource group name> -n <cluster name> --resource-type

      Microsoft.ContainerService/ManagedClusters --query properties.enableRBAC

    • Run the az aks list command.

    • You can check the cluster's resource details at resources.azure.com and verify if enableRBAC is set to true.

Role-based authentication (RBAC)

NetBackup Operator deployment uses a serviceAccount and it must have the following permissions:

Table:

Resource Name

API Group

Allowed Operations

ConfigMaps

default

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

Nodes

default

  • Get

  • List

PersistentVolumeClaims

default

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

PersistentVolume

default

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

Pods

default

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

Pods/exec

default

  • Create

  • Get

Secret

default

  • Get

  • List

  • Watch

Services

default

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

StatefulSet

app

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

Jobs

batch

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

Primary servers

netbackup.veritas.com

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

PrimaryServers/status

netbackup.veritas.com

  • Get

  • Patch

  • Update

Media servers

netbackup.veritas.com

  • Create

  • Delete

  • Get

  • List

  • Patch

  • Update

  • Watch

MediaServers/status

netbackup.veritas.com

  • Get

  • Patch

  • Update

Secrets

netbackup.veritas.com

Watch

Secrets/status

netbackup.veritas.com

  • Get

  • Patch

  • Update

Roles

rbac.authorization.k8s.io

  • Create

  • Get

  • List

  • Watch

Storageclasses

storage.k8s.io

  • Get

  • List

Deployment

app

  • Get

  • List

  • Update

  • Watch