Client initiates outgoing communication over an IP address that is barred or not set to preferred (80185)

Date: 08/2010
Affected Product & Version: NetVault: Backup 8.x
Affected Module & Version: n/a
OS Version: Microsoft Windows
Application Information: n/a


Description:
NVBU Configurator allows the setting of a preferred and/or barred address for a given NetVault machine. These settings only affect the address other NetVault machines use to contact it - effectively the machines incoming address. The outgoing address used by the NetVault machine when contacting other machines is not affected by these settings.
The impact of this behaviour is felt during backups and restores, where the data channel is established from a client's outgoing address to the server.
The interface used for outgoing communication is up to Windows. By default, the first interface that becomes active in Windows is the one NetVault will use for outgoing communication.


Symptoms:
A client initiates outgoing communication to the server over an IP address that is barred or not set to preferred status.

There are two workarounds for this.
1 - In Windows, disable and re-enable the address that IS NOT to be used as NetVault's outgoing address. Therefore the address that IS to be used as NetVault's outgoing address is the first interface that became active and data channels will use that interface. The disadvantage with this workaround is that the order of the interfaces becoming active cannot be guaranteed at reboot, and must be manually confirmed.
2 - Weight the interfaces using what Microsoft calls 'Interface Metrics' setting the interface that IS to be used as NetVault's outgoing address to a lower weighting than the interface that IS NOT to be used. The disadvantage of this workaround is that the settings are global across all applications on the Windows machine, not just NetVault.
For more information on interface metrics, see the following document:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;299540&x=16&y=10