Manual and scheduled backups are very slow to be executed, or not executed at all

Problem

When scheduled backups are due, or bpbackup command is run, the new job(s) do not appear in the activity monitor.

If more backups are started, more scheduled jobs have delays, until nbpem stops responding.

UNIX/Linux: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbackup
Windows: install_path\NetBackup\bin\bpbackup

Error Message

In the nbpem log, at DebugLevel=1 and above:

02/28/13 16:22:53.093 [Debug] NB 51216 nbpem 116 PID:20290 TID:47803329952064 File ID:116 [No context] 1 [PemNameMgrBase::updateHostEntry] (ID:0x2b7a04022af0) Lookup of host < clientname > took too long to complete : 20 seconds.(PemNameMgrBase.cpp:951)

Cause

In normal operation, nbpem performs host name resolution for every client.  In case of Virtual Machines (VMs), in particular display names, these names may not be resolvable, leading to delays in nbpem's processing.

Solution

To disable host lookups for client machine names, set the environmental variable for NetBackup 7.x to 9.x PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME=0 before starting nbpem.

FOR UNIX:

To disable PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME on a non-clustered UNIX or Linux master server, rename the nbpem binary to /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbpem.bin, and replace nbpem with an executable shell script, which contains the following lines:

PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME=0
export PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbpem.bin $@

Note: In some Unix installations of NetBackup, the following syntax may have to be used to start nbpem from within the script...

nohup /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbpem.bin -console $@

If the master server is clustered, the name of the nbpem binary must not be changed, because the cluster software may not detect the nbpem binary, and so a different method is required.

Edit all of the NetBackup startup scripts, including:

• /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bp.start_all
• /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/goodies/netbackup
• the netbackup startup script that is run when the master server is started - this may be somewhere beneath the /etc directory, depending on the platform

  Add these lines immediately before the place in the script where nbpem is started:

                PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME=0
                export PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME

Note: When the NetBackup software is updated, the startup scripts and the nbpem binary may be overwritten by a new version, and these changes could be lost.

FOR Windows:

1. Start > right-click on This PC > Properties > Advanced System Settings.
2. Click on Environment Variables at the bottom of the Advanced tab.
3. In the bottom section, System Variables, add a new variable:
   • Variable name: PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME
   • Variable value: 0
4. Then click OK.

NetBackup should be restarted afterwards to refresh nbpem

From NetBackup 10.x onward:

The above workaround does NOT apply to NetBackup 10.x onward, the setting should be configured as such:

For Linux :

Add this line to /usr/openv/netbackup/bp.conf ensuring it is NOT the first entry.

PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME=0

For Windows :

Add this registry key ( REG_DWORD ) to HKLM->Software->Veritas->Netbackup->CurrentVersion->Config

PEM_USE_SAME_HOST_BY_NAME

assigning it a value of 0

NetBackup should be restarted afterwards to refresh nbpem

NetBackup  8.x and 9.x.

Backing up virtual machines by display name.