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NetVault 13.0.1 - Installation Guide

Introduction Deploying NetVault Reviewing pre-installation requirements Installing NetVault Reviewing post-installation requirements Upgrading NetVault Licensing NetVault Removing NetVault Troubleshooting

Deployment planning

Before you deploy a NetVault system, review the following topics:

The first step in deploying NetVault is to identify the server and client machines:

NetVault Server: This machine hosts the server version of NetVault.
NetVault Clients: These machines host the client version of NetVault and serve as the backup and restore targets.

NetVault must reside on a local disk. If you select a network share or mount point, and that is lost, it would cause NetVault to stop or malfunction.

On Linux and UNIX platforms, you cannot install NetVault on mount points. The installer tries to delete the existing contents on the mount point, which is not allowed on Linux and UNIX.

A NetVault server installation requires about 200MB of disk space on Windows-based systems and 160MB of disk space on Linux-based systems.

The NetVault Database stores system information, configuration files, job details, and backup indexes. It is created on the NetVault Server. The database continues to grow in size as various data protection operations are performed in the NetVault system. NetVault operations can stop if the database cannot be updated due to lack of disk space.

The NetVault Database cannot reside on a remote file system (for example, network share, network mapped drive, or NFS volume). For installing the NetVault Database, you must select a directory on a local drive or volume.

The database directory contains the following subdirectories:

install: This directory contains the modules file, which includes a list of NetVault modules installed on the server and client machines. The install directory is small in size.
lv: This directory contains one license file called productlicenses.xml, which is where the install license is added. The directory is small in size.
MediaDatabase: This directory stores the media records and backup indexes. The MediaDatabase directory grows to be rather large as you use the NetVault system. To estimate space requirements for the MediaDatabase directory, see Database size calculation.
pgsql: This directory stores the backup and restore job records. The space requirement for this directory depends on the content of the jobs. When calculating space requirement for the NetVault Database, consider adding 10 percent of the MediaDatabase size for this directory.

For estimating space requirements for the MediaDatabase, consider the following:

Approximate number of files and directories backed up per machine: Each file or directory that is included in a backup requires an average number of bytes for an index entry in the NetVault Database. This average is based on a formula of 71 bytes plus the average number of characters contained in the filenames of the files that make up a target file system.
Number of generations of each backup retained: Each generation is a separate instance of a file or directory backup. For example, if the same file is backed up seven times using the default backup settings, there are seven generations of the file stored on the media and indexed in the NetVault Database.

Based on this information, you can use the following formula to calculate space requirement for the MediaDatabase directory:

Approximate number of files and directories backed up per machine

Multiplied by

Approximate number of generations retained

Multiplied by

Number of machines backed up

Multiplied by

(71 bytes + average filename length)

With an average file or directory name of eight characters for a target file system, if you back up 200,000 files and 15,000 directories once, indexing uses 17.5MB. If you back up the same files and directories three times, indexing uses 52.5MB. If you back up the same files and directories five times, indexing uses 87.5MB, and so on.

During installation, the NetVault Server and Client machines are assigned a name and password:

NetVault machine name: The NetVault machine name is used to identify the server and client machines in a NetVault Domain.
NetVault machine passwords: The NetVault machine password is used while adding a client to the server. The machine password can contain a maximum of 100 characters. It cannot contain the characters: \ and spaces.
NOTE: While installing NetVault in GUI mode or Text mode, in the Machine Password or PostgreSQL Database Superuser Password, do not escape any special character. However, while using the CLI options like nvpassword or nvpgdbpasswd, escape the special characters such that the desired password is properly received by the CLI. For example, if the password is <>&#|/"':*.-`()[]{}$@? then, enter it as the following:
On Linux shell: \<\>\&#\|/\"\':\*.-\`\(\)[]{}\$@?
On Windows command prompt: "<>&#|/""':*.-`()[]{}$@?".

In NetVault, run PostgreSQL under a separate user account. This user account must only own the data that is managed by the server, and must not be shared with other daemons.

Sometimes, due to policy restrictions on your system, the NetVault server installer on Linux operating system is unable to create new PostgreSQL Linux user account automatically.

While installing NetVault Server, you can select any of the following options for PostgreSQL Linux user account:

Allow NetVault to create PostgreSQL Linux user: The default option to allow NetVault to create PostgreSQL Linux user account automatically (default value: netvault-pgsql on Linux).
Linux user name: Create a new Linux user account by referring to the corresponding operating system guide. Ensure that the specified PostgreSQL Linux user belongs to the group <user name>. Create the group with the same name as of the Linux user name and add the user into the same group.

Reviewing pre-installation requirements

General requirements

Before you start the installation procedure, verify that the following requirements are met:

Review the release notes and compatibility guide: Before you start the installation procedure, review the Release Notes thoroughly. The Release Notes may contain important information regarding the installation and use of NetVault.
You must also review the Quest NetVault Compatibility Guide, which contains information about the supported platforms, operating system versions, devices, and application versions. You can download this guide from https://support.quest.com/technical-documents.
Review the OS requirements for NetVault Server and Client: The NetVault Server can be installed on Linux and Windows. The NetVault Client can be installed on AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows.
Review the NetVault Server Sizing Guide: This guide provides information about system requirements for the NetVault Server. You can download this guide from https://support.quest.com/technical-documents.
Select the correct installation package on Linux and Windows: NetVault offers separate client‑only and server-only installation packages for Linux- and Windows-based systems. Both the server and the client packages are available in hybrid and pure 64-bit versions:
Hybrid server and client packages: The hybrid packages are intended for users who do not have a pure 64-bit-only requirement.
Pure 64-bit server and client packages: The pure 64-bit packages are intended for pure 64-bit operating systems. If you have a specific reason that you cannot use any 32-bit components (for example, you are using a Linux distribution that does not run 32-bit code), use these packages.
netvault-<RYYYYMMMDD>-vx.x.x.x-Server-{LinuxX86Hybrid|WindowsX86Hybrid}: Use this package to install or upgrade NetVault Server on 32-bit or 64-bit systems.
netvault-<RYYYYMMMDD>-vx.x.x.x-Server-{LinuxX86Pure64|WindowsX86Pure64}: Use this package to install or upgrade NetVault Server on pure 64-bit systems.
Set OS permissions: Set appropriate OS permissions on the target machines to allow users to install software components.
Set the executable permission to the Linux and UNIX installers: On Linux and UNIX platforms, set the executable permission to the installers.
Select multiuser runlevel on Linux and UNIX: On Linux and UNIX platforms, boot into multiuser mode.
Set user permission (umask) on Linux and UNIX: On Linux and UNIX platforms, do not change the default umask value for the root user. The default value is 022. Setting umask to a value other than 022 (for example, 077) can cause job failures if the plug-in users are unable to access the NetVault files.
Verify the SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) policy: If SELinux is enabled using the default “targeted” policy, NetVault processes do not cause any Access Vector Cache (AVC) denial problems. If a strict or custom policy is implemented, ensure that NetVault processes can run in unconfined mode.
Disable the anti-virus software: We recommend that you disable the anti-virus software before installing or upgrading NetVault. If you do not disable the anti-virus software, the installation process may conflict with the anti-virus software and various NetVault operations may fail to function properly after installation.
Verify TCP/IP connectivity: NetVault requires good TCP/IP connectivity between the server and client machines. To use name resolution, a host name must resolve to a unique IP address.
Check storage device connections: Verify that the storage devices are properly connected and functional. You can check the device connections using any native OS tool for minimal backup operations on the device.
Configure “ulimit” variables on Linux and UNIX: On Linux and UNIX, the default size limitation for various variables may conflict with the NetVault installation. For example, the default setting for the file size (blocks) and virtual memory (kbytes) variables may be too low for NetVault.

core file size (blocks)

32768

data seg size (kbytes)

unlimited

file size (blocks)

unlimited

open files

64

pipe size (512 bytes)

10

stack size (kbytes)

unlimited

cpu time (seconds)

unlimited

max user processes

400

virtual memory (kbytes)

unlimited

Load the SCSI Generic (sg) driver on Linux-based machines: On Linux-based systems, NetVault uses the sg driver to connect to the tape devices. On machines with locally attached tape devices, either manually load the sg driver or edit the kernel configuration file to automatically load this driver at boot time.

Platform-specific requirements

The following sections cover the requirements that apply to all Linux machines:

The following sections cover the requirements for specific Linux platforms:

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