Date - MAY 2009
Affected Product & Version - NVBU 8.2.1
Affected Module & Version - N/A
OS Version - Windows
Application Information - N/A
Symptoms:
After restarting the NetVault service:
Hourglass in Cient Management
Hourglass in Backup Window
Job start delayed
When the NetVault service starts on a Windows server, it attempts to contact/resolve many different servers using the NBNS (NetBIOS Name Service) protocol. This process can take quite a while in some environments. This can be observed by installing Wireshark on the NetVault server. See attached file [WiresharkPackets.jpg].
To avoid or reduce this delay after starting the NetVault service, you can use the “Comma separated list of networks and addresses not to resolve” setting in NetVault Configurator, under the Network Manager/Connections tab. See attached file [AddressesNotToResolve.jpg].
You can exclude all networks, however using 0.0.0.0 doesn’t work to prevent it from resolving all networks. You will have to put something for the first octet (i.e. 192.0.0.0,10.0.0.0). There may be addresses on networks it is trying to contact/resolve which you are not even aware of. To find what everything you need to exclude you have to look in the NetVault/etc/machines.dat file. Each computer the server knows about has a Networks field, and it is from these fields that NetVault gets the addresses it tries to resolve. Run this command from the command line when in the NetVault/etc directory to get a list of the Network fields
findstr Networks machines.dat
C:\Program Files\BakBone Software\NetVault\etc>findstr Network machines.dat
Networks=192.168.203.1,192.168.65.1,172.16.245.1
Networks=10.1.40.81,172.16.211.1,172.16.62.1
Networks=10.1.2.37,172.16.22.1,172.16.128.1
Networks=10.1.240.222,172.16.4.1
Networks=192.168.122.1,10.1.240.52
Networks=10.1.80.83,10.1.2.68,172.16.116.1,172.16.222.1
Networks=192.168.172.1,10.1.40.98,192.168.147.1
Networks=192.168.174.1,10.1.8.71,192.168.120.1
Networks=192.168.122.1,10.1.8.79
Networks=10.1.8.132,192.168.91.1,192.168.106.1
Networks=10.1.8.163,192.168.233.1,192.168.207.1
Networks=10.1.8.16,200.0.0.1
...
Based upon this output I should use 10.0.0.0,172.0.0.0,192.0.0.0,200.0.0.0 in the do not resolve field of NetVault Configurator. Some networks may have the name instead of the IP address. You can find the IP address for each name by using the nslookup command.
This will cut the time down considerably, but additionally the start of the service will be delayed by any computer that is offline and is listed in Available Machines or added as clients. If you remove any servers that are offline or no longer in use from Available Machines, this will also speed things up.
