Category: NetBackup 7.7

How to create AdvancedDisk Pool in NetBackup?

Before we configure AdvancedDisk Pool we need to check and identify if the NetBackup already has any storage server configured. If not then we can configure a new storage server and then create a new disk pool. Post configuring storage server storage unit can be configured for the disk pool.

How to configure Disk Storage Server

Go to master server > then in right pane select wizard > Configure Disk Storage Servers

Now it will ask which type of storage server you want to configure. We’ll select AdvancedDisk

Command > nbdevconfig -creatests (However Veritas recommends to use the wizard to configure the AdvancedDisk storage server)

Next select the media server where storage server needs to be configured.

Note : Each Media sever needs to be configured only once as Storage server even if multiple disk pools are created

Now the Storage server configuration wizard is completed

Since the Storage server has been configured clicking Next will start creating Disk Pool

Next it will ask to select the volumes for configuring disk pool. Now all the selected volumes would be used for storage purpose and it can not used for any other purpose later. Here directory or folder can not be specified since the entire volume will be used.

Then you can give a name for the Disk Pool. You can also set High water mark and Low watermark however this option may not work properly if selected volumes are shared with any other server. You can also set the IO limit but there is no limit actually so you can run as many jobs as possible to the disk pool and back job concurrent level can be set later at the storage unit level which will decided how many job you can run to the disk storage.

Once you name and set the other parameters Disk Pool will be configured successfully. Now it will ask you if you want to create the Storage Unit as well. You can give name for the Storage Unit which is easily identifiable as recommended by Veritas. It also asks to select the media server to transport data however we needs to select the media server where storage server has been configured. Here Maximum concurrent job can be opted.

Now since Storage server, DiskPool and Storage unit have been configured, we need to verify all these things to ensure everything has been configured properly. So lets check if the Storage server is ready. Go to Media and Device Management >Credentials > Storage Server > Here it will show the configured Storage server.

Now we’ll verify the AdvancedDisk Pool by going to Media and Device Management > Devices > Disk Pools > right side it will the configured Disk Pools. You can double click the Disk Pool to check the property and confirm the volumes etc.

Finally we can also check and confirm the Storage Unit by going to >NetBackup Management > Storage >Storage Units > right side pane it will show the configured storage units.

Now since everything has been verified and configured you can create back policies and good go ahead and run as many backups as possible.

Related Posts:

How to configure NetBackup storage unit groups

How to configure NetBackup storage unit and Storage device

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What is DiskPool in NetBackup?

In NetBackup there are multiple types of storage devices used for backup and restore process. One of the mostly used storage type is Disk Pool which we’ll discuss about.

NetBackup support storage types like Basicdisk, AdvancedDisk, OpenStorage and PureDisk however there is another storage which is DiskPool and it is supported used widely. Lets discuss further about DiskPool further.

A Storage array with multiple disk is called disk enclosure in NetBackup. Each logical unit presented to server operation system is considered as a disk volume. NetBackup has a concept of using multiple disk volumes together and it is referred as DiskPool and NetBackup considers it as a single entity which is presented for backup policy destination.

NetBackup uses OpenStorage technology or the OpenStorage API to communicate with media server which can a physical server and storage server which is responsible for reading and writing data to storage hardware. In some cases media server and storage server would be two different systems however in the case of AdvancedDisk and NetBackup Deduplication media server and storage server both are same.

Advantages of Pooling Disk resources

There are several advantages of pooling disk resources such as ease of managing multiple disk volume as a single disk entity. Also, helping in media server load balancing and storage life cycle along with spanning backs to multiple disk volumes automatically. It also helps in scaling up the disk pool as the disk volumes can easily be added to it.

What is Advanced Disk disk pool and storage units?

Here we see that there are three media server in the top row. Media server M1 connected to two disk arrays, Media server M2 has its own internal storage and NetBackup Appliance 5330-1 is connected to an external storage shelves. Here the media server is performing the job of storage server itself.

Since Media M1 has two disk enclosures we can take all the disk volumes of both disk enclosures and present as a single storage entity or we can also configure single – single disk pool and present to NetBackup for data backup. In case Media server M2, its internal disks would be configured as a single disk pool and it would be considered a single disk pool storage for backups.

In NetBackup Appliance we can decide to use some of the drives to be used specifically for AdvancedDisk disk pool and it would also be considered as a single storage storage unit for backup destination.

Also check:

How to configure NetBackup storage unit and Storage device

What is Veritas NetBackup 7.7 and how it works?

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How to create NetBackup Policy and schedule

It is very critical to create an effective policy and schedule to protect the data in the NetBackup. We’ll discuss the basic policy types and configuration of policy attributes.

Here we’ll discuss in detail about NetBackup policy types and attributes, adding clients to a policy and creating backup selections. Lets also talk about how the NetBackup relates to a backup plan.

There are certain things we need to decide before creating a policy which is a backup plan:

• What kinds of clients need to be backed up?
• What type of storage you want to use for the backup?
• How often you wants to backup your clients data?
• For how many days/weeks/months/years you want to retain your backup images?
• How long your backups run?
• How long is your backup window?
• How much of data needs to backed up?
• When do you want your backups to run?
• Where do you want to save your backed up data?
• When do you want to restore your data?

Most of the Backups will have below four options to define the backup jobs:

Attributes

The Attribute option decides what and where the data will be backed up. The Policy type talks about what kind of data will be backed up like windows, linux etc.

There are two types of basic policy:

• Standard – Unix, Linux, Mac OS X or Novell NetWare clients
• MS-Windows – Windows 2003, 2008, 2012, XP, Vista, or Windows 7 or Windows 8 clients

You have the option to choose data classification for the backup, storage for for the backup. If you have a disk based storage you can choose from drop down of “Policy storage” and if have a tape based storage then you can choose “Policy volume pool” and the volume pool is not related to disk based storage.

You can limit the backup job per policy, choose the job priority, and select the media owner. Snapshot backup can also be configured and opt for retain snapshot for Instant Recovery or SLP management. It also give the option to enable off-host backup.

You can also enable or disable Compression, Encryption, collect true image restore information and enable optimized backup of Windows deduplication volume etc. MS-Windows option is used to backup all type of supported windows servers. Standard option is used to backup Unix, Linux, Mac or Novell NetWare servers.

Schedule

In the Schedule tab you have the option to schedule the backup policy as per your choice. You can also create a new schedule, give a name to the backup job, select the type of backup like Full backup / Differential incremental / Cumulative incremental / user backup or archive backup. You can also choose the backup frequency and other related options.

Start window tab in Schedule allows to setup the start time and end time for all the scheduled backup in a day. It decides when a backup can start however once a backup is started it can end post the completion and may exceed the end window and backup end window does not affect it.

For example, you have a Tape library with 4 tape drives and if there are 5 backups scheduled to run on a particular day and the backup start time is 9:00 am and end time is 9:00 pm then if four backups out of 5 start before 9:00 pm and if the 5th job could not start since there was no free tape drive storage then the 5th backup will not run and will report error – 196.

Exclude option allows you to remove any particular day or date when you don’t want to run a backup job. It can be a recurring day in week or month as well. So if you select any day or date in the bottom windows it will show a red x mark in the top window.

Clients

In the Clients tab you can select the added clients or add new clients, delete existing clients. You can have one or more clients in a backup policy.

Backup Selections

Backup selections options allows you to create a selection of files and folders and drives to include in the backup jobs. A new backup selection selection can also be added in policy. It also gives the option to rename the selection list and move up and down any files or folders to prioritize them.

There are multiple ways of creating a policy in NetBackup:

The very first option to create a backup policy is the policy creation wizard which does go through very simple process and creates the policy in an easy way.

Administration console allows to create a policy in a simple method and also to modify an existing policy. Since the Policy configuration wizard is a straight away configuration most of the time we use administration console to edit or modify the backup job policy to ensure it is created as per our need.

You can also create a backup policy using the command-line interface and command is bppolicynew

Also check – How to configure NetBackup storage unit groups

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How to configure NetBackup storage unit groups

Besides storage device and storage unit NetBackup also has storage unit groups which has got another advantage for efficient backups.

We already discussed about the storage devices such as physical disk and tape storage devices those can be attached to the media servers. We also discussed about the storage units which are logical entities in NetBackup and associated with physical storage devices.

Configuring storage unit groups

When we configure a backup job the NetBackup will request for a storage destination and normally we send a backup to a storage unit. However, we can also send our backups to storage unit groups.

This will let us assign multiple storages belonging to a single group. We also have the option to specify a manner and an order to use for the backup jobs. So if a storage unit is not available then backup job will automatically go to the next available storage unit.

On demand only and any available

Lets discuss about on demand and any available storage unit which are two setting in NetBackup available for earlier versions. We see four different storage units above.

On the left there is basic disk storage unit and on the left there are three tape libraries that are connected to three different media servers.

On the top left side we see a backup Policy1 which has assigned storage “ms1_bdisk_STU” which is our basic disk storage unit. If this backup has to run then it would the same storage unit. Policy2 has any_available it means that NetBackup will try use any storage unit available.

However it is not going to use “ms1_bdisk_STU because it set to “On Demand Only” meaning it would only be used if you point a backup job directly to it. It will however try to use any of the tape storage since they are not set as on demand only.

if we have Policy3 which is pointing directly to one of the 3rd tape library then it would use the 3rd tape library when the backup would run. The function of the “On Demand Only” setting is to prevent that storage unit from being used when a policy goes to “any available storage”.

Note: Even though we have the options to use any available storage it is not a best practice to use it for the backup jobs. Veritas recommends to use storage unit groups to provide multiple destination options for a backup.

Prioritizing storage unit groups

One important thing to understand about the the storage unit group is that there are different selection scheme that cab be used. For example, above we have three tape libraries that is put into one storage group which we can see outlined in red dash lines. On the left we can see the names of the storage units that we have put in the storage unit groups and the order as well.

The default section is prioritized so this is a prioritized storage unit group and what is means that top storage unit would be used first before the second one and second one before the 3rd one.

By looking at the jobs we can find out that job1 and job2 are assigned to 1st storage unit and once the storage unit1 is at its capacity the next jobs would go to 2nd storage unit and next jobs would go to 3rd storage unit.

When all the 3 storage unit are occupied and if additional jobs are added like job 7 and job 8, then these jobs need to wait and would be queued until any of the 3 storage unit is free to accept more jobs. In the above example we have used tape libraries with two tape drives which can handle two jobs at a time.

In a prioritized environment, it would make more sense if all the media severs have different capacity and resources to handle more jobs from one another. So if media server1 has more capacity then we would prioritize the backup jobs to use media server1 before they use other media servers.

What is round robin storage unit groups?

In the next example lets discuss the round robin storage unit groups. In this case also we still have our three tape libraries from three different media servers in one group.

However we notice that when try to assign the jobs, they are getting distributed among the storage units more fairly. The job1 would go to 1st storage unit, the job2 to 2nd storage unit and job3 to 3rd storage unit and like wise the job4, job5, and job6.

So above we have even distribution of jobs to storage units. Once all the storage unit reach their capacity then additional jobs like job7 and job8 are going to queued up and they would go to the next available storage unit whichever one that may be.

This type of storage unit makes more sense in order to evenly distribute the backup jobs and share the load balancing among the media servers.

What is failover storage unit groups?

Here we’ll discuss about another storage unit group type which is failover storage unit group. In this example we have two storage units. From media server1 – basic disk storage unit and media server2 – Tape library.

In this scenario all our backups would go to disk and we want them to go to tapes only if disk storage unit is unavailable. So in a failover storage unit group all the jobs would go to 1st storage unit and once it reaches it capacity then all other jobs would queue up and wait for the same 1st storage unit to accept the queued job but will not go to other storage units.

And the only reason the jobs would go to 2nd storage unit if 1st storage unit is no longer available. This could happen if media server 1 is shut down or file system is unmounted etc.

Also read – How to create NetBackup Policy and schedule

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How to configure NetBackup storage unit and Storage device

We are going to learn the NetBackup storage configuration and storage concepts such as storage unit and storage unit and also configure and verify basic disk storage.

Here we’ll discuss NetBackup storage device concepts, define the term storage device, storage unit and storage unit groups.

NetBackup storage concepts

A storage device usually referred to as physical disk to tape devices to which NetBackup is going to write data or going to restore the data from. Normally, when we talk about storage device, it a physical storage device which the server or operating system can see and access.

NetBackup has a concept called storage unit and a storage unit is a logical entity which NetBackup associate with physical storage device. This can be a tape device or a path to a storage device or disk pool. Normally, a storage unit is associated with one or more media servers. Lets look at some storage device and storage unit.

Storage devices and storage units

As discussed a storage unit is a group of one or more storage devices and of specific type that is attached to the NetBackup server. When backup run the storage unit specifies the media server that is going to copy the data from the client to the storage device and also which storage device is actually used for that backup.

For example, here we see a storage unit which is ms1_bdisk_STU which is a basic disk location on Media server 1. Another basic disk location is in Media server 2 which is ms2_bdisk_STU. Note that name convention that we are using here indicates the media server the storage is from and type of storage.

This will help us to easily identify the storage unit by looking it by name. Finally we see a third storage unit here which is tape device and connected to media server 2. Note that entire tape library is considered a single storage destination where media server sends the backup to.

Disk storage types

BasicDisk

• Uses a directory on locally or network attached disk used to store backup data
• Does not require any additional license

AdvancedDisk

• Uses a disk pool (a collection of disk volumes) that reside on a media server or NetBackup appliance to store backup data
• Requires NetBackup Data Protection Optimization Option license

OpenStorage

• Used with intelligent disk appliances that use the Veritas OpenStorage API for integrated backup functionality
• Requires NetBackup Data Protection Optimization Option license

PureDisk

• Uses a Media Server Deduplication pool (MSDP) on an MSDP media server or NetBackup appliance to store backup data
• Requires NetBackup Data Protection Optimization Option license

When creating disk based storage units a disk type will be assigned to that storage unit and as you see the table here the number of different disk types are available.

A basic disk uses a simple local folder or network attached disk on that server and a basic disk does not require any additional license from the base NetBackup licenses.

Additional disk type such as advancedDisk which uses a disk pool and open storage which allows us integration with third party products and puredisk which stands for media server deduplication that is inherent in NetBackup, all these three other disk storage type are also available in NetBackup.

Configuring a basic disk storage unit

To view our existing storage unit we go in to the NetBackup storage administration console and navigate to left hand tree to NetBackup management > Storage > Storage unit. Under there if you would like to create a new storage unit we simply right click and select new storage unit or select the icon up on the top in icon bar.

Same thing can be done via command line using the command > bpstuadd -label. For more details about commands please refer to NetBackup commands reference guide.

After selecting new storage unit we need to select storage unit type. In this case we are selecting storage unite type as disk and disk type as BasicDisk. Under properties and server selection we need to select the media server name where this storage resides on.

Once we have done that we also need to put a path for the directory to that storage unit. The path can be a drive letter of folder in a windows or some folder on Unix. The check box “This directory can exist on the root file system or system disk” by default is not enabled and this protects us for example on Unix where our file system may have been unmounted and in that case we may not want the NetBackup to write to that same folder accidently which is in the root file system and by default NetBackup would not do that.

Finally you can see a red circle which is “Maximum concurrent jobs”, this tell us how many backup jobs can use this storage unit simultaneously. Default is set to 1, however with a disk storage unit since it is random access device we may have more that 1 concurrent job running. You can also test it by increasing the concurrent number from lower to higher to figure out when the performance is degraded.

Viewing a basic disk storage unit properties

Once we configure a new BasicDisk storage unit it should appear in the NetBackup administration console > NetBackup Management > Storage units. To view the property, right click on the storage > change storage unit or double click on the storage unit and we should get the change storage unit pop up window where you can make any changes if you want.

Some of the options in the property can not be modified such as storage unit name. Clicking on the View Properties > it shows the file system and available storage size of the directory where the basic disk has been configured.

Disk reports for BasicDisk

Another option to get the NetBackup storage unit information is by going to NetBackup management > Disk Reports. In the above screenshot it is the disk status report. By clicking on run repots we can find out disk total capacity, used capacity etc.

Also read – How to configure NetBackup storage unit groups

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How to install NetBackup Administration console?

NetBackup administrator console is available in Window, Linux and Unix platforms. We’ll see what are the option available and how we navigate the admin console to configure related features.

The NetBackup administration console will help you to getting started with backup and restore operation in a simplified way. It is also very easy to configure storage devices, disk storage servers, cloud storage server, disk pools, volumes, catalog backup, create a policy and various other utility operations.

Navigating the Admin Console

The NetBackup admin console is a primary tool which will help to manage and monitor the day to day operation and used by most of the administrators. Left side of the console is the object tree area and right side is the details pane. Currently we have selection the master server name on the top left side.

It is useful to know that though the Admin console is available on the master server, you can install the remote admin console on any other system and manage the NetBackup master server.

Activity Monitor

Here we ca see a different view where we have selected Activity Monitor left side and we can see the summary of all the jobs jobs which have recently run right hand side.

Master server host properties: Global Attributes

Another important component of the administration console is area under host properties which you can see circled on the slide. The host properties are setting which ae available for each master server, media server and clients within out NetBackup environment. Opening the host property for the master server shows a long list of different tabs and properties available and can be modified for the master server.

NetBackup command locations

• NetBackup programs, client commands, notification scripts – Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin – Windows: install_path\NetBackup\bin

Although many administrator will use NetBackup admin console to manage their environment there are command line as well that can be used. Many of the common NetBackup program commands and client command scripts are available in NetBackup bin directory, a path shown for both Unix and Windows directory location.

• Master server only commands
• Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
• Windows: install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd

A separate folder known as the admin cmd folder is available on the master server and it is usually reserved for lower level commands.

• Media and Device management programs and utilities – Unix: /usr/openv/volmgr/bin – Windows: install_path\VolMgr\bin

There is also a bin directory under the volmgr folder where the commands are stored for device and media management, these commands are used for tape devices.

• Other utilities and scripts – Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/goodies – Windows: install_path\NetBackup\bin\goodies

Other utilities and scripts are also found under netbackup/bin/goodies folder, some of these utilities are used by the consultants and individual and over time it has been included in the NetBackup products.

• Command help – Unix: Online man pages – Windows: Veritas NetBackup Commands Reference Guide

Finally for help on any of these commands on Unix there are man pages for each of the commands and for windows and unix you can refer to Veritas NetBackup commands reference guide. This guide has detail syntax for all of the available commands.

Here lets take a quick look at NetBackup Appliance

Although many customer prefer to install and configure NetBackup on their own hardware and servers NetBackup is also available as an Appliance.

NetBackup Appliances: All-in-One Solutions Making Backups Simple

The appliance comes with preinstalled with NetBackup software and provides a complete and integrated backup and deduplication solution for customer.

Backup appliances have flexible and scalable architecture and cab be deployed as all-in-one backup server with intelligent and end to end deduplication or in a configuration with multiple backup appliances that can move hundreds of terabytes of data in a day just like just like standard NetBackup, NetBackup appliances have source and target deduplication and support full vmware v-storage API integration.

Tape libraries can be configured with the appliance so that it can provide direct tape out capabilities for long term data retention.

What is a NetBackup appliance?

An appliance is not simply NetBackup installed on a hardware but in fact NetBackup is installed on an optimized hardware that has been shown and tested to meet the needs of many highest customer demands.

NetBackup appliance also contains other Veritas software such as critical system and storage foundation software which allows to meet intense security and availability needs.

NetBackup 5230 appliance

The NetBackup 5230 can function both as a master server and media server. It has multiple ethernet and fiber channel IO options available. It has multiple configuration storage options and can scale up to 144 TB of external storage.

NetBackup 5330 appliance

The NetBackup 5330 appliance currently function as only a media server however also has a number of IO options and can scale up to 229 TB in total capacity.

Example NetBackup appliance configurations

This is sample configuration of the NetBackup appliances and as we can see it can scale from a small office to mid size enterprise to large enterprise. Once of the great advantages is that you are not only getting NetBackup appliances as a true and tested hardware that meets the metrics of high level customer but also a complete solution which is supported by Veritas as a whole.

You don’t need to go to different vendors for hardware and software support and the entire solution is supported by Veritas. For current up to date statistics and sizes you can contact the Veritas sales representative.

Understanding NetBackup appliances

Lets take a moment to figure out the differences between NetBackup and NetBackup appliance. With the appliance the licensing is much like some NetBackup feature is based on Front-End terabytes (FETB). This means that customer are paying for the amount of data that they are protecting as suppose to be amount of data is being stored by the backup software.

This Front-End terabyte license is is separate from the initial hardware cost of the appliance. The software has different advantages and one of them is that you are only paying for the amount of data you are protecting so that you don’t pay additional license fee or for replicating the data or having multiple copies of the data. Additionally, if you are transferring data from traditional NetBackup environment to a NetBackup appliance environment so this license will be similar between the two environment.

The NetBackup appliance version number corresponds to a specific hardware, firmware and software that is used in the appliance. Although, the appliance usage the appliance specific version number it still corresponds to a specific NetBackup software version. For example, NetBackup 7.6.1 corresponds to NetBackup appliance 2.6.1 release.

The NetBackup software release and NetBackup appliance functionality should normally be equivalent however they may not be exactly identical. For more appliance details please refer to below link: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100040093

What is OpsCenter?

OpsCenter is a tools which reports and monitors one or more master servers using a web based console. It does require a separate installation from NetBackup however it is available without any additional license.

It runs on multiple platforms including Window, Unix and Linux and can monitor multiple master servers simultaneously. This means that we can have one consolidated report across various NetBackup domains.

Accessing the OpsCenter console

It show the default OpsCenter web address which is based on the n ame of the OpsCenter server. When you login to the OpsCenter you will need a user and password that you would generated during the OpsCenter configuration. For more details about the OpsCenter please refer to link: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/27537447-127427700-0/index

Configuring OpsCenter data collection for NetBackup

After installing the OpsCenter server you will additionally need to manually configure any master server that you want the OpsCenter server to communicate with. Clicking the add button allows to add additional master server to the configuration. We need to enter our NetBackup master server name as display name to be used and the user name and password for that master server.

After doing this you can optionally press the test connection so that it would communicate with the master server to ensure that our information is valid. After clicking OK it shows up the master server which is added. However it won’t collect data until “Enable Data Collection” is enabled.

After configuring all the above options OpsCenter server starts communicating with the added master server and collecting data.

Comparing OpsCenter Analytics

Although, the OpsCenter is provided for free and it provides operational reporting and reporting data that lasts up to 60 days, for full functionality you may want the OpsCenter analytics license option.

OpsCenter analytic allow no time limit on reported data and has advance business level reporting including custom reports and custom sql reports.

Also read – How to configure NetBackup storage unit and Storage device

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What is Veritas NetBackup and How does NetBackup work?

In NetBackup concepts we’ll discuss the common terminology and how backup and restore functions.

We know that one of the import part of NetBackup is backup policy and it has some different options to choose to create a backup job (backup policy) such as Attributes, Schedules, Clients and Backup Selections. Lets looks at these options below:

NetBackup policies: the heart and soul of NetBackup

The first option is Attributes which talks about how the backup will be performed like and where the backup images will be saved. The Schedules talks about what types of backups will run like Full backups / Differential Incremental backups / Cumulative Incremental backup, when the backup should run and how long the the backups data will be retained.

The Clients option is a list of clients and which clients should be backed up in this policy. The Backup Selections tells us which client or data should we backup in the policy. All these information is stored in a centralized way in the NetBackup Master server.

Note. Latest NetBackup version may have more backup policy options and additional tabs or additional settings for specific product such as Vmware, Oracle besides the above for options. For more information please visit link: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100040281

Backup storage types

While initiating a backup job to send the client’s data to storage device NetBackup collects all these information and it is called backup image. NetBackup takes this backup image and sends it to a backup storage destination such as a disk, tape or OST storage. It can also be SAN storage or NetBackup appliance or third party appliances.

Another backup destination is cloud storage and NetBackup supports a verity of cloud vendors as well.

The NetBackup Catalog

Catalog is a very critical data of backup application and it contains information about NetBackup environment and index about all the data that have been backed up and can be restored. The catalog is kept in the Master server.

The NetBackup Catalog is broken up into two sections :

The NetBackup database (NBDB) – The NBDB is a proper relational database and stores information about media and device data which also known as EMM (Enterprise Media Manager) and also stores a lot of other information as well.

NetBackup configuration files – This stores information about the NetBackup environment however it is not stored with relational database. It keeps some add hoc files information like policy, schedule, attributes etc.

One of the largest part of database is image database which is partially stored in NetBackup database and partially in NetBackup configuration files. Also, it is configuration file which takes largest part in the catalog area. The catalogs file keeps growing as the NetBackup gets older in an environment.

The data backup process

Lets discuss how the data backup works in NetBackup. So the way we perform backup it stores centrally in the Master server within the backup policy. When the NetBackup scheduler runs to determine that it is a time to run a backup > a media server is chosen to perform that backup > Now the media server will read the backup from the client machine > and send that data as an image > to the storage destination be it a disk, tape or other storage. The media server can be the same system which is a Master server as well.

During the backup the backed up data information is sent to the Master server and that information is going to be stored as catalog in the master server. Now when the backup is complete we can see the result of the backup through the job logs to find out if it has failed or successful. If failed then why it has failed.

The data restore process

During the restore process, the restore job is initiated by a backup administrator from the Master server or by a client > The restore job connects to the Master server and initiates the restore job > Now the Master server assigns a media server to perform the restore of actual data > Now the backup image on the storage device is read by the media server and actual data to be restore is sent to the destined client > As the process is progressing we can see the status of the job in NetBackup logs and reports.

For more information please visit : https://www.veritas.com/ > Backup and Recovery > NetBackup

NetBackup clients and agents

The above is the list of clients and agents supported. The first three clients are the Standard clients, Enterprise clients and Application and Database Pack. Other client like Enterprise Vault does not require any additional license. It is advisable to check Veritas NetBackup website for current and updated supported agents.

NetBackup Options

NetBackup also provides a of comprehensive selection of performance, security and storage management options to match your backup and recovery need in your environment.

Some of the options are listed here including data protection and optimization option which provides deduplication and acceleration functionality. The NetBackup shared storage option provides a shared tape drive across media servers.

Related post – How to install NetBackup Administration console?

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What is Veritas NetBackup 7.7 and how it works?

In NetBackup 7.7 administration we will discuss about its concepts, data protection, environments, administration console, OpsCenter along with NetBackup Appliance overview.

In this introduction we’ll discuss the consideration for data protection. We’ll also identify the components of NetBackup environment and their functions. Define common terms used in the NetBackup product and describe how NetBackup backs up and restores data.

We’ll also navigate the NetBackup Administration console, describe the NetBackup Appliance offerings and navigate the OpsCenter console which is a web based interface as well.

Data Protection in general

As we know data protection is a very critical element of any business and if we lose any data which is crucial for business requirements then it can have a huge impact on the business since today the data growth for any business is at very high level which actually increases the backup windows as well.

This is further very difficult for the IT admin to minimize the applications and user disruption while backups and disaster recovery methods and procedure are being used. Even though there are many different technologies available today to perform the different types of disaster recovery in different scenario in different environments. The IT admins are advised to streamline the backup and restore process.

Data Protection

When we discuss the data protection and disaster recovery the there are certain process or terms which are often applicable which are Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective.

Recovery Point Objective – RPO: It explains how much data loss is possible during the disaster recovery or system or hardware failure. However we would always try to minimize the data loss as low as zero. It also depends upon how often the full, Incremental or Differential backup had been taken and what backup strategy or data protection strategy was followed along with hardware type associated with system failure.

If the backup copy was sent offsite once a week and there is a complete site failure then there might be a week’s data loss.

Recovery Time Objective – RTO: It measures how long it will take to recover the data in case of failure or outage. In some technologies like cluster system, it detects the failure and restoration process could be faster.

So basically, RPO tells us how much data loss is possible during the data restore and RTO defines how long its going to take to recover the data.

Data Protection Plans

While making the data protection plan we need to keep in mind that all data is not equal and some data may be more critical than other in an organization so recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives should be planned accordingly. Normally the quicker we may need to recover the data the using some specific technology it may be more expensive.

The above things determines the backup strategy and required resources like servers, hardware, storage systems, backup technology etc. It also includes testing the data protection plan often or testing disaster recovery plan to ensure that data protection plan and strategy are effective and backups are also working fine.

There might be some changes in the organization time to time like new application introduced, new hardware, new sites, new technology etc which will require to update the data protection plan accordingly.

NetBackup Components

Usually, in any environment we’ll have some systems like servers, storage and data repository that need to be backed up. Backups refers the these systems as clients. In NetBackup the clients are backed up by media servers. Media servers are data movers which pull the data information from the clients and move the information to the backup storage destination.

Though the media server performs the operation, it is the Master server which is considered the brains of the NetBackup. The Master server performs and manages and centralizes all the backup and recovery activity for the NetBackup. It keeps the track of all the data information which is being backed up.

Since the all the backup and recovery operations are managed by the Master server if there is any backup or recovery is needed then it will assign the require media server to perform the operation.

NetBackup server hierarchy options and domains

It is also possible that in a small environment the Master server can perform both the operation for Master server itself and media server as well. However when the organization grows it may required to add a media server to share the load of Master server and perform the backups and restore operations quickly for more clients.

As in the above picture the resources which fall under Master server are known as NetBackup domain, at the same time we should not be configured with the term domain as in IT since here the we are talking about on the resources that are under Single Master server which performs all operations.

NetBackup domains and OpsCenter

Here we see two NetBackup domain – Master1 and Master2 and each one is considered a separate domain and in order to manage them we need to login to one of them specifically to manage its domain.

NetBackup OpsCenter is a free web based tool to manage one or more NetBackup domains.

OpsCenter Interface

OpsCenter is primarily used as a monitoring and reporting tool however it does have some useful management and restore capabilities. It can be installed and used for free however there are some paid version available as well. For more information please visit below link : https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100040281

Related post – What is Veritas NetBackup and How does NetBackup work?

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