NetBackup™ Deployment Guide for Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) Cluster

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.1)
  1. Introduction to NetBackup on AKS
    1.  
      About NetBackup deployment on Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) cluster
    2.  
      Required terminology
    3.  
      User roles and permissions
    4.  
      About MSDP Scaleout
    5.  
      About MSDP Scaleout components
    6.  
      Limitations in MSDP Scaleout
  2. Deployment with environment operators
    1. About deployment with the environment operator
      1.  
        Prerequisites
      2.  
        Contents of the TAR file
      3.  
        Known limitations
    2.  
      Deploying the operators manually
    3.  
      Deploying NetBackup and MSDP Scaleout manually
    4.  
      Deploying NetBackup and Snapshot Manager manually
    5.  
      Configuring the environment.yaml file
    6.  
      Uninstalling NetBackup environment and the operators
    7.  
      Applying security patches
  3. Assessing cluster configuration before deployment
    1.  
      How does the Config-Checker utility work
    2.  
      Config-Checker execution and status details
    3.  
      How Data-Migration works
    4.  
      Data-Migration execution and status details
  4. Deploying NetBackup
    1.  
      Preparing the environment for NetBackup installation on AKS
    2.  
      Recommendations of NetBackup deployment on AKS
    3.  
      Limitations of NetBackup deployment on AKS
    4. About primary server CR and media server CR
      1.  
        After installing primary server CR
      2.  
        After Installing the media server CR
    5.  
      Monitoring the status of the CRs
    6.  
      Updating the CRs
    7.  
      Deleting the CRs
    8.  
      Configuring NetBackup IT Analytics for NetBackup deployment
    9.  
      Managing NetBackup deployment using VxUpdate
    10.  
      Migrating the node pool for primary or media servers
  5. Upgrading NetBackup
    1.  
      Preparing for NetBackup upgrade
    2.  
      Upgrading NetBackup operator
    3.  
      Upgrading Snapshot Manager operator
    4.  
      Upgrading NetBackup application
    5.  
      Upgrading Snapshot Manager
    6.  
      Post-migration tasks
    7.  
      Upgrade NetBackup during data migration
    8.  
      Procedure to rollback when upgrade fails
  6. Deploying Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Overview
    2.  
      Prerequisites
    3.  
      Installing the docker images
  7. Migration and upgrade of Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Migration and upgrade of Snapshot Manager
  8. Deploying MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Deploying MSDP Scaleout
    2.  
      Prerequisites
    3.  
      Installing the docker images and binaries
    4.  
      Initializing the MSDP operator
    5.  
      Configuring MSDP Scaleout
    6.  
      Using MSDP Scaleout as a single storage pool in NetBackup
    7.  
      Configuring the MSDP cloud in MSDP Scaleout
  9. Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Upgrading MSDP Scaleout
  10. Monitoring NetBackup
    1.  
      Monitoring the application health
    2.  
      Telemetry reporting
    3.  
      About NetBackup operator logs
    4.  
      Expanding storage volumes
    5.  
      Allocating static PV for Media pods
  11. Monitoring MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      About MSDP Scaleout status and events
    2.  
      Monitoring with Azure Container insights
    3.  
      The Kubernetes resources for MSDP Scaleout and MSDP operator
  12. Monitoring Snapshot Manager deployment
    1.  
      Overview
    2.  
      Logs of Snapshot Manager
    3.  
      Configuration parameters
  13. Managing the Load Balancer service
    1.  
      About the Load Balancer service
    2.  
      Notes for Load Balancer service
    3.  
      Opening the ports from the Load Balancer service
  14. Performing catalog backup and recovery
    1.  
      Backing up a catalog
    2.  
      Restoring a catalog
  15. Managing MSDP Scaleout
    1.  
      Adding MSDP engines
    2.  
      Adding data volumes
    3. Expanding existing data or catalog volumes
      1.  
        Manual storage expansion
    4.  
      MSDP Scaleout scaling recommendations
    5. MSDP Cloud backup and disaster recovery
      1.  
        About the reserved storage space
      2.  
        Cloud LSU disaster recovery
    6.  
      MSDP multi-domain support
    7.  
      Configuring Auto Image Replication
    8. About MSDP Scaleout logging and troubleshooting
      1.  
        Collecting the logs and the inspection information
  16. About MSDP Scaleout maintenance
    1.  
      Pausing the MSDP Scaleout operator for maintenance
    2.  
      Logging in to the pods
    3.  
      Reinstalling MSDP Scaleout operator
    4.  
      Migrating the MSDP Scaleout to another node pool
  17. Uninstalling MSDP Scaleout from AKS
    1.  
      Cleaning up MSDP Scaleout
    2.  
      Cleaning up the MSDP Scaleout operator
  18. Uninstalling Snapshot Manager
    1.  
      Uninstalling Snapshot Manager from AKS
  19. Troubleshooting
    1.  
      View the list of operator resources
    2.  
      View the list of product resources
    3.  
      View operator logs
    4.  
      View primary logs
    5.  
      Pod restart failure due to liveness probe time-out
    6.  
      Socket connection failure
    7.  
      Resolving an invalid license key issue
    8.  
      Resolving an issue where external IP address is not assigned to a NetBackup server's load balancer services
    9.  
      Resolving the issue where the NetBackup server pod is not scheduled for long time
    10.  
      Resolving an issue where the Storage class does not exist
    11.  
      Resolving an issue where the primary server or media server deployment does not proceed
    12.  
      Resolving an issue of failed probes
    13.  
      Resolving token issues
    14.  
      Resolving an issue related to insufficient storage
    15.  
      Resolving an issue related to invalid nodepool
    16.  
      Resolving a token expiry issue
    17.  
      Resolve an issue related to KMS database
    18.  
      Resolve an issue related to pulling an image from the container registry
    19.  
      Resolving an issue related to recovery of data
    20.  
      Check primary server status
    21.  
      Pod status field shows as pending
    22.  
      Ensure that the container is running the patched image
    23.  
      Getting EEB information from an image, a running container, or persistent data
    24.  
      Resolving the certificate error issue in NetBackup operator pod logs
    25.  
      Data migration unsuccessful even after changing the storage class through the storage yaml file
    26.  
      Host validation failed on the target host
    27.  
      Primary pod is in pending state for a long duration
    28.  
      Taint, Toleration, and Node affinity related issues in cpServer
    29.  
      Operations performed on cpServer in environment.yaml file are not reflected
    30.  
      Host mapping conflict in NetBackup
    31.  
      NetBackup messaging queue broker take more time to start
    32.  
      Local connection is getting treated as insecure connection
    33.  
      Issue with capacity licensing reporting which takes longer time
    34.  
      Backing up data from Primary server's /mnt/nbdata/ directory fails with primary server as a client
    35.  
      Primary pod goes in non-ready state
  20. Appendix A. CR template
    1.  
      Secret
    2.  
      MSDP Scaleout CR

Preparing the environment for NetBackup installation on AKS

Refer to this section to prepare your host system and Azure Kubernetes cluster for NetBackup installation.

AKS-specific requirements

Use the following checklist to prepare the AKS for installation.

  • Your Azure Kubernetes cluster must be created with appropriate network and configuration settings.

    Supported Kubernetes cluster version is between 1.21.x and 1.24.x.

  • While creating the cluster, assign appropriate roles and permissions.

    Concepts - Access and identity in Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) - Azure Kubernetes Service | Microsoft Docs

  • Use an existing Azure container registry or create a new one. Your Kubernetes cluster must be able to access this registry to pull the images from the container registry. For more information on the Azure container registry, see Azure Container Registry documentation.

  • A dedicated node pool for NetBackup must be created with manual scaling or Autoscaling enabled in Azure Kubernetes cluster. The autoscaling feature allows your node pool to scale dynamically by provisioning and de-provisioning the nodes as required automatically.

    The following table lists the node configuration for the primary and media servers.

    Node type

    D16ds v4

    Disk type

    P30

    vCPU

    16

    RAM

    64 GiB

    Total disk size per node (TiB)

    1 TB

    Number of disks/node

    1

    Cluster storage size

    Small (4 nodes)

    4 TB

    Medium (8 nodes)

    8 TB

    Large (16 nodes)

    16 TB

  • Another dedicated node pool must be created for Snapshot Manager (if it has to be deployed) with auto scaling enabled.

    Following is the minimum configuration required for Snapshot Manager data plane node pool:

    Node type

    B4ms

    RAM

    8 GB

    Number of nodes

    Minimum 1 with auto scaling enabled.

    Maximum pods per node

    6 (system) + 4 (static pods) + RAM*2 (dynamic) = 26 pods or more

    Following are the different scenario's on how the NetBackup Snapshot Manager calculates the number of job which can run at a given point in time, based on the above mentioned formula:

    • For 2 CPU's and 8 GB RAM node configuration:

      CPU

      More than 2 CPU's

      RAM

      8 GB

      Maximum pods per node

      6 (system) + 4 (static pods) + 8*2 = 16 (dynamic pods) = 26 or more

      Autoscaling enabled

      Minimum number =1 and Maximum = 3

      Note:

      Above configuration will run 8 jobs per node at once.

    • For 2/4/6 CPU's and 16 GB RAM node configuration:

      CPU

      More than 2/4/6 CPU's

      RAM

      16 GB

      Maximum pods per node

      6 (system) + 4 (Static pods) + 16*2=32 (Dynamic pods) = 42 or more

      Autoscaling enabled

      Minimum number =1 and Maximum = 3

      Note:

      Above configuration will run 16 jobs per node at once.

  • All the nodes in the node pool must be running the Linux operating system.

  • Taints and tolerations allows you to mark (taint) a node so that no pods can schedule onto it unless a pod explicitly tolerates the taint. Marking nodes instead of pods (as in node affinity/anti-affinity) is particularly useful for situations where most pods in the cluster must avoid scheduling onto the node.

    Taints are set on the node pool while creating the node pool in the cluster. Tolerations are set on the pods.

    To use this functionality, user must create the node pool with the following detail:

    • Add a label with certain key value. For example key = nbpool, value = nbnodes

    • Add a taint with the same key and value which is used for label in above step with effect as NoSchedule.

      For example, key = nbpool, value = nbnodes, effect = NoSchedule

      Provide these details in the operator yaml as follows. To update the toleration and node selector for operator pod,

      Edit the operator/patch/operator_patch.yaml file. Provide the same label key:value in node selector section and in toleration sections. For example,

      nodeSelector:
      			nbpool: nbnodes
      			# Support node taints by adding pod tolerations equal to the specified nodeSelectors
      			# For Toleartion NODE_SELECTOR_KEY used as a key and NODE_SELECTOR_VALUE as a value.
      		tolerations:
      			- key: nbpool
      			operator: "Equal"
      			value: nbnodes
      

      Update the same label key:value as labelKey and labelValue in nodeselector section in environment.yaml file.

  • If you want to use static public IPs, private IPs and fully qualified domain names for the load balancer service, the public IP addresses, private IP addresses and FQDNs must be created in AKS before deployment.

  • If you want to bind the load balancer service IPs to a specific subnet, the subnet must be created in AKS and its name must be updated in the annotations key in the networkLoadBalancer section of the custom resource (CR).

    For more information on the network configuration for a load balancer service, refer to the How-to-Guide section of the Azure documentation.

    For more information on managing the load balancer service, See About the Load Balancer service.

  • Create a storage class with Managed disc storage type with file.csi.azure.com and allows volume expansion. It must be in LRS category with Premium SSD. It is recommended that the storage class has , Retain reclaim. Such storage class can be used for primary server as it supports Azure premium files storage only for catalog volume.

    For more information on Azure premium files, see Azure Files CSI driver.

    For example,

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: {{ custome-storage-class-name }}
    provisioner: file.csi.azure.com
    reclaimPolicy: Retain
    allowVolumeExpansion: true
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
    parameters:
      storageaccounttype: Premium_LRS
      protocol: nfs
    
  • Create a storage class with Managed disc storage type with allowVolumeExpansion = true and ReclaimPolicy=Retain. This storage class will be used for Primary server data and log volume. Media server storage details support azure disks only.

  • Customer's Azure subscription should have Network Contributor role.

    For more information, see Azure built-in roles.

Host-specific requirements

Use the following checklist to address the prerequisites on the system that you want to use as a NetBackup host that connects to the AKS cluster.