NetBackup and Veritas Appliances Hardening Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (10.2, 5.1.1, 3.0)
Platform: NetBackup Appliance OS,Flex Appliance OS,Linux,UNIX,Windows
  1. Top recommendations to improve your NetBackup and Veritas appliances security posture
    1.  
      Introduction
    2.  
      Keeping all systems and software updated
    3.  
      Enabling multifactor authentication
    4.  
      Increasing the appliance security level
    5.  
      Implementing an immutable data vault
    6.  
      Securing credentials
    7.  
      Reducing network exposure
    8.  
      Enabling encryption
    9.  
      Enabling catalog protection
    10.  
      Enabling malware scanning and anomaly detection
    11.  
      Enabling security observability
    12.  
      Restricting user access
    13.  
      Configuring a sign-in banner
  2. Steps to protect Flex Appliance
    1.  
      About Flex Appliance hardening
    2. Managing single sign-on (SSO)
      1.  
        Managing identity providers (IDPs)
      2.  
        Importing single sign-on (SSO) users
    3.  
      Managing user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
    4. About lockdown mode
      1.  
        Changing the lockdown mode
    5.  
      Using network access control
    6.  
      Using an external certificate
    7.  
      Forwarding logs
    8.  
      Creating a NetBackup WORM storage server instance
    9. Configuring an isolated recovery environment on a WORM storage server
      1.  
        Configuring data transmission between a production environment and an IRE WORM storage server
    10.  
      Protecting the NetBackup catalog on a WORM storage server
    11.  
      Using a sign-in banner
  3. Steps to protect NetBackup Appliance
    1.  
      About NetBackup Appliance hardening
    2. About single sign-on (SSO) authentication and authorization
      1.  
        Configure single sign-on (SSO) for a NetBackup Appliance
    3. About authentication using smart cards and digital certificates
      1.  
        2FA
      2.  
        Smart card Authentication for NetBackup Web UI
      3.  
        Smart card authentication for NetBackup Appliance Web UI
      4.  
        Smart card authentication for NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu
      5.  
        Configure role-based access control
      6.  
        Configure authentication for a smart card or digital certificate for the NetBackup Web UI
    4.  
      Disable user access to the NetBackup appliance operating system
    5.  
      About Network Access Control
    6. About data encryption
      1.  
        KMS support
    7.  
      FIPS 140-2 conformance for NetBackup Appliance
    8.  
      About implementing external certificates
    9. About forwarding logs to an external server
      1.  
        Uploading certificates for TLS
      2.  
        Enabling log forwarding
    10.  
      Creating the appliance login banner
  4. Steps to protect NetBackup
    1.  
      About NetBackup hardening
    2. Configure NetBackup for single sign-on (SSO)
      1.  
        Configure the SAML KeyStore
      2.  
        Configure the SAML keystore and add and enable the IDP configuration
      3.  
        Enroll the NetBackup primary server with the IDP
    3. Configure user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
      1.  
        Configure smart card authentication with a domain
      2.  
        Configure smart card authentication without a domain
    4. Access codes
      1.  
        Get CLI access through web UI authentication
      2.  
        Approve your CLI access request
      3.  
        Approve CLI access requests of other users
    5. Workflow to configure immutable and indelible data
      1.  
        About configuring disk pool storage
      2.  
        Use WORM setting
      3.  
        Creating a backup policy
    6. Add a configuration for an external CMS server
      1.  
        Add a credential for CyberArk
    7. Configuring an isolated recovery environment on a NetBackup BYO media server
      1.  
        Configuring AIR for replicating backup images from production environment to IRE BYO environment
    8. About FIPS support in NetBackup
      1.  
        Enable FIPS mode on NetBackup during installation
      2.  
        Enable FIPS mode on a NetBackup host after installation
      3.  
        Enable FIPS mode for the NetBackup Authentication Broker service
      4.  
        Enable FIPS mode for the NetBackup Administration Console
      5.  
        NB_FIPS_MODE option for NetBackup servers and clients
    9.  
      Installing KMS
    10. Workflow for external KMS configuration
      1.  
        Validating KMS credentials
      2.  
        Configuring KMS credentials
      3.  
        Configuring KMS
      4.  
        Creating keys in an external KMS
      5. Workflow to configure data-in-transit encryption
        1.  
          Configure the global data-in-transit encryption setting
        2. Configure the DTE mode on a client
          1.  
            DTE_CLIENT_MODE for clients
        3. How DTE configuration settings work in various NetBackup operations
          1.  
            Backup
          2.  
            Restore
          3.  
            MSDP backup, restore, and optimized duplication
          4.  
            Universal-Share policy backup
          5.  
            Catalog backup and recovery
          6.  
            Duplication
          7.  
            Synthetic backup
          8.  
            Verify
          9.  
            Import
          10.  
            Replication
        4.  
          Configure the DTE mode on the media server
        5. Modify the DTE mode on a backup image
          1.  
            DTE_IGNORE_IMAGE_MODE for NetBackup servers
    11. Workflow to use external certificates for NetBackup host communication
      1. About certificate revocation lists for external CA
        1.  
          How CRLs from ECA_CRL_PATH are used
        2.  
          How CRLs from CDP URLs are used
      2.  
        Configuring an external certificate for the NetBackup web server
      3.  
        Configuring the primary server to use an external CA-signed certificate
      4. Configuring an external certificate for a clustered primary server
        1. Configuration options for external CA-signed certificates for a virtual name
          1.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_CERT_PATH for clustered primary server
          2.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH for clustered primary server
          3.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH for clustered primary server
          4.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_KEY_PASSPHRASEFILE for clustered primary server
      5. Configuring a NetBackup host (media server, client, or cluster node) to use an external CA-signed certificate after installation
        1.  
          Enrolling an external certificate for a remote host
      6. Configuration options for external CA-signed certificates
        1. ECA_CERT_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
          1.  
            Specifying Windows certificate store for ECA_CERT_PATH
        2.  
          ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        3.  
          ECA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        4.  
          ECA_KEY_PASSPHRASEFILE for NetBackup servers and clients
        5.  
          ECA_CRL_CHECK for NetBackup servers and clients
        6.  
          ECA_CRL_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        7.  
          ECA_CRL_PATH_SYNC_HOURS for NetBackup servers and clients
        8.  
          ECA_CRL_REFRESH_HOURS for NetBackup servers and clients
        9.  
          ECA_DISABLE_AUTO_ENROLLMENT for NetBackup servers and clients
        10.  
          ECA_DR_BKUP_WIN_CERT_STORE for NetBackup servers and clients
        11.  
          MANAGE_WIN_CERT_STORE_PRIVATE_KEY option for NetBackup primary servers
    12.  
      Guidelines for managing the primary server NetBackup catalog
    13. About protecting the MSDP catalog
      1. About the MSDP shadow catalog
        1.  
          Changing the MSDP shadow catalog path
        2.  
          Changing the MSDP shadow catalog schedule
        3.  
          Changing the number of MSDP catalog shadow copies
      2.  
        About the MSDP catalog backup policy
    14. How to set up malware scanning
      1.  
        Prerequisites for a scan host
      2.  
        Configuring a new scan host pool
    15. About backup anomaly detection
      1.  
        Detecting backup anomalies on the primary server
      2.  
        Detecting backup anomalies on the media server
      3.  
        Configure anomaly detection settings
      4.  
        View anomalies
    16.  
      Send audit events to system logs
    17.  
      Send audit events to log forwarding endpoints
    18.  
      Display a banner to users when they sign in

About the MSDP catalog backup policy

Veritas recommends that you protect the MSDP catalog by backing it up. A NetBackup catalog backup does not include the MSDP catalog. The NetBackup Deduplication Catalog Policy Administration and the Catalog disaster recovery utility (the drcontrol utility) configure a backup policy for the MSDP catalog. The policy also includes other important MSDP configuration information.

The MSDP catalog backups provide the second tier of catalog protection. The catalog backups are available if the shadow copies are not available or corrupt.

The following are the attributes for the catalog backup policy that the drcontrol utility creates:

Schedule

Weekly Full Backup and daily Differential Incremental Backup.

Backup window

6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

Retention

2 weeks

Backup selection

The following are the default catalog paths.

UNIX:

/database_path/databases/catalogshadow
/storage_path/etc
/database_path/databases/spa
/storage_path/var
/usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/pd.conf
/usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/mtstrm.conf
/database_path/databases/datacheck

Windows:

database_path\databases\catalogshadow
storage_path\etc
storage_path\var
install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\pd.conf
install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\mtstrm.conf
database_path\databases\spa
database_path\databases\datacheck

By default, NetBackup uses the same path for the storage and the catalog; the database_path and the storage_path are the same. If you configure a separate path for the deduplication database, the paths are different. Regardless, the drcontrol utility captures the correct paths for the catalog backup selections.

You should consider the following items carefully before you configure an MSDP catalog backup:

  • Do not use the Media Server Deduplication Pool as the destination for the catalog backups. Recovery of the MSDP catalog from its Media Server Deduplication Pool is impossible.

  • Use a storage unit that is attached to a NetBackup host other than the MSDP storage server.

  • Use a separate MSDP catalog backup policy for each MSDP storage server.

    The drcontrol utility does not verify that the backup selections are the same for multiple storage servers. If the backup policy includes more than one MSDP storage server, the backup selection is the union of the backup selections for each host.

  • You cannot use one policy to protect MSDP storage servers on both UNIX hosts and Windows hosts.

    UNIX MSDP storage servers require a Standard backup policy and Windows MSDP storage servers require an MS-Windows policy.