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NetVault 12.1 - Administration Guide for Managed Service Providers

Introduction Getting started Configuring clients Managing catalog search Configuring storage devices Backing up data Managing policies Restoring data Managing NetVault Backup dashboard Managing jobs Monitoring logs Managing storage devices
Role-based access to manage storage devices Monitoring device activity Managing disk-based storage devices in list view Managing disk-based storage devices in tree view Managing the Snapshot Array Manager Managing tape libraries in list view Managing tape libraries in tree view Managing tape drives in list view Managing tape drives in tree view Adding shared devices
Managing storage media Managing user and group accounts Managing Tenant Monitoring events and configuring notifications Reporting in NetVault Backup Working with client clusters Configuring default settings for NetVault Backup
About configuring default settings Configuring encryption settings Configuring plug-in options Configuring default settings for post-scripts Configuring default settings for Verify Plug-in Configuring Deployment Manager Settings Configuring Job Manager settings Configuring Logging Daemon settings Configuring Media Manager settings Configuring Network Manager settings Configuring Process Manager settings Configuring RAS device settings Configuring Schedule Manager settings Configuring Web Service settings Configuring Auditor Daemon settings Configuring firewall settings Configuring general settings Configuring security settings Synchronizing NetVault Time Configuring the reporting utility Configuring NetVault Backup WebUI default settings Configuring NetVault Backup to use a specific VSS provider Configuring default settings using Txtconfig
Diagnostic tracing Managing diagnostic data Using the deviceconfig utility NetVault Backup processes Environment variables Network ports used by NetVault Backup Troubleshooting

Shared Virtual Tape Libraries

This section includes the following topics:

•
About Shared Virtual Tape Libraries
•
SVTL considerations
•
SVTL prerequisites
•
Creating and adding an SVTL
•
Re-adding a previously created SVTL

About Shared Virtual Tape Libraries

NetVault Backup Shared Virtual Tape Libraries (SVTLs) extend the VTL implementation by allowing you to share a VTL with multiple NetVault Backup machines for LAN-free backups.

SVTLs are supported on the following platforms:

•
Windows
•
Linux (x86 and x86-64)
•
Solaris (SPARC and x86-64)

The interface can be Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or SCSI. On Linux and Solaris platforms, SCSI_FCP protocol is also supported. The disks can be of any size. However, operating system-imposed limitations do apply. The SVTL size can be changed during runtime using CLI utilities.

Figure 14. SVTL

SVTL considerations

Before setting up an SVTL, consider the following:

•
The SVTL size depends on your disk size. Therefore, select a disk that meets your SVTL size requirements.
•
Verify that the disk is physically connected to all clients that access the SVTL. The number of virtual drives for the SVTL depends on the number of machines that access the SVTL. However, it is not limited by the number of machines currently connected to the disk. You can configure additional drives for future use.
•
Select the machine that controls the virtual arm changer. Although the SVTL drives can be shared or distributed among multiple clients, only one client controls the virtual arm changer.

SVTL prerequisites

Before creating an SVTL, verify that the following requirements are met:

•
General requirements
•
Set up raw I/O on Linux-based systems
•
Set up raw I/O on Red Hat Linux
•
Set up raw I/O on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or greater
•
Set up raw I/O on SUSE Linux
General requirements
•
Connect the disk array to all NetVault Backup Clients that will share the SVTL. The interface can be Fiber Channel, iSCSI, or SCSI. On Linux and Solaris platforms, SCSI_FCP protocol is also supported.
•
Use an unformatted disk that contains no mounted partitions or volumes as an SVTL. A partition on a hard disk cannot serve as an SVTL. The additional requirements include the following:
•
The disk should allow multiple interfaces.
•
On Windows, any non-ejectable disk can serve as an SVTL.
•
NetVault Backup does not support Multipath, Powerpath, or software RAID technologies.
•
On Windows, delete the existing volumes on a disk or LUN before using it to create an SVTL.
•
On Windows 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Vista, use the Disk Management administrative utility to bring the disk online. When prompted to initialize the disk, select “No.” If you do not perform these steps, NetVault Backup cannot create an SVTL on the disk.
•
On Linux, bind the pool of raw device nodes to a block device before performing any raw I/O on it. There is a raw device controller that acts as the central repository of raw to block device binding information.
Binding is performed using a utility named raw, which is normally supplied by the Linux distributor.
•
On Solaris systems hosting the SVTL or sharing the drives, specify the SCSI ID and LUN values for the applicable disks and volumes in the file /kernel/drv/sd.conf. This requirement is applicable only if you are using a disk or RAID volume on a SAN. Use the following format to specify the values:
name="sd" class="scsi" target=6 lun=5;
•
On Solaris systems, create a single large partition named “Backup” on the hard disk. Use the applicable commands to set up the target hard disk so that it contains a single partition.
•
Determine the client that controls the virtual arm changer.
Set up raw I/O on Linux-based systems

To set up raw I/O on Linux-based systems, you require the following:

•
One or more free IDE or SCSI disk partitions.
•
A raw device controller named /dev/rawctl or /dev/raw. If the controller is not present, type the following command to create a symbolic link:
ln -s /dev/your_raw_dev_ctrl /dev/rawctl

The following example shows how to set up raw I/O on Linux:

1
At the prompt, type the following command to display information from the file devices.txt. You can find this file in the /usr/src/linux/Documentation directory:
ls /dev/rawctl
— or —
ls /dev/raw/raw1
2
Logged in as root, type the following command to create the device:
mknod /dev/rawctl c 162 0
3
Set the following permissions:
crw-rw

If you require /dev/raw/raw1 and /dev/raw/raw2, follow the same procedure using the proper numbers listed in the devices.txt file and set the same permissions.

Set up raw I/O on Red Hat Linux

The following example shows how to set up raw I/O on Red Hat Linux. The raw partition used is /dev/sda.

1
Calculate the number of 4096-byte pages in this partition, as shown in the following example:
fdisk /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1106 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
num_pages = floor( ((1106-524+1)*16065*512)/4096 )
num_pages = 11170736
2
Bind an unused raw device node to this partition. Binding is required each time the machine is rebooted. You must be logged in as root to run this command:
raw /dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sda
3
For persistent binding, open the /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices file and append the following line:
dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sda
Restart the system or type the following command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/rawdevices start
4
Set appropriate read permissions on the raw device controller and the disk partition. Set appropriate read and write permissions on the raw device.
Set up raw I/O on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or greater

The raw devices interface has been deprecated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5; the raw device mapping is now performed using udev rules. To correctly map the raw device, add the appropriate entries to the /etc/udev/rules.d/60‑raw.rules file in the following format:

•
For device names:
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="<device name>", RUN+="/bin/raw /dev/raw/rawX %N"
•
For major or minor numbers:
ACTION=="add", ENV{MAJOR}=="A", ENV{MINOR}=="B", RUN+="/bin/raw /dev/raw/rawX %M %m"

Here <device name> is the name of the device that you want to bind (for example, /dev/sda1), A and B are the major or minor numbers of the device you want to bind, and X is the raw device number that you want the system to use.

If you have a large pre-existing /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices file, convert it using the following script.

#!/bin/sh
grep -v "^ *#" /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices | grep -v "^$" |
while read dev major minor;
do
if [-z “$minor”]; then
echo “ACTION==\”add\”, KERNEL==\”${major##/dev/}\”,
RUN+=\\”/bin/raw $dev%N\"“
else
echo “ACTION==\”add\”, ENV{MAJOR}==\”$major\”,
ENV{MINOR}==\”$minor\”, RUN+=\\”/
bin/raw $dev%M%m\”$dev%M%m\””
fi
done
Set up raw I/O on SUSE Linux

On SUSE Linux, administer the raw disk partitions in the /etc/raw file. This plain text file contains comments and examples for possible configurations. After creating the raw devices, bind the raw devices by starting them with the script /etc/init.d/raw. Use the chkconfig(8) utility to ensure that the raw device binding occurs after any restart.

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