We have had a clustered master server on Solaris since 3.4.  If you are 
using the Veritas Cluster Server, they changed the way it works after 
4.5.  In 4.5 and earlier, it was the way you point out, with the 
installation on shared disk.  NetBackup 5.1 included new VCS agents, and 
changed how it works.  As of 5.1 (and maybe 5.0 -- not sure...we skipped 
over 5.0), NetBackup is installed on every node of the cluster.  The 
catalogs are now pretty much the only thing on the shared disk which is 
now mounted at /opt/VRTSnbu.  Links are created by the VCS NBU Agents to 
the catalogs on the shared storage.  If you install NBU on a clustered 
master server using the Veritas scripts, this is how it is set up.  If 
you want to put the whole /opt/openv on the shared storage, you'd have 
to do that manually, and it will probably work.  However, you probably 
won't get much support from Veritas if it doesn't work properly since 
it's not a "supported" configuration.

Having to change this all when we did the 4.5 -> 5.1 upgrade last summer 
made the upgrade non-trivial.  It wasn't hard, just tedious.  It didn't 
help that the vendor we bought the set-up from didn't set it up entirely 
proper when 3.4 was installed.  I had to move stuff around and create 
temporary links.  Now it's in a supported configuration, and I hope 
Veritas leaves it well enough alone!

I'm still not sure how I like the way they do it now.  There are some 
advantages, but having to make sure multiple links are properly created 
at every failover can result in a lot of troubleshooting if it doesn't 
happen right.  The old way just had a single filesystem that needed to 
be mounted.

Stefanos Monovasios wrote:

>With my experience with 3.4, 4.5 and 5.x it very easy. With any uxix/linux
>platform. 
>
> 
>
>Install netbackup server to both systems just to copy the necessary files to
>the systems.
>
>Copy one of the installations to a directory at the shared disk. (copy the
>/usr/openv folder or /opt/openv folder) 
>
>Make a link from to /usr/openv or /opt/openv to the folder you copy the
>installation. (for both systems)
>
>And finally make all the necessary changes to the cluster server to start
>and stop the netbackup services and to mount and umount the shared disk.
>
> 
>
>I don't have any experience with netbackup 6. It will play if all the
>necessary files are within /usr/openv  
>
>stefanos
>
> 
>
> 
>
>  _____  
>
>From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Justin 
>Piszcz
>Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 2:40 PM
>To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>Subject: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup Clustered Master Server
>
> 
>
>I have heard it is possible to setup clustering for the master server.  Is
>this possible with Linux, or only Solaris?  Does it require 6.0?  Has anyone
>setup any type of clustering with a master server in any type of backup
>environment?  Is there clustering documentation out there for the netbackup
>master server? 
>
>Thanks,
>
>Justin. 
>
>
>  
>


-- 
Jack L. Forester, Jr.
UNIX Systems Administrator, Stf
Lockheed Martin Information Technology
(304) 625-3946