Veritas NetBackup™ Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide
- Introduction
- Snapshot Client features at a glance
 - Snapshot Client features
 - About snapshot basics
 - Benefits of copy-on-write versus mirror
 - About local backup of a snapshot
 - Off-host backup overview
 - Off-host backup methods
 - Snapshot Client requirements
 - Snapshot Client terminology
 - Snapshot Client assistance
 - About open file backups for Windows
 
 - Installation
 - Policy configuration
- Notes on Snapshot Client policies
 - Configuring a Snapshot Client policy
 - Backup Selections tab options when configuring a policy
 - Off-host backup configuration options
 - Automatic snapshot selection
 - Selecting the snapshot method
- Snapshot methods
 - Configuration parameters for Snapshot Client
- Cache device path parameter
 - Delay in seconds between disk group split retries parameter
 - IBC receive timeout parameter (seconds)
 - IBC send timeout parameter (seconds)
 - Keep snapshot after backup parameter
 - Maximum number of volumes to resynchronize concurrently parameter
 - Maximum Snapshots parameter (Instant Recovery only)
 - Number of times to retry disk group split parameter
 - Provider Type parameter
 - Resynchronize mirror in background parameter
 - Snapshot Attribute parameter
 - Sync I/O delay in milliseconds parameter (UNIX only)
 - Sync region size in MB parameter (UNIX only)
 - Wait for mirror sync completion parameter
 - Important note on VSS and disk arrays
 - Synchronize mirror before the backup parameter
 
 - Snapshot Resources
 
 - Configuring backup scripts
 - About using alternate client backup
 - Configuring alternate client backup
 - Policy configuration tips
 - About disabling snapshots
 
 - FlashBackup configuration
 - Instant Recovery configuration
- About Instant Recovery capabilities
 - Instant Recovery requirements
 - Instant Recovery restrictions
 - Giving full server privileges to the media server
 - About Instant Recovery
 - Configuring a policy for Instant Recovery
 - About sizing the cache for Instant Recovery copy-on-write snapshots
 - About configuring VxVM
 - Modifying the VxVM or FlashSnap resync options for point in time rollback
 - Instant Recovery for databases
 - About storage lifecycle policies for snapshots
 
 - Network Attached Storage (NAS) snapshot configuration
 - Configuration of software-based snapshot methods
 - Support for Cluster Volume Manager Environments (CVM)
 - Configuration of snapshot methods for disk arrays
- About the new disk array snapshot methods
 - Disk array configuration tasks
 - OS-specific configuration tasks
 - About VSS configuration (Windows)
 - About EMC CLARiiON arrays
- EMC CLARiiON software requirements for UNIX
 - Veritas support for VSS Snapshot and EMC CLARiiON
 - Diagram of installed software for EMC CLARiiON
 - Verifying connectivity from client to array
 - About resolving host names on the network
 - Configuring NetBackup to access the CLARiiON array
 - Adding clients to a CLARiiON storage group
 - Configuring for EMC_CLARiiON_SnapView_Clone
 - Creating a clone private LUN with the EMC Navisphere Web interface
 - Creating a clone group and select a LUN as source
 - Adding clone LUNs to the clone group
 - Obtaining the device identifier for each source and clone LUN
 - About configuration for EMC_CLARiiON_SnapView_Snapshot
 - Configuring a reserved LUN pool for the storage processors
 - Configuring a NetBackup policy for a CLARiiON array method
 - Common CLARiiON array configuration problems
 
 - About EMC Symmetrix arrays
- EMC Symmetrix DMX software requirements
 - Clone emulation flag can cause snapshots to fail
 - EMC snapshot operation fails
 - Support for EMC Symmetrix with Volume Shadow Copy Service
 - Prerequisites for using EMC Symmetrix disk arrays
 - Configuring NetBackup clients to use EMC Symmetrix
 - About configuring NetBackup to access the Symmetrix array
 - About configuration for EMC_TimeFinder_Mirror
 - About configuration for EMC_TimeFinder_Clone
 - About configuration for EMC_TimeFinder_Snap
 - Configuring a policy for EMC_TimeFinder methods
 
 - About HP EVA arrays
- Prerequisites for working with HP EVA arrays
 - HP EVA software requirements for UNIX
 - Diagram of installed software for HP EVA
 - Veritas support for VSS Snapshot and HP EVA
 - Verifying connectivity from clients to array using SSSU 5.0
 - Configuring NetBackup to access the EVA array
 - Configuring a NetBackup policy for an HP EVA array method
 - HP EVA restrictions
 
 - About IBM DS6000 and DS8000 arrays
- IBM DS6000 and DS8000 software requirements
 - Preconfiguration for IBM arrays
 - Configuring NetBackup to access the IBM DS6000 or DS8000 array
 - Configuring the IBM array for NetBackup
 - Using DSCLI commands to obtain unique IBM identifiers
 - Configuring a NetBackup policy for IBM_DiskStorage_FlashCopy
 - For further reference on IBM arrays
 
 - About IBM DS4000 array
 - About Hitachi SMS/WMS/AMS, USP/NSC, USP-V/VM
- Hitachi array software requirements
 - Preconfiguration for Hitachi
 - About communication between NetBackup and the Hitachi array
 - Determining if the Hitachi command devices are visible
 - About configuring the Hitachi array for NetBackup
 - Obtaining the Hitachi array serial number and the unique device identifiers
 - Configuring a NetBackup policy for Hitachi_ShadowImage or Hitachi_CopyOnWrite
 
 - About HP-XP arrays
- HP-XP array software requirements
 - Preconfiguration for HP-XP
 - About communication between NetBackup and the HP-XP array
 - Determining if the HP-XP command devices are visible
 - About configuring the HP-XP array for NetBackup
 - Obtaining the array serial number and unique HP-XP identifiers
 - Configuring a NetBackup policy for HP_XP_BusinessCopy and HP_XP_Snapshot
 
 - About array troubleshooting
 
 - Notes on Media Server and Third-Party Copy methods
- Disk requirements for Media Server and Third-Party Copy methods
 - Directives for Media Server and Third-Party Copy methods
 - Storage units for Media Server and Third-Party Copy methods
 - Preventing multiplexing on a third-party copy backup
 - Raw partition backups
 - Increasing the client read timeout for all clients
 - Further information on off-host data mover backups
 
 - Backup and restore procedures
- About performing a backup
 - About performing a restore
 - About restores from a FlashBackup backup
 - Restoring a large number of files in a clustered file system (VxFS on UNIX Only)
 - Instant Recovery restore features
 - Notes for restoring individual files from an Instant Recovery snapshot
 - About configurations for restore
 - About restoring from a disk snapshot
 
 - Troubleshooting
- About gathering information and checking logs
 - Logging directories for UNIX platforms
 - Logging folders for Windows platforms
 - Customer support contact information
 - Latest patches and updates
 - Snapshot provider information
 - Important notes on Snapshot Client
 - Snapshot Client installation problems
 - FlashBackup and status code 13
 - Single file restore from a FlashBackup Instant Recovery snapshot of a file protected by Windows VSS writer fails
 - Identifying and removing a left-over snapshot
 - Removing a VxVM volume clone
 - Alternate client restore and backup from a snapshot fails
 - Restore from a snapshot fails with status 2800
 - Raw Partition restore fails with the message 'FlashBackup-Windows policy restore error'
 - Snapshot creation fails with error 156
 - Snapshot fails with error 20
 - Snapshot job fails and the snapshot command does not recognize the volume name
 - Snapshot creation fails with error 4220
 - Snapshot creation fails when the same volume is mounted on multiple mount points of the same host
 - Snapshot-based backup and restore failure
 - Multiple snapshot jobs fail with code 156 or 1541.
 - FlashBackup policy fails, with multiple backup selections [Cache =]
 - Partial backup failure with 'Snapshot encountered error 156'
 - Backup of file system validation fails with error 223
 - Policy validation fails if the specified CIFS share path contains a forward slash
 - An NDMP snapshot policy for wildcard backup fails with error 4201
 - Troubleshooting with bpfis log
 - Limitations of using HP-UX 11.31
 - While configuring a policy for snapshot operations, the NetBackup Administration Console hangs
 
 - Appendix A. Managing nbu_snap (Solaris)
 - Appendix B. Overview of snapshot operations
 - Appendix C. NetBackup integration with CloudPoint for snapshot managment
 
Identifying and removing a left-over snapshot
NetBackup ordinarily removes snapshots after the Snapshot Client backup completes, unless the parameter was set to . However, as a result of some system failures, such as a system crash or abnormal backup termination, the snapshot may not be removed.
To identify and remove a left-over snapshot
- Use the bpfis command with the query option to list the current snapshots. Enter the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpfis query
This command returns the IDs (FIS IDs) of all current snapshots. For example:
INF - BACKUP START 3629 INF - FIS IDs: 1036458302 INF - EXIT STATUS 0: the requested operation was successfully completed
In this example, the snapshot ID is 1036458302.
 - If the bpfis output shows the ID of the snapshot, delete it as follows:
bpfis delete -id snapshot_id
If bpfis removed the snapshot, you can skip the rest of this procedure.
 - Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux: if bpfis could not remove the snapshot, enter the following (on the client or alternate client) when no backups are running:
df -k
This command displays all mounted file systems, including any snapshots of a mounted file system.
If a snapshot backup is currently running, the snapshot should not be deleted. NetBackup deletes it when the backup completes.
Here are two snapshots from a df -k listing:
/dev/dsk/c1t3d2s4 1048800 73076 914742 8% /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__wil_vxfs_1299000 /dev/vx/dsk/clone_qes_clone/ufs 38383 21678 12867 63% /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img __mix_ufs_1299000
The snapshot appears in the following form:
/tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__filesystemname_pid
 - Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux: unmount the unneeded snapshot file systems (on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup).
The next step depends on the type of snapshot.
 - For VxVM (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux) and VVR (Solaris and HP):
 For VxFS_Checkpoint (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux):
Enter the following VxFS command to display the name of the checkpoint:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm list /file_system
Note:
file_system is the mount point of the primary file system that was backed up, NOT the snapshot file system that was unmounted in a previous step.
For example, if the snapshot file system that was unmounted is the following:
/tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__vm2_1765
the original file system, which should be specified on the fsckptadm list command, is the following:
/vm2
Example entry:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm list /vm2
Output:
/vm2 NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s: ctime = Fri Apr 02 10:53:23 2004 mtime = Fri Apr 02 10:53:23 2004 flags = removableIn this example, the name of the checkpoint is NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s.
Remove the checkpoint by entering the following:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove name_of_checkpoint /file_system
For example:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s /vm2
If the checkpoint cannot be removed, unmount it (umount) and retry the following:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove name_of_checkpoint /file_system
For more detail on removing VxFS clones, refer to the recommended actions for NetBackup status code 156 in the NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.
- For TimeFinder, ShadowImage, BusinessCopy (Solaris or HP only):
Do the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:
To discover and remove any VxVM clones:
Enter the following to resynchronize the mirror disks:
symmir -g device_group establish LdevName
where LdevName is the logical device name of the standard device. For Hitachi and HP arrays (ShadowImage, BusinessCopy):
pairresync -g groupname -d dev_name
For more information about EMC, Hitachi, and HP arrays and resynchronizing disks, see the NetBackup Snapshot Client Configuration document:
 - For VxFS_Snapshot (Solaris or HP only):
Using the mounted file system from a previous step, unmount the snapshot as follows:
umount -F vxfs /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__filesystemname_pid
 - For FlashSnap (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux):
Do the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:
Find the VxVM disk group:
vxdg list
The format of the disk group name is as follows:
SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
If vxdg list does not show the disk group, the group might have been deported. You can discover all the disk groups, including deported ones, by entering:
vxdisk -o alldgs list
The disk groups in parentheses are not imported on the local system.
Deport the VxVM disk group:
vxdg deport SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
On the primary (original) client, import and join the VxVM disk group:
vxdg import SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup vxrecover -g SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup -m vxdg join SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup diskgroupOn the primary (original) client, start the volume and snap back the snapshot volume:
vxvol -g SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup start SNAP-diskgroup_volume vxassist snapback SNAP-diskgroup_volume
Example:
In this example, chime is the primary client and rico is the alternate client. 1hddg is the name of the original disk group on chime.
chime_lhddg is the split group that was imported on rico and must be rejoined to the original group on the primary chime.
On alternate client rico, enter:
vxdg deport chime_lhddg
On primary client chime, enter:
vxdg import chime_lhddg vxrecover -g chime_lhddg -m vxdg join chime_lhddg lhddg vxvol start SNAP-lhddg-vol01 vxassist snapback SNAP-lhddg-vol01
 For FlashSnap (Windows):
Find the VxVM disk group:
vxdg list
The format of the disk group name is as follows:
SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
Deport the VxVM disk group:
vxdg -g split_diskgroup deport
On the primary (original) client, import and join the VxVM disk group:
vxassist rescan vxdg -g split_diskgroup import vxdg -g split_diskgroup -n diskgroup joinOn the primary (original) client, snap back the snapshot volume:
vxassist snapback \Device\HarddiskDmVolumes\diskgroup\snap_volume