We run NDMP backups on quite a few NetApp boxes. There is more than one
way to do the backups. Refer the Admin guide for the types of NDMP
backups.
The design would typically depend on the number of Filers you want to
backup, their backup sizes and other infrastructure (the Budget factor I
thought, was omnipresent so I excluded it :-) ) We backup the boxes to
a PX720 LTO3 library through a switched fabric and using DDS. We have
seen maximum throughputs going up to 80MB/sec.
It is quite reliable (no restore failures for us till now.. Touch wood)
and does not add significantly to the normal manageability you do for
regular backups. The exception being - separate drives/pools for
NDMP/non-NDMP backups in case you don't go for the DSA method,
additional config parameters for NDMP clients etc.,
Be very careful in choosing your other components of NDMP backups (such
as the FC switch, tape library etc.,). We have had some compatibility
issues boiling down to the "type" of FC cards from NetApp. Apparently
NetApp has different FC cards for tape and disk connectivity. There may
be requirements that the tape FC cards MUST be installed in PCI Slot 1
of all the filers. Before implementation, a thorough confirmation from
NetApp on the solution's compatibility is highly recommended.
Try to avoid operating the robotic arm from the Filer. Windows/UNIX
servers are better handling it. You can configure the library in such a
way that the robotic and one drive (for index backups) are handled by
the backup server and the rest of the tape drives go to (or shared
between) the Filers. Once the implementation is complete, make sure you
test a good 50GB backup and restore.
Try having more index space on the backup server that backs up the
Filers. I would personally recommend using DAR for all the NDMP
backups, as without this setting recovering individual files may take
ages. The downside is, enabling DAR takes a lot of index disk space.
Guess I have scared you enough.. Now the good thing is - once everything
settles down it works like a gem. We see far less failures on NDMP
backups than the other server backups.
Good luck...
Rgds, Ram.
-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Claudio
Sent: 21 December 2006 10:20
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Feedback on Networker 7.x and NETAPP NDMP required
Hi, guru's
My company is considering a backup solution involving NDMP I have some
experience with Networker (since rel. 4.4!), but I've never seen any NW
with NDMP implementation.
I would like to hear your opinion about NETWORKER 7.x and NETAPP boxes
backed up by NDMP: reliability, ease of implementation, manageability,
speed of backup/restores, etc.
Thanks in advance for your answers
Claudio
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