Veritas NetBackup™ Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide

Note the following:

• If backup or restore jobs are running slowly, verify that the network interface cards (NIC) are set to full duplex. Half duplex often causes poor performance. For assistance to view and reset duplex mode for a particular host or device, consult the manufacturer's documentation. You may be able to use the ifconfig (or ipconfig) command to view and reset duplex mode, as explained in the NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.

• Inconsistency in the count of estimated files in the snapshot job and the restore job details. In the snapshot job details the estimated files field displays a ' ' (blank) whereas in the restore job details the estimated files field displays the value as '1'.

• The disk containing the client's data must be a SCSI or Fibre Channel device if you use NetBackup Media Server or Third-Party Copy Device.

• The disk containing the client's data must be visible to both the client and the media server, for NetBackup Media Server or Third-Party Copy Device. The disk can be connected through SCSI or Fibre Channel.

• For NetBackup Media Server or Third-Party Copy Device, a disk must support serialization or support SCSI Inquiry Page Code 83.

• For Third-Party Copy Device or NetBackup Media Server, a particular storage unit or group of storage units must be specified for the policy. Do not choose Any_available. Configuration instructions are available:

  See Configuring a Snapshot Client policy.

• The storage_unit_name portion of a mover.conf.storage_unit_name file name must exactly match the storage unit name (such as nut-4mm-robot-tl4-0) that you have defined for the policy.

  Help is available for creating a mover.conf.storage_unit_name file. See the NetBackup Snapshot Client Configuration document:

  http://www.veritas.com/docs/000081320

  Similarly, the policy_name portion of a mover.conf.policy_name file name must match the name of the policy that the third-party copy device is associated with.

• For the legacy disk array methods (TimeFinder, ShadowImage, or BusinessCopy), the client data must reside in a device group. The data must be on the primary disk and be synchronized with a mirror disk. Assistance from the disk array vendor may also be required.

  For information on disk configuration requirements for the legacy array methods, see the NetBackup Snapshot Client Configuration document:

  http://www.veritas.com/docs/000081320

• If the Keep snapshot after backup option is changed from yes to no, the last snapshot that is created for that policy must be deleted manually before the backup is rerun. Use the bpfis command to delete the snapshot. Refer to the man page for bpfis.

• During a third-party copy device backup, if tape performance is slow, increase the buffer size. To do so, create one of the following files on the media server:

  /usr/openv/netbackup/db/config/SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC.policy_name
  /usr/openv/netbackup/db/config/SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC.storage_unit_name
  /usr/openv/netbackup/db/config/SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC

  For third-party copy backup, the size of the data buffer is 65536 bytes (64K), by default. To increase it, put a larger integer in the SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC file. For a buffer size of 96K, put 98304 in the file. If not an exact multiple of 1024, the value that is read from the file is rounded up to a multiple of 1024.

  The file name with no extension (SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC) applies as a default to all third-party copy backups, if neither of the other file-name types exists. A SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC file with the .policy_name extension applies to backups that the named policy runs. The .storage_unit_name extension applies to backups that use the named storage unit. If more than one of these files applies to a given backup, the buffers value is selected in this order:

  SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC.policy_name

  SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC.storage_unit_name

  SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_TPC

  As soon as one of these files is located, its value is used. A .policy_name file that matches the name of the executed policy overrides the value in both the .storage_unit_name file and the file with no extension. The .storage_unit_name file overrides the value in the file with no extension.

  You can set the maximum buffer size that a particular third-party copy device can support.

  A third-party copy device is not used if it cannot handle the buffer size that is set for the backup.

• Replication Director is a feature that makes use of an OpenStorage application to manage snapshot replication. The snapshots are stored on the storage systems of partnering companies.

  Note:

  Replication Director uses the NetApp DataFabric Manager server for data movement and not the media server as in most cases.