Veritas NetBackup™ Replication Director Solutions Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.3.0.1, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About NetBackup Replication Director
    2.  
      About the roles of the Replication Director plug-ins
    3.  
      Software required to use Replication Director
    4.  
      NetBackup configuration for Replication Director
    5.  
      Tools for troubleshooting Replication Director
  2. Additional configuration topics
    1.  
      Configuring the NetBackup Client Service
    2.  
      NetBackup naming conventions
    3.  
      How to configure a multi-NIC environment
  3. Creating a NetBackup storage server for snapshot replication
    1.  
      Creating a NetBackup storage server for snapshot replication
    2.  
      Updating an OpenStorage storage server to reflect plug-in updates
    3.  
      Adding the storage server credentials to a NetBackup server
  4. Configuring disk pools for snapshot and replication
    1. About disk pools for snapshots and snapshot replication
      1.  
        About disk volumes for snapshots and snapshot replication
    2.  
      Creating disk pools for snapshot replication
    3.  
      Updating disk pools after volumes are added, are deleted, or are changed
    4.  
      Updating an OpenStorage disk pool to reflect plug-in updates
    5.  
      How to resolve snapshot disk volume changes
    6. Using bpstsinfo to view the replication topology of a device
      1.  
        NetApp storage server sample bpstsinfo output
  5. Configuring storage units and storage unit groups for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      Creating storage units for a Replication Director configuration
    2.  
      Creating storage unit groups for snapshots
  6. Configuring storage lifecycle policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      About configuring storage lifecycle policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    2.  
      Creating a storage lifecycle policy for snapshots and snapshot replication
    3. Operation types in a storage lifecycle policy
      1. Snapshot operation in an SLP
        1.  
          Primary snapshot storage unit
        2.  
          Primary + Replication source snapshot storage unit
        3.  
          Replication source + Replication target snapshot storage unit
        4.  
          Replication target snapshot storage unit
        5.  
          Replication source + Replication target + Mirror snapshot storage unit
        6.  
          Replication target + Mirror snapshot storage unit
      2.  
        Replication operation in an SLP
      3. Index From Snapshot operation in an SLP
        1.  
          Determining where and when the Index From Snapshot operation occurs
        2.  
          Pre-requisites for indexing for an NDMP policy
        3.  
          Configuring indexing for an NDMP policy
      4.  
        Backup From Snapshot operation in an SLP
      5.  
        Duplication operation in an SLP
    4. Retention types for storage lifecycle policy operations
      1.  
        Expire after copy retention type for SLP operations
      2.  
        Fixed retention type for SLP operations
      3.  
        Maximum snapshot limit retention type for SLP operations
      4.  
        Mirror retention type for SLP operations
      5.  
        Target retention type for SLP operations
  7. Configuring backup policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      About configuring a backup policy for Replication Director
    2.  
      Configuring an NDMP policy to protect a NAS host
    3.  
      Configuring a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect clients using NDMP with Data Mover
    4.  
      Configuring a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect NAS volumes or SAN-connected devices
    5. About NDMP support for Replication Director
      1.  
        Limitations of Replication Director with NDMP
      2.  
        Authorizing NetBackup access to a NAS (NDMP) host
      3.  
        ALL_FILESYSTEMS and VOLUME_EXCLUDE_LIST directives
      4.  
        Configuring an NDMP policy in a multi-network environment
  8. Restoring from a snapshot
    1.  
      About restores from array-based snapshots
    2.  
      Restoring files and folders from an array-based snapshot
    3. About restores from array-based snapshots of virtual machines
      1.  
        Restoring files from array-based snapshots of virtual machines
    4.  
      Using OpsCenter to restore from array-based snapshots
    5.  
      How NetApp performs a volume-level rollback restore
    6.  
      Restoring (rolling back) from an array-based snapshot
  9. OpsCenter reporting
    1.  
      Veritas OpsCenter reporting
    2.  
      Configuring an alert for OpenStorage events
    3.  
      Storage lifecycle policy reporting
    4.  
      Disk pool monitoring
    5.  
      Monitoring snapshot replication jobs
    6.  
      Reporting on storage units, storage unit groups, and storage lifecycle policies
  10. Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    1.  
      Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    2. Supported NetApp topologies
      1.  
        NetApp topologies that Replication Director does not support
    3. Using NetApp Data ONTAP 7-mode with Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuration overview: NetApp 7-Mode with Replication Director
      2.  
        Licenses required for NetApp Data ONTAP 7-Mode with Replication Director
      3.  
        Software required to use NetApp Data ONTAP 7-Mode with Replication Director
      4. About using NetApp SAN-connected storage with Replication Director
        1.  
          Using SnapDrive for iSCSI setup on Windows
        2.  
          SAN-connected storage limitations
      5.  
        If the OnCommand Unified Manager root or administrator password has changed
      6.  
        Considerations when configuring an OnCommand Unified Manager as a NetBackup storage server
      7.  
        Importing existing NetApp relationships for NetBackup control
      8.  
        Enabling Unicode and language settings on NetApp disk arrays
    4. Using NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuration overview: NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      2.  
        Licenses required for NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      3.  
        Software required to use NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      4.  
        Configuring Replication Director to work with Clustered Data ONTAP
      5.  
        About creating backup policies for Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      6.  
        Protecting volumes with nested junctions for Clustered Data ONTAP
      7.  
        Limitations to using Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
  11. Using Oracle with Replication Director
    1.  
      Requirements for Oracle support
    2. About Oracle support for Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuring an Oracle Intelligent Policy
      2.  
        Configuring a script- or template-based Oracle policy
  12. Using Virtual Machines with Replication Director
    1.  
      Requirements for virtual machine support
    2. About virtual machines and Replication Director
      1.  
        Notes on Replication Director for virtual machines
      2.  
        Configuring a policy for virtual machines to use Replication Director
      3.  
        About jobs in the Activity Monitor that use Replication Director for virtual machines
  13. Terminology
    1.  
      Replication terminology

Configuring a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect NAS volumes or SAN-connected devices

The following procedure describes how to create a policy that uses Replication Director to protect NAS volumes or SAN (block) devices.

Note:

SAN-connected devices are not supported for Clustered Data ONTAP.

On Windows hosts, Replication Director uses the Windows Volume Shadow Services (VSS) framework.

To create a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect NAS volumes or SAN-connected devices

  1. In the NetBackup Administration Console, create a backup policy.

    Do not use the Policy Configuration Wizard to configure a policy for Replication Director.

  2. Configure the options on the policy Attributes tab. The following items are specific to creating a policy for Replication Director:
    • Policy type: Select Standard for a policy containing UNIX clients. Select MS-Windows for a policy containing Windows clients.

    • Policy storage: Select the SLP that you want to use that has been configured for snapshot replication.

      See Creating a storage lifecycle policy for snapshots and snapshot replication.

    • Use Replication Director: Enable Use Replication Director to automatically select other options that Replication Director requires.

    • Click the Options button to see the Replication Director Options dialog box and the default Configuration Parameters as follows:

      Snapshot Type

      Auto (default): The OpenStorage partner uses the best snapshot technology available to that partner to create the snapshot.

      Maximum Snapshots

      Sets the maximum number of snapshots to be retained at one time.

      The default setting is one. Choose the number of snapshots that is appropriate for your environment. Note that the maximum number of snapshots on a NetApp volume is 255.

      When the maximum is reached, snapshot rotation occurs: The next snapshot causes the oldest to be deleted.

      See Maximum snapshot limit retention type for SLP operations.

      Managed by SLP retention is automatically selected if the Fixed or the Expire after Copy retention is currently selected in the SLP.

  3. Select the Schedules tab and configure the schedules as you would for any other policy.
  4. Select the Clients tab and specify either:
    • The client.

    • The local mount point on the production client.

    Note:

    To avoid creating multiple snapshots of the same share, do not include multiple clients in one policy that access the same share. Instead, add only one of the clients to the policy so that the share is backed up once. Or, create an NDMP policy to back up the share.

    Similarly, do not protect the same share in multiple policies.

  5. Select the Backup Selections tab:

    To protect SAN data, indicate the path on the client to be backed up. The Backup Selections list may contain any combination of the following:

    • Drive letters

    • Folder mounts

    • A directory on a drive

    • A single file on a drive or in a directory

    Do not specify more than 64 backup selections in a VSS policy. If more than 64 backup selections are specified, the snapshot jobs fail with status code 156. This is due to a documented limitation of the VSS infrastructure. To accommodate more than 64 backup selections, divide the backup selections between multiple policies.

    Note:

    Backup selections for both SAN devices and NAS volumes are not supported in a single backup policy.

    To protect NAS data, specify the backup selection from the client perspective. For example, suppose that the client data resides in a volume (/vol/vol1) on a filer (NAS1):

    • UNIX example: The data is NFS-mounted to /mnt2/home on the UNIX client.

      Specify /mnt2/home in the Backup Selections list.

    • Windows example: The data is shared by means of CIFS as vol1 on the Windows client.

      Specify \\nas1\vol1 in the Backup Selections list.

    For a Clustered Data ONTAP policy, the backup selection refers to a volume on a Storage Virtual Machine (or Vserver).

    • Windows path names must use the Universal Naming Convention (UNC), in the form \\server_name\share_name.

    • For NFS mounts, the data must be manually mounted by means of the mount command (or by using /etc/fstab), but not auto-mounted.

    • (NetApp 7-mode only) Use the nosharecache option to mount qtrees that are under the same volume. For example:

      mount -o vers=3,nosharecache filer:/vol/volume1/qtree1 /mnt1

    • (NetApp 7-mode only) To back up a qtree, mount the qtree only. Do not mount the volume. That is, do not include the volume in the backup selection path.

      If the volume is mounted and a qtree from the same is used as a backup selection, the NetApp Plug-in for Veritas NetBackup (NBUPlugin) considers it to be a volume only and performs only volume-specific operations.

      For example, to back up a qtree, enter: \\filer\q1

      The following entry is incorrect and creates a snapshot of the entire volume: \\filer\volume1\q1

  6. For the NetBackup Client Service to write to the CIFS volume, it must have permission to do so. When a backup policy is saved, a message displays stating that this permission is necessary. By default, NetBackup is installed as a local system account and may not have the necessary CIFS permissions. Change the logon property of the NetBackup Client Service to an account with access to the CIFS share.

    If the logon property is not changed for the NetBackup Client Service, the policy validation fails with status code 4206.

    See Configuring the NetBackup Client Service.

  7. When the policy configuration is complete, click OK.
  8. NetBackup checks the policy to ensure that it can run successfully. Select Complete to perform the most comprehensive policy validation.