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NetBackup™ SAN Client and Fibre Transport Guide

Last Published: 2024-03-26

Product(s): NetBackup (10.4)

Fibre transport properties

NetBackup Fibre Transport properties control how your Fibre Transport media servers and SAN clients use the Fibre Transport service for backups and restores. The Fibre transport properties apply to the host type that you select, as follows:

Table: Host types for Fibre transport properties

Host type	Description
Primary server	Global Fibre transport properties that apply to all SAN clients.
Media server	The Fibre transport Maximum concurrent FT connections property applies to the FT media server that you select.
Client	The Fibre transport properties apply to the SAN client that you select. The default values for clients are the global property settings of the primary server. Client properties override the global Fibre transport properties.

Host type

Description

Primary server

Global Fibre transport properties that apply to all SAN clients.

Media server

The Fibre transport Maximum concurrent FT connections property applies to the FT media server that you select.

Client

The Fibre transport properties apply to the SAN client that you select. The default values for clients are the global property settings of the primary server. Client properties override the global Fibre transport properties.

The Fibre transport properties contain the following settings. All properties are not available for all hosts. In this table, FT device is an HBA port on a Fibre Transport media server. The port carries the backup and restore traffic. A media server may have more than one FT device.

Table: Fibre transport properties

Property	Description
Maximum concurrent FT connections	This property appears only when you select an FT media server . This property specifies the number of FT connections to allow to the selected media server or media servers. A connection is equivalent to a job. If no value is set, NetBackup uses the following defaults: For NetBackup Appliance model 5330 and later: 32 For NetBackup Appliance model 5230 and later: 32 For NetBackup Fibre Transport media servers: 8 times the number of fast HBA ports on the media server plus 4 times the number of slow HBA ports. A fast port is 8 GB or faster, and a slow port is less than 8 GB. You can enter up to the following maximum connections for the media server or servers to use: On a Linux FT media server host: 40. It is recommended that you use 32 or fewer connections concurrently on Linux. On Linux hosts, you can increase that maximum by setting a NetBackup touch file, `NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS_FT`. See About Linux concurrent FT connections. For NetBackup Appliance model 5330 and later: 40. For NetBackup Appliance model 5230 and later: 40. On a Solaris FT media server host: 64. NetBackup supports 644 buffers per media server for Fibre Transport. To determine the number of buffers that each connection uses, divide 644 by the value you enter. More buffers per connection equal better performance for each connection.
Use defaults from the primary server configuration	This property appears only when you select a client . This property specifies that the client follow the properties as they are configured on the primary server.
Preferred	The Preferred property specifies to use an FT device if one is available within the configured wait period in minutes. If an FT device is not available after the wait period elapses, NetBackup uses a LAN connection for the operation. If you select this option, also specify the wait period for backups and for restores. For the global property that is specified on the primary server, the default is Preferred.
Always	The Always property specifies that NetBackup should always use an FT device for backups and restores of SAN clients. NetBackup waits until an FT device is available before it begins the operation. However, an FT device must be online and up. If not, NetBackup uses the LAN. An FT device may be unavailable because none are active, none have been configured, or the SAN Client license expired.
Fail	The Fail property specifies that NetBackup should fail the job if an FT device is not online and up. If the FT devices are online but busy, NetBackup waits until a device is available and assigns the next job to the device. An FT device may be unavailable because none are active, none have been configured, or the SAN Client license expired.
Never	The Never property specifies that NetBackup should never use an FT pipe for backups and restores of SAN clients. NetBackup uses a LAN connection for the backups and restores. If you specify Never for the primary server, Fibre Transport is disabled in the NetBackup environment. If you select Never, you can configure FT usage on a per-client basis. If you specify Never for a media server, Fibre Transport is disabled for the media server. If you specify Never for a SAN client, Fibre Transport is disabled for the client.

See Configuring Fibre Transport properties.

NetBackup provides one finer level of granularity for Fibre transport. SAN client usage preferences override the FT properties that you configure through Host properties.

See About SAN client usage preferences.