Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Best Practices and Troubleshooting Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (3.2)
Platform: NetBackup Flex Scale OS
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      Scope and intended audience
    2.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale
    3.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale nodes
  2. Configuration requirements
    1.  
      Physical environment
    2.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale configuration requirements
    3.  
      Firewall and network port requirements
    4.  
      Considerations for using IPv6 addresses
    5.  
      Considerations for configuring disaster recovery
  3. Best practices
    1.  
      Management network connectivity
    2.  
      Private network connectivity
    3.  
      Configuring AutoSupport for the appliance
    4.  
      Necessary software
  4. NetBackup Flex Scale tuning and sizing
    1.  
      Assigning media servers to a storage server
    2.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale tuning
  5. Troubleshooting NetBackup Flex Scale
    1.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale logs
    2.  
      Services management
    3.  
      Audit logs
    4. Collecting logs for cluster nodes
      1.  
        Uploading logs to Veritas Support
      2.  
        Downloading logs
    5. Forwarding logs to an external server
      1.  
        Configuring log forwarding
      2.  
        Modifying log forwarding settings using the UI
      3.  
        Removing log forwarding
    6.  
      Error messages displayed during the pre-upgrade check
    7. Troubleshooting NetBackup Flex Scale issues
      1.  
        If cluster configuration fails (for example because an IP address that was already in use is specified) and you try to reconfigure the cluster, the UI displays an error but the configuration process continues to run
      2.  
        Validation error while adding VMware credentials to NetBackup
      3.  
        NetBackup Web UI incorrectly displays some NetBackup Flex Scale processes as failed
      4.  
        Unable to create BMR Shared Resource Tree (SRT) on NetBackup Flex Scale Appliance
      5.  
        NetBackup configuration files are not persistent across operations that require restarting the system
      6.  
        Connection timeout errors during patch installs, upgrades, and rollback operations
      7.  
        Initial configuration wizard displays a license error after successfully configuring the cluster
      8.  
        Resource monitoring and remediation

Configuring log forwarding

You can forward the appliance system logs (syslogs) to an external log management server. Your log management server must support the Rsyslog client.

Alerts are generated if the settings on the cluster nodes are inconsistent or if one of the cluster nodes is down and unable to forward the logs to the log server. When you add a node to the cluster, the log forwarding settings are synced to the newly added node.

To configure log forwarding:

  1. Use any one of the following options to sign in:

    • Use a user account with both Appliance Administrator and NetBackup Administrator role, or a user account with only an Appliance administrator role to log in to the NetBackup Flex Scale web interface https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN/webui where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address, the FQDN, or the short host name that you specified for the management server during the cluster configuration, and then in the left pane do one of the following:

      • Click Cluster Management > Cluster settings > Security management > Log forwarding

      • Click Cluster Management > Cluster dashboard > Security Meter > View details > Auditing and alerting > Log forwarding

    • Use a user account with an Appliance Administrator role to log in to the NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure management console https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN:14161 where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address, the FQDN, or the short host name that you specified for the management server and do one of the following:

      • Click Dashboard > Security Meter > View details > Auditing and alerting > Log forwarding

      • Click Settings > Security management > Log forwarding

  2. Click Configure.
  3. Enter the following details:

    Field

    Description

    Server FQDN or IP address

    FQDN or the IP address of the external log management server.

    Server port

    Port number of the external log management server. Default port is 514. You can specify a different port if the cluster nodes are configured to communicate with the log server using that port.

    Protocol

    Select either UDP or TCP. TCP is the default protocol. With TCP protocol, you can optionally enable TLS log transmission.

    Note:

    Enabling TLS requires that you upload certificates obtained from CA authority and a private key to the appliance.

    Log polling interval

    Set the interval in minutes for forwarding the syslogs to the external log server. The options are 15, 30, 45, 60, Continuous. If you select Continuous, the appliance continuously forwards logs to the log server.

    Device vendor

    Unique name for the external log server.

    Enable TLS log transmission

    If you want to secure the transmission of logs from the appliance to the log server, select Enable TLS log transmission and upload the required certificate files. Veritas recommends that you enable TLS for security purposes.

    This option provides end-to-end security of data sent over the network from the appliance to the log server. You need a CA certificate and the client private key to configure TLS log transmission.

    This option is available only if you select the TCP protocol.

    If you enable secure log transmission, upload CA certificate (X.509 certificate for the certificate authority in PEM format), client certificate (X.509 certificate for the appliance to communicate with the log management server, in PEM format), and client certificate key (RSA key of the client certificate) onto your log server and then upload the certificates to the appliance.

    Modules

    Types of logs that are forwarded to the log server. Only the OS logs are forwarded and the syslog option is selected by default.

  4. Click Enable.

    A notification about the task is displayed on the top of the page. To monitor the progress, click View details. After the configuration is completed successfully, a notification is displayed on top of the page. The log forwarding status is shown Enabled and the start time for forwarding the logs is displayed.