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NetBackup™ Deduplication Guide

Last Published: 2023-10-22

Product(s): NetBackup (10.3.0.1, 10.3)

Introducing the NetBackup media server deduplication option
1. About the NetBackup deduplication options
Quick start
1. About client-side deduplication
2. About the media server deduplication (MSDP) node cloud tier
  1. Configuring the MSDP node cloud tier
3. About Auto Image Replication (A.I.R.)
Planning your deployment
1. Planning your MSDP deployment
2. NetBackup naming conventions
3. About MSDP deduplication nodes
4. About the NetBackup deduplication destinations
5. About MSDP storage capacity
6. About MSDP storage and connectivity requirements
  1. Fibre Channel and iSCSI comparison for MSDP
7. About NetBackup media server deduplication
8. About NetBackup Client Direct deduplication
  1. About MSDP client deduplication requirements and limitations
9. About MSDP remote office client deduplication
  1. About MSDP remote client data security
  2. About remote client backup scheduling
10. About the NetBackup Deduplication Engine credentials
11. About the network interface for MSDP
12. About MSDP port usage
13. About MSDP optimized synthetic backups
14. About MSDP and SAN Client
15. About MSDP optimized duplication and replication
16. About MSDP performance
  1. How file size may affect the MSDP deduplication rate
17. About MSDP stream handlers
  1. Oracle stream handler
  2. Microsoft SQL Server stream handler
18. MSDP deployment best practices
Provisioning the storage
1. About provisioning the storage for MSDP
2. Do not modify MSDP storage directories and files
3. About volume management for NetBackup MSDP
Licensing deduplication
1. About the MSDP license
2. Licensing NetBackup MSDP
Configuring deduplication
1. Configuring MSDP server-side deduplication
2. Configuring MSDP client-side deduplication
3. About the MSDP Deduplication Multi-Threaded Agent
4. Configuring the Deduplication Multi-Threaded Agent behavior
  1. MSDP mtstrm.conf file parameters
5. Configuring deduplication plug-in interaction with the Multi-Threaded Agent
6. About MSDP fingerprinting
7. About the MSDP fingerprint cache
8. Configuring the MSDP fingerprint cache behavior
  1. MSDP fingerprint cache behavior options
9. About seeding the MSDP fingerprint cache for remote client deduplication
10. Configuring MSDP fingerprint cache seeding on the client
11. Configuring MSDP fingerprint cache seeding on the storage server
  1. NetBackup seedutil options
12. About sampling and predictive cache
13. Enabling 400 TB support for MSDP
14. About MSDP Encryption using NetBackup Key Management Server service
  1. Upgrading KMS for MSDP
  2. Enabled KMS encryption for Local LSU
15. About MSDP Encryption using external KMS server
16. Configuring a storage server for a Media Server Deduplication Pool
  1. MSDP storage path properties
  2. MSDP network interface properties
17. About disk pools for NetBackup deduplication
18. Configuring a disk pool for deduplication
  1. Media Server Deduplication Pool properties
19. Creating the data directories for 400 TB MSDP support
20. Adding volumes to a 400 TB Media Server Deduplication Pool
21. Configuring a Media Server Deduplication Pool storage unit
  1. Media Server Deduplication Pool storage unit properties
  2. MSDP storage unit recommendations
22. Configuring client attributes for MSDP client-side deduplication
23. Disabling MSDP client-side deduplication for a client
24. About MSDP compression
25. About MSDP encryption
26. Configuring encryption for MSDP local storage volume
27. Configuring encryption for MSDP cloud storage volumes
28. Configuring MSDP encryption on different platforms
29. About the rolling data conversion mechanism for MSDP
30. Modes of rolling data conversion
31. MSDP encryption behavior and compatibilities
32. Configuring optimized synthetic backups for MSDP
33. About a separate network path for MSDP duplication and replication
34. Configuring a separate network path for MSDP duplication and replication
35. About MSDP optimized duplication within the same domain
  1. About the media servers for MSDP optimized duplication within the same domain
    1. About MSDP push duplication within the same domain
    2. About MSDP pull duplication within the same domain
36. Configuring MSDP optimized duplication within the same NetBackup domain
  1. Configuring NetBackup optimized duplication or replication behavior
    1. Setting NetBackup configuration options by using the command line
37. About MSDP replication to a different domain
38. Configuring MSDP replication to a different NetBackup domain
  1. About NetBackup Auto Image Replication
  2. About trusted primary servers for Auto Image Replication
  3. About the certificate to use to add a trusted primary server
  4. Add a trusted primary server
  5. Remove a trusted primary server
  6. Enable inter-node authentication for a NetBackup clustered primary server
  7. Configuring NetBackup CA and NetBackup host ID-based certificate for secure communication between the source and the target MSDP storage servers
  8. Configuring external CA for secure communication between the source MSDP storage server and the target MSDP storage server
  9. Configuring a target for MSDP replication to a remote domain
    1. Target options for MSDP replication
    2. Configuring a NetBackup Deduplication Engine user with limited permissions for Auto Image Replication
39. About configuring MSDP optimized duplication and replication bandwidth
40. About performance tuning of optimized duplication and replication for MSDP cloud
41. About storage lifecycle policies
42. About the storage lifecycle policies required for Auto Image Replication
43. Creating a storage lifecycle policy
  1. Storage Lifecycle Policy dialog box settings
44. About MSDP backup policy configuration
45. Creating a backup policy
46. Resilient network properties
  1. Resilient connection resource usage
48. Adding an MSDP load balancing server
49. About variable-length deduplication on NetBackup clients
50. Managing the variable-length deduplication using the cacontrol command-line utility
51. About the MSDP pd.conf configuration file
52. Editing the MSDP pd.conf file
  1. MSDP pd.conf file parameters
53. About the MSDP contentrouter.cfg file
54. About saving the MSDP storage server configuration
55. Saving the MSDP storage server configuration
56. Editing an MSDP storage server configuration file
57. Setting the MSDP storage server configuration
58. About the MSDP host configuration file
59. Deleting an MSDP host configuration file
60. Resetting the MSDP registry
61. About protecting the MSDP catalog
  1. About the MSDP shadow catalog
  2. About the MSDP catalog backup policy
62. Changing the MSDP shadow catalog path
63. Changing the MSDP shadow catalog schedule
64. Changing the number of MSDP catalog shadow copies
65. Configuring an MSDP catalog backup
  1. MSDP drcontrol options
66. Updating an MSDP catalog backup policy
67. About MSDP FIPS compliance
68. Configuring the NetBackup client-side deduplication to support multiple interfaces of MSDP
69. About MSDP multi-domain support
70. About MSDP application user support
71. About MSDP mutli-domain VLAN Support
72. About NetBackup WORM storage support for immutable and indelible data
  1. About the NetBackup command line options to configure immutable and indelible data
73. Running MSDP services with the non-root user
  1. Changing the service user after installation or upgrade
74. Running MSDP commands with the non-root user
MSDP cloud support
1. About MSDP cloud support
  1. Operating system requirement for configuration
  2. Limitations
2. Create a Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP, MSDP Cloud) storage server in the NetBackup web UI
3. Creating a cloud storage unit
4. Updating cloud credentials for a cloud LSU
5. Updating encryption configurations for a cloud LSU
6. Deleting a cloud LSU
7. Backup data to cloud by using cloud LSU
8. Duplicate data cloud by using cloud LSU
9. Configuring AIR to use cloud LSU
10. About backward compatibility support
11. About the configuration items in cloud.json, contentrouter.cfg, and spa.cfg
12. Cloud space reclamation
  1. Configuring the container aging
  2. Configuring the cloud compaction
13. About the tool updates for cloud support
14. About the disaster recovery for cloud LSU
  1. Common disaster recovery steps
  2. Disaster recovery for cloud LSU in Flex Scale
  3. Additional steps for Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure disaster recovery
15. About Image Sharing using MSDP cloud
  1. Things to consider before you use image sharing to convert VM image to VHD in Azure
  2. Converting the VM image to VHD in Azure
16. About restore from a backup in Microsoft Azure Archive
17. About Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure
18. Configuring Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure and Azure Government
19. Configuring Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure and Azure Government using the CLI
20. Migrating from standard authentication to token-based authentication for Recovery Vault
21. About MSDP cloud immutable (WORM) storage support
  1. Creating a cloud immutable storage unit using the web UI
  2. Updating a cloud immutable volume
  3. About immutable object support for AWS S3
  4. About immutable object support for AWS S3 compatible platforms
  5. About immutable storage support for Azure blob storage
  6. About immutable storage support for Google Cloud Storage
    1. Creating a Google cloud immutable storage using the Web UI
    2. Managing a Google cloud immutable storage using msdpcldutil tool
  7. About using the cloud immutable storage in a cluster environment
  8. Troubleshooting the errors when disk volume creation using web UI fails
  9. Deleting the immutable image with the enterprise mode
  10. Deleting the S3 object permanently
  11. About MSDP cloud admin tool
22. About instant access for object storage in cloud
23. About NetBackup support for AWS Snowball Edge
  1. Interfacing with the device
  2. Using Credentials
  3. Configuring NetBackup for AWS Snowball Edge
    1. Configuring SSL for AWS Snowball Edge
    2. Configuring NetBackup for AWS Snowball Edge with SSL Enabled
  4. Shipping the device
  5. Reconfigure NetBackup to work with S3
    1. Bucket is in a default AWS Region
    2. Bucket is in a non-default AWS Region (or storage already exists in the AWS region)
  6. Configuring NetBackup for AWS Snowball Edge using CLI
  7. Using AWS Snowball Edge for large backup restore
  8. Limitations when AWS Snowball Edge is used
24. Upgrading to NetBackup 10.3 and cluster environment
S3 Interface for MSDP
1. About S3 interface for MSDP
2. Prerequisites for MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server
3. Configuring S3 interface for MSDP on MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server
  1. Changing the certificate in S3 server
  2. Changing the ETAG type of the S3 objects
4. Identity and Access Management (IAM) for S3 interface for MSDP
5. S3 Object Lock In Flex WORM
6. S3 APIs for S3 interface for MSDP
7. Disaster recovery in S3 interface for MSDP
  1. Recovering the MSDP S3 IAM configurations from cloud LSU
8. Limitations in S3 interface for MSDP
9. Logging and troubleshooting
10. Best practices
Monitoring deduplication activity
1. Monitoring the MSDP deduplication and compression rates
2. Viewing MSDP job details
  1. MSDP job details
3. About MSDP storage capacity and usage reporting
4. About MSDP container files
5. Viewing storage usage within MSDP container files
6. About monitoring MSDP processes
7. Reporting on Auto Image Replication jobs
8. Checking the image encryption status
Managing deduplication
1. Managing MSDP servers
2. Managing NetBackup Deduplication Engine credentials
3. Managing Media Server Deduplication Pools
4. Deleting backup images
5. About MSDP queue processing
6. Processing the MSDP transaction queue manually
7. About MSDP data integrity checking
8. Configuring MSDP data integrity checking behavior
  1. MSDP data integrity checking configuration parameters
9. About managing MSDP storage read performance
10. About MSDP storage rebasing
  1. MSDP server-side rebasing parameters
11. About the MSDP data removal process
12. Resizing the MSDP storage partition
13. How MSDP restores work
14. Configuring MSDP restores directly to a client
15. About restoring files at a remote site
16. About restoring from a backup at a target primary domain
17. Specifying the restore server
Recovering MSDP
1. About recovering the MSDP catalog
2. Restoring the MSDP catalog from a shadow copy
3. Recovering from an MSDP storage server disk failure
4. Recovering from an MSDP storage server failure
5. Recovering the MSDP storage server after NetBackup catalog recovery
Replacing MSDP hosts
1. Replacing the MSDP storage server host computer
Uninstalling MSDP
1. About uninstalling MSDP
2. Deactivating MSDP
Deduplication architecture
1. MSDP server components
2. Media server deduplication backup process
3. MSDP client components
4. MSDP client - side deduplication backup process
Configuring and using universal shares
1. About universal shares
2. Advantages of universal shares
3. Configuring and using an MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server for universal shares
4. MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server prerequisites and hardware requirements to configure universal shares
5. Configuring universal share user authentication
  1. Active Directory-based authentication
  2. Local user-based authentication
  3. Kerberos-based authentication
6. Mounting a universal share created from the NetBackup web UI
7. About universal share self-service recovery
8. Performing a universal share self-service recovery
9. Using the ingest mode
  1. Using the ingest mode to take a snapshot over NFS or SMB
  2. Using the ingest mode to run a policy using NFS or SMB
10. About universal shares with object store
11. Enabling a universal share with object store
  1. Enabling instant access with object storage
12. Disaster recovery for a universal share
13. Changing the number of vpfsd instances
14. Enabling variable-length deduplication (VLD) algorithm for universal shares
15. Upgrading to NetBackup 10.3
16. About universal share accelerator
17. Preparing NetBackup for the universal share accelerator
18. Installing the universal share accelerator
19. Configure a universal share accelerator
  1. Creating a universal share accelerator
  2. Mounting a Universal share accelerator
  3. Deleting a universal share accelerator
  4. Unconfiguring a universal share accelerator
  5. Managing the universal share accelerator services
  6. Adding additional storage paths for universal share accelerator
20. Creating a protection policy for the universal share accelerator
21. About the universal share accelerator quota
  1. Enabling or changing the quota
  2. Reviewing the quota usage
  3. Repairing the quota of the universal share
22. Recovering a point in time for the universal share accelerator
23. Deleting a recovered universal share accelerator
24. Logging for universal share accelerator
25. Logging and reporting for universal share VPFS instance
26. Vpfsd logs for fuse operations in universal shares
Configuring isolated recovery environment (IRE)
1. Requirements
2. Configuring the network isolation
3. Configuring an isolated recovery environment using the web UI
4. Configuring an isolated recovery environment using the command line
Using the NetBackup Deduplication Shell
1. About the NetBackup Deduplication Shell
2. Managing users from the deduplication shell
3. Managing VLAN interfaces from the deduplication shell
4. Managing the retention policy on a WORM storage server
5. Managing images with a retention lock on a WORM storage server
6. Auditing WORM retention changes
7. Protecting the NetBackup catalog from the deduplication shell
8. About the external MSDP catalog backup
9. Managing certificates from the deduplication shell
10. Managing FIPS mode from the deduplication shell
11. Encrypting backups from the deduplication shell
12. Tuning the MSDP configuration from the deduplication shell
13. Setting the MSDP log level from the deduplication shell
14. Managing NetBackup services from the deduplication shell
15. Monitoring and troubleshooting NetBackup services from the deduplication shell
16. Managing S3 service from the deduplication shell
Troubleshooting
1. About unified logging
  1. About using the vxlogview command to view unified logs
  2. Examples of using vxlogview to view unified logs
2. About legacy logging
  1. Creating NetBackup log file directories for MSDP
3. NetBackup MSDP log files
4. Troubleshooting MSDP configuration issues
5. Troubleshooting MSDP operational issues
6. Viewing MSDP disk errors and events
7. MSDP event codes and messages
8. Unable to obtain the administrator password to use an AWS EC2 instance that has a Windows OS
9. Trouble shooting multi-domain issues
10. Troubleshooting the cloud compaction error messages
Appendix A. Migrating to MSDP storage
1. Migrating from another storage type to MSDP
Appendix B. Migrating from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
1. About migration from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
2. About Cloud Catalyst migration strategies
3. About direct migration from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
4. About postmigration configuration and cleanup
5. About the Cloud Catalyst migration -dryrun option
6. About Cloud Catalyst migration cacontrol options
7. Reverting back to Cloud Catalyst from a successful migration
8. Reverting back to Cloud Catalyst from a failed migration
Appendix C. Encryption Crawler
1. About the Encryption Crawler
2. About the two modes of the Encryption Crawler
3. Managing the Encryption Crawler
4. Advanced options
5. Tuning options
6. Encrypting the data
7. Command usage example outputs
Index

Managing the Encryption Crawler

Use the crcontrol command to manage the Encryption Crawler. The following table describes the options you can use to manage how the Encryption Crawler functions.

Table: crcontrol command options

Option	Description
--encconverton	To enable and start the Encryption Crawler process, use *--encconverton [num]. The num* variable is optional and indicates the number for the partition index (starting from 1). The parameter enables the Encryption Crawler for the specified MSDP partition. If *num* is not specified, it is enabled for all MSDP partitions. The *num* variable is not supported on a BYO setup when the `/etc/nbapp-release` (Linux), or `c:\etc\nbapp-release` (Windows) file isn't present. On a BYO setup, create the file to enable multiple volumes support and then the *num* variable is supported.
--encconvertoff	To disable and stop the Encryption Crawler process, use *--encconvertoff [num]. The num* variable is optional and indicates the number for the partition index (starting from 1). The parameter enables the Encryption Crawler for the specified MSDP partition. If *num* is not specified, it disabled for all MSDP partitions. The *num* variable is not supported on a BYO setup when the `/etc/nbapp-release` (Linux), or `c:\etc\nbapp-release` (Windows) file isn't present. On a BYO setup, create the file to enable multiple volumes support and then the *num* variable is supported.
--encconvertlevel	To switch between Graceful mode and Aggressive mode, use --encconvertlevel level. The *level* is required. A value of 1 for the *level* variable is the default for Graceful mode. A value for the *level* variable that is between 2-4 indicates that Aggressive mode is enabled. A larger number indicates that the Encryption crawler is more aggressive.
--encconvertstate	To determine the mode of the Encryption Crawler process and the progress, use --encconvertstate [verbose]. Optionally, you can specify a verbose level (0-2) for this option. 0 is the default verbose level for the overall brief information. 1 is for the overall information and the details of each partition. 2 is for the overall information and the details of each partition. The details of a partition are shown even if the process is finished for the partition. The verbose parameter is not supported on a BYO setup when the `/etc/nbapp-release` (Linux), or `c:\etc\nbapp-release` (Windows) file isn't present. On a BYO setup, create the file to enable multiple volumes support and then the *num* variable is supported.

For more information about the crcontrol, refer to the following:

NetBackup Commands Reference Guide

Once the Encryption Crawler is turned on, you can monitor the status, mode, and progress with the crcontrol --encconvertstate command.

Table: Encryption Crawler monitor

Item	Description
Status	Shows if the Encryption Crawler is ON, OFF, or Finished.
Level	Shows in which level and mode the Encryption Crawler is. The value is in the format mode (level), for example Graceful (1).
Busy	Shows if the Encryption Crawler is busy or not.
Max Group ID	The maximum container group ID to process when the Encryption Crawler is turned on. It's the data boundary and doesn't change once Encryption Crawler is turned on.
Current Group ID	Currently processing this group ID.
Current Container ID	Currently processing this container ID.
Containers Estimated	The estimated number of data containers in the MSDP pool that the Encryption Crawler must process. It's a statistic information and there may be inaccuracy for performance reasons. Once the Encryption Crawler is turned on, the value is not updated.
Containers Scanned	The number of data containers the Encryption Crawler must process.
Containers Converted	The number of containers encrypted by the Encryption Crawler process.
Containers Skipped	The number of data containers that the Encryption Crawler skipped. The reasons vary and are described in About the skipped data containers. If there are skipped data containers, you can check the Encryption Crawler log or the history log for the details. The encryption_reporting tool may help report and encrypt the individual containers after the Encryption Crawler process finishes. Details about this encryption_reporting tool are available. See Encrypting the data. See Command usage example outputs.
Data Size Scanned	The aggregated data size of the scanned data containers for Containers Scanned.
Data Size Converted	The aggregated data size of the converted data containers for Containers Converted.
Progress	The proportion of the total estimated data containers that the Encryption Crawler has scanned. Progress = Containers Scanned / Containers Estimated
Conversion Ratio	The proportion of the scanned data size which the Encryption Crawler has converted. Conversion Ratio = Data Size Converted / Data Size Scanned
Mount Points Information	The status of each mount point. If a verbose value of 1 is specified for the --encconvertstate option, the details of the unfinished mount points are printed. If a verbose value of 2 is specified for --encconvertstate option, the details of all the mount points are printed regardless of completion state.

The Progress line in the log can be used to extrapolate how long the Encryption Crawler is expected to take. For example, if 3.3% of the pool is completed in 24 hours, the process may take about 30 days to finish.

Note:

The Encryption Crawler processes the data containers in reverse order from new to old.

It's possible to back up new data after encryption is enforced but before the Encryption Crawler is turned on. If that happens, the Conversion Ratio could be less than 99% for the new data containers at the beginning. While the process is running, the value of Conversion Ratio can become higher with the fact that the older data containers can potentially have more unencrypted data. In this case, the Conversion Ratio, Containers Converted, and Containers Estimated can help estimate the speed for these data containers.

Monitoring the change of Conversion Ratio can give some indication for the proportion of the unencrypted data while the Encryption Crawler is active.

Note:

During the encryption process, the progress survives in the case of MSDP restart.

About the skipped data containers

The reasons the Encryption Crawler skips some data containers as reported by Containers Skipped include:

If a data container is to be expired but not yet deleted, it is skipped.
If a data container has a possible data integrity issue, it is skipped. The Encryption Crawler conveys the container to the CRC check process to identify and possibly fix the container.
If Instant Access or Universal Share is configured, and if some shares are not checkpointed before the Encryption Crawler process, the shares may hold some data containers with exclusive permission. Those data containers are skipped. Veritas recommends that you create checkpoints for all the shares of Instant Access or Universal Share before turning on the Encryption Crawler process. By doing so, VpFS releases the exclusive permission of those data containers for spoold and the Encryption Crawler to process them.
Appliances starting with the release of 3.1.2 can have empty data containers the VpFS root share vpfs0 reserves, even if Instant Access or Universal Share is configured. This situation can also occur on a BYO setup where Instant Access or Universal Share is configured. Normally, VpFS does not release the exclusive permission of those data containers. Those data containers are skipped. You can ignore these skipped containers.
Here how to check if the skipped data containers are empty and if the VpFS root share vpfs0 owns them. You can check the other VpFS owned data containers in the similar way.
- You can find the skipped data containers that are identified as owned by VpFS in the Encryption Crawler log by looking for the following:
  n152-h21:/home/maintenance # grep VpFS /msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/log/spoold/enccrawler.log
  February 04 05:13:14 WARNING [139931343951616]: -1: __getDcidListFromOneGroup: 1 containers owned by VpFS in group 7 were skipped. min DC ID 7168, max DC ID 7168
- Check if the VpFS root share vpfs0 owns the data containers.
```
n152-h21:/home/maintenance # cat /msdp/data/dp1/4pdvol/7/.shareid
vpfs0
106627568
```

The data containers that the VpFS root share vpfs0 owns, are empty.

n152-h21:/home/maintenance # ls -Al /msdp/data/dp1/4pdvol/7
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64 Feb 1 02:40 7168.bhd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Feb 1 02:40 7168.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 12 Feb 1 02:40 .dcidboundary
-rw-r----- 1 root root 15 Feb 1 02:40 .shareid
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 96 Feb 4 15:37 var
n152-h21:/home/maintenance # /usr/openv/pdde/pdcr/bin/dcscan 7168
Path = /msdp/data/dp1/4pdvol/7/7168.[bhd, bin]
*** Header for container 7168 ***
version : 1
flags : 0x4000(DC_ENTRY_SHA256)
data file last position : 0
header file last position : 64
source id : 0
retention : 0
file size : 0
delete space : 0
active records : 0
total records : 0
deleted records : 0
crc32 : 0x1d74009d

More Information

About provisioning the storage for MSDP