Veritas NetBackup™ Replication Director Solutions Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.2, 8.1.1)
  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

About configuring storage lifecycle policies for snapshots and snapshot replication

A storage lifecycle policy (SLP) contains instructions in the form of storage operations, to be applied to the data. Operations are added to the SLP that determine how the data is stored and copied or replicated. For example, the NetBackup administrator creates an operation that determines where the data exists as a snapshot, as a replication, or as a duplication. The administrator also determines the retention of the data at each storage unit or storage unit group.

Storage operations that are defined in the SLP use storage units that represent disk pools. An SLP that is configured for snapshots or snapshot replication must contain a specific, hierarchical combination of operations.

The following figure represents an SLP for a replication scenario. In the example, the following operations are used:

  • A Snapshot operation creates a snapshot.

  • A Replication operation replicates the snapshot to another volume.

  • A Backup From Snapshot operation creates a tar-formatted backup from the snapshot.

  • A Duplication operation copies the backup to tape.

Table: Example of a storage lifecycle policy configured for snapshots and snapshot replication describes the four types of operations that are required in this example replication scenario.

Table: Example of a storage lifecycle policy configured for snapshots and snapshot replication

Operation order in SLP

Operation

Description

1

Snapshot

Operation 1 creates a snapshot in the primary storage. The snapshot serves as the source for the other operations in the SLP.

  • The operation must be a Snapshot operation.

  • The storage must be a snapshot storage unit that has the following properties set: Primary and Replication source.

Note:

Only one operation to a Primary storage unit is permitted in an SLP.

2

(Child to

operation 1)

Replication

Operation 2 replicates the snapshot that the first operation created.

  • The operation must be a Replication operation and it must be the replication partner to the source storage unit.

  • The retention type determines what replication method is used. For example, if retention type Fixed or Expire after copy is selected for a NetApp storage system, the SnapVault replication method is used.

  • The storage must be a snapshot storage unit that has the Replication target property set. Since no other replica is created from this operation in this example, it does not need to have the Replication source property set.

3

(Child to

operation 2)

Backup From Snapshot

Operation 3 creates a tar-formatted backup copy of the snapshot.

  • The operation must be a Backup From Snapshot operation. This operation creates a backup image from the snapshot.

  • The storage must be a backup storage unit.

4

(Child to

operation 3)

Duplication

Operation 4 makes a duplicate copy from the tar-formatted backup copy. In this example, the copy is duplicated to tape media.

  • The operation must be a Duplication operation. This operation creates a backup copy of the tar-formatted image.

  • The storage must be a backup storage unit.

After the SLP is configured for different operations, the NetBackup administrator configures a backup policy that points to the snapshot SLP.

The SLP Parameters host properties in the NetBackup Administration Console allow administrators to customize how SLPs are maintained and how SLP jobs run.

Best-practice information about SLPs appears in the following document:

http://www.veritas.com/docs/TECH208536