We?ve stored our NBU on
SAN attached storage since inception.
So long as you?re doing
catalog/database backups any failure whether on internal drives or on SAN drives
can be recovered from.
Since we also have our
tape drives accesses via SAN from the master and multiple media servers it seems
there would be a risk to backups if the SAN failed completely.
Having a complete SAN
failure is something I?ve not seen in over 3 ½ years here or at various other
jobs where we had SAN. I suspect your issue at the previous job was more
due to poor design of the infrastructure than to any inherent risk of using SAN
vs. Internal storage.
Even if it IS on
internal storage you do risk the server itself melting down and with RAID 5 loss
of two drives at the same time (rare but HAS been seen by me in that same 3 ½
year period) would lose your catalogs/database just like losing the SAN
would. Additionally with a SAN you can (and should) have multiple
paths to the data meaning loss of a single controller doesn?t blow you out of
the water whereas internal RAID 5 is almost always on a single
controller.
Finally in most
environments where SANs are in place the raison d?etre for the SAN was not the
backup solution but rather large disk storage needs for running
environments. In the unlikely event of a full SAN failure I suspect
the main issue would be your loss of those environments rather than the backup
solution though of course losing the backup solution means you?re delayed in
trying to bring up the rest of the environments. However, here again
valid catalog/database backups occurring on a regular basis is the way around
this ? not eliminating the SAN.
You might want to have
a look at NBU Disaster Recovery planning guidelines for more details as it
sounds as if your prior employer was ill prepared for such a
loss.
From:
veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of WEAVER, Simon
(external)
Sent: Monday, May
12, 2008 11:13 AM
To:
veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Best Practice:
Location of the NetBackup Catalog
All,
Just a general query on
the best practice for the location of the NetBackup catalog (Its DB, images,
ect).
When you install NBU on
a Server, the location can be accepted as the "default" or you can customise the
installation and choose an alternative location (ie: Spare drive on local
server, SAN attached drive, ect).
Presently, I have
NetBackup and the catalog installed locally, on RAID5 set, hot
swappable.
My question is this: Is
there a best practice for the location of the Catalog? For example, SAN attached
disk? I sort of feel uncomfortable with this for several
reasons:
1) If you lose SAN
connectivity (due to a major disaster or failure) the catalog has
gone
2) NetBackup and the OS
relies on that disk being available constantly
Being stored locally,
means the Server and its application (including the catalog) goes with it, and
does not rely on an extra layer of hardware for the catalog to be
available.
I think my concerns
come from a previous environment where the catalog was stored on a SAN,
and was totally destroyed and unrecoverable, which meant a complete import of
hundreds of tapes.
If anyone has any
feedback on this, would like to hear the pro's and con's to storage off the
physical server itself. I have always had the catalog locally
stored.
Thanks,
Simon