NetVault 12.4 - Administration Guide for Managed Service Providers

The server provides services to tenants in an isolated environment such as schedule management, job management, device management, media management, user management, notification management, and log management. Various types of physical and virtual storage devices can be locally attached to the server. MSP provides all these services in an isolated environment.

The NetVault Backup Server can run on Windows and Linux operating systems.

The Managed Service Provider is supported on both Linux and Windows Pure 64 bit NetVault Backup Servers.

NetVault Backup Clients

The NetVault Backup Client is installed on machines that you want to protect using the NetVault Backup solution. These machines can be file servers, database servers, email servers, application servers, and workstations.

The NetVault Backup Clients are assigned to a NetVault Backup Server, which manages all data protection operations for the clients. A single server and its associated clients form a NetVault Backup Domain. In MSP environment, the tenants NetVault Backup client communicates with NetVault Backup Server and devices, through secure channel (VPN).

The NetVault Backup Client can run on AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

NetVault Backup plug-ins

The NetVault Backup Plug-ins are used to protect various applications and data stored on the server and client machines. There are two categories of NetVault Backup plug-ins: built-in plug-ins and add-on plug-ins.

Built-in plug-ins

The built-in plug-ins are packaged with the NetVault Backup software, and automatically installed on the respective machines when you install the NetVault Backup Server and Client software.

NetVault Backup offers the following types of built-in plug-ins:

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for FileSystem (Plug-in for FileSystem): The Plug-in for FileSystem protects critical file system data, and minimizes downtime by allowing you to restore full volumes, individual partitions, or individual directories and files quickly and reliably with minimal interaction.

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for Consolidation (Plug-in for Consolidation): The Plug-in for Consolidation lets you create a composite saveset by combining a Full Backup and its associated Incremental Backups. You can use this consolidated saveset as the base for subsequent Incremental Backups. The Plug-in for Consolidation does not back up data from a client; it just creates a composite set from existing savesets.


	IMPORTANT: For better consolidate backup performance, we suggest that the Managed Service Provider (MSP) administrator should provide unique client machine (s) to each tenant. MSP administrator must ensure that no critical data is placed on this client machine. The tenant administrator can register this client machine to perform consolidated incremental job operations. Apart from consolidated incremental operation, no other backup or restore operation must be performed on this dedicated client machine (s).

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for Data Copy (Plug-in for Data Copy): The Plug-in for Data Copy lets you create one or more copies of backups for off-site storage and disaster recovery purposes. The Plug-in for Data Copy does not back up data from a client; it just creates a copy of an existing backup.


	IMPORTANT: For better data copy performance we suggest, that the Managed Service Provider (MSP) administrator should provide unique client machine (s) to each tenant. MSP administrator must ensure that no critical data is placed on this client machine. The tenant administrator can register this client machine to perform data copy job operations. Apart from data copy operation, no other backup or restore operation must be performed on this dedicated client machine (s).

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for Databases (Plug-in for Databases): The Plug-in for Databases protects system data (such as configuration files, system settings, backup indexes, backup media information, job schedule, license keys, and other data) stored in the NetVault Database. You can use this backup to recover a functional NetVault Backup Server after a failure.

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for Raw Devices (Plug-in for Raw Devices): The Plug-in for Raw Devices protects data stored on physical disks. The plug-in lets you recover the Master Boot Record (MBR), system partitions, and individual user partitions from a point-and-click user interface without writing any complex scripts.

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NetVault Backup Plug-in for Rapid Data Access (Plug-in for RDA): The Plug-in for RDA lets you use the client-side and inline deduplication capabilities that are available in other products, such as Quest DR Series system of deduplication appliances and software-defined Quest QoreStor storage devices (Linux only).

For more information about built-in plug-ins, see the Quest Plug-in for FileSystem User’s Guide and Quest NetVault Backup Built-in Plug-ins User’s Guide.

Add-on plug-ins

The add-on plug-ins are available as separate products, and installed on the NetVault Backup Server and Client machines to protect specific applications and appliances.

NetVault Backup offers the following types of add-on plug-ins:

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Plug-ins for applications: These plug-ins provide data protection to business-critical applications, such as Oracle, SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Domino, DB2, Informix, SAP, and Sybase.

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Plug-ins for NDMP-based NAS appliances: These plug-ins enable NDMP-based backups and restores for appliances that support this protocol. NetVault Backup also offers specialized plug-ins that integrate the NetApp SnapMirror, SnapVault, and Snapshot technologies to provide advanced data protection to NetApp appliances.

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Plug-ins for virtual environments: These plug-ins provide data protection to virtual machines in VMware and Hyper-V environments.

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Plug-ins for backup encryption: These plug-ins provide support for CAST-128, AES-256, and CAST-256 algorithms to meet regulatory backup security requirements.

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Plug-ins for device integration: These plug-ins enable configuration of specialized tape libraries for use in a NetVault Backup environment.

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Plug-ins for bare metal recovery: These plug-ins let you recover an entire system, including the operating system, applications, system settings, partition information, and data on supported Windows and Linux operating systems.

NetVault Backup also offers cluster-aware versions of various plug-ins that enable data protection for distributed data.

For more information about the add-on plug-ins, see the respective plug-in user’s guide.

NetVault Backup WebUI

NetVault Backup offers a web-based user interface, called the NetVault Backup WebUI, to configure, manage, and monitor your NetVault Backup system. You can use the NetVault Backup WebUI to perform various tasks such as the following:

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Configure performance, security, and other options

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Manage Tenant and Tenant Users

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Manage clients

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Manage Storage device and storage media