When Rapid NFS and Rapid CIFS are used with QoreStor they offer the following benefits:
- Reduce network utilization and DMA backup time
- Chunk data and perform hash computation on the client; transfer chunked hash files on the back-end
- Reduce the amount of data that must be written across the wire
- Improve performance
- Support DMAs such as CommVault, EMC Networker, and Tivoli Storage Manager. For the current list of supported DMAs, see the QoreStor Interoperability Guide.
- Compatible with existing NFS and CIFS clients — just need to install a plug-in (driver) on the client
- Can use Rapid NFS and Rapid CIFS to accelerate I/O operations on any client — including a client that uses home-grown backup scripts
- Can service multiple and concurrent media server backups
This topic introduces some recommended best practices for using Rapid NFS operations with QoreStor.
- Markers must be set on the client, not in the QoreStor GUI
- If you are using a DMA that supports a marker, should explicitly set it. Your containers should have the marker type of None until you set the marker using the Mount command on the client (after installing the Rapid NFS plug-in).
- For existing containers, re-set the marker by doing the following:
For example, if you wanted to set the CommVault marker (cv):
mount -t rdnfs 10.222.322.190:/containers/backup /mnt/backup -o marker=cv
Mount command usage:
rdnfs [nfs mount point] [roach mount point] -o marker=[marker]
where:
nfs mount point = Already mounted nfs mountpoint
roach mount point = A new mount point
marker = appassure, arcserve, auto, cv, dump, hdm, hpdp, nw, or tsm
- Your QoreStor system must meet the minimum configuration
Rapid NFS is available on a QoreStor system and a client with a minimum of 4 CPU cores running at a minimum of 4 GHz cumulative processing power and 2 GB memory. Kernels must be 2.6.14 or later. For a list of supported operating systems, see the QoreStor Interoperability Guide. If you update your operating system, you must update your Rapid NFS plug-in as well. Updates are available on the Quest Support site.
- Rapid NFS is stateful
If the QoreStor system goes down, the connection will terminate. DMAs will restart from the last checkpoint.
- Rapid NFS and passthrough mode
If Rapid NFS mode fails for any reason, QoreStor falls back to regular NFS mode automatically. For details, see Monitoring Performance.
- Rapid NFS performance considerations
When using Rapid NFS on your client, Quest recommends that you do not run other protocols to the QoreStor system in parallel, as this will adversely affect your overall performance.
- Rapid NFS acceleration constraints
- Rapid NFS does not support:
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NOTE: If the client and server do not have the same times, the times seen will not match typical NFS behavior due to the nature of file system in user space (FUSE). |
This topic introduces some recommended best practices for using Rapid CIFS operations with QoreStor.
- Containers must be of type NFS/CIFS
- RDA containers cannot use Rapid CIFS. If you have existing NFS/CIFS containers, you do not need to create new containers to use Rapid CIFS; you can install the plug-in (driver) to existing clients.
- The Rapid CIFS plug-in (driver) must be installed on client systems
After the plug-in is installed, write operations will go through Rapid CIFS while metadata operations such as file creates and permission changes will go through the standard CIFS protocol. Rapid CIFS can be disabled by uninstalling the plug-in.
- Your QoreStor system must meet the minimum configuration
Rapid CIFS is available with a QoreStor system and a client with a minimum of 4 CPU cores running at a minimum of 4 GHz cumulative processing power and 2 GB memory. For a list of supported operating systems, see the QoreStor Interoperability Guide.
If you update your operating system, you must update your Rapid CIFS plug-in as well. Updates are available on the Quest Support site.
- Rapid CIFS is stateful
If the QoreStor system goes down, the connection will terminate. DMAs will restart from the last checkpoint.
- Rapid CIFS and passthrough mode
If Rapid CIFS mode fails for any reason, the QoreStor system falls back to regular CIFS mode automatically.
- Rapid CIFS acceleration constraints
Rapid CIFS does not support:
- NAS functionality
- Optlocks (but supported if a single client is writing)
- Byte-range locks
- Optimization of very small files (less than 10 MB). File size can be adjusted using configuration settings.
- FILE_NO_IMMEDIATE_BUFFERING and FILEWRITE_THROUGH operations (sent via CIFS only).
- File path size greater than 4096 characters
The QoreStor NFS plug-in must be installed on to the media server type you choose (for supported operating systems and DMAs, see the QoreStor Interoperability Guide). The plug-in software enables integration between QoreStor data storage operations and the supported data management applications (DMAs). Before you install, make sure you adhere to the Best Practices covered in another topic in this chapter.
The plug-in must be installed on the designated Linux-based media server in the following directory, /usr/openv/lib/. The plug-in is installed using a self-extracting installer that installs the Rapid NFS plug-in and all of its related components. The installer supports the following modes, with the default being Help (-h):
- Help (-h)
- Install (-install)
- Upgrade (-upgrade)
- Uninstall (-uninstall)
- Force (-force)
$> ./QuestRapidNFS-xxxxx-xxxxx-x86_64.bin -help
Quest plug-in installer/uninstaller
usage: QuestRapidNFS-xxxxx-xxxxx-x86_64.bin [ -h ] [ -install ] [ -uninstall ]
-h : Displays help
-install : Installs the plug-in
-upgrade : Upgrades the plug-in
-uninstall : Uninstalls the plug-in
-force : Forces the installation of the plug-in
Downloading the Rapid NFS Plug-in
You can download the plug-in installer from the Quest website:
- Go to support.quest.com/qorestor, select your specific QoreStor version, and then navigate to Software Downloads.
- Locate the Rapid NFS plug-in and download it to your system.
Enabling Secure Connect
Starting with the Rapid NFS plug-in version 4.0.3.3, the plug-in installation script includes the option to install and enable Secure Connect. Secure Connect is comprised of a set of client and server components that create a resilient and secure communication channel for use by WAN-connected clients. The server components are installed and enabled by default during the installation of the QoreStor server.
If you have WAN-connected Rapid NFS clients and choose to install Secure Connect, you can do so by adding the sc parameter to the mount command, as described in step 7 in the installation procedure.
Installing the plug-in
To install the Rapid NFS plug-in, follow the steps below.
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NOTE: The plug-in needs to be installed on client systems to support client-side deduplication. |
- Download
QuestRapidNFS-4.0.3317.0-x86_64.bin.gz from the website.
- Unzip the package.
unzip QuestRapidNFS-4.0.3317.0-x86_64.bin.gz
- Assign execute bit to change the permission of the binary package:
chmod +x QuestRapidNFS-4.0.3317.0-x86_64.bin
- Install the Rapid NFS package. Before installing, remove the stale NFS entry.
QuestRapidNFS-4.0.3317.0-x86_64.bin -install
- Load the file system in user space (FUSE) module, if not already loaded:
modprobe fuse
- Create a directory on the client. For example:
mkdir /mnt/backup
- Mount Rapid NFS as a file system type using the mount command. For example:
mount -t rdnfs 10.0.0.1:/containers/backup/mnt/backup
To enable Secure Connect, mount Rapid NFS using the sc flag, as shown below:
mount -t rdnfs 10.0.0.1:/containers/backup/mnt/backup sc,user=backup_user,password=<backup_user password>
If you are using a DMA that supports a marker, set the marker by using -o in the mount command. For example, if you wanted to set the CommVault marker (cv):
mount -t rdnfs 10.0.0.1:/containers/backup /mnt/backup -o marker=cv
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NOTE: If you want to do a mount on AIX, you must set the nfs_use_reserved_ports and portcheck parameters first. The parameters cannot be set to 0. For example: root@aixhost1 / # nfso -po portcheck=1 root@aixhost1 / # nfso -po nfs_use_reserved_ports=1 |
To ensure that the plug-in is running successfully, check the log file at: tail -f /var/log/oca/rdnfs.log.
