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
…………………………………..