Re: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup Fibre Transport Client Backups

Well the narrow range applies only at the FT Media Server, which to us 
'belong to IT' so we can choose.  It happens it fits what we run anyhow. 
The SAN Client can be pretty much anything.

The win we think will be the administration - it really is just the Client 
kit, so upgrades are much easier.  We've had bad times with SSO on SAN 
Media Servers, and had to reboot application servers because of tape drive 
problems.  I'd accept that was partly the way we used SSO.

If you can dedicate drives to SAN Media Servers you likely don't need SAN 
Client.  We plan to use it so we can move to D2D2T and use way fewer LTO 
drives - e.g. reducing from 200 drives to less than 20.

Like many NetBackup ideas, it will not be right for some people.  In some 
ways it's a pain that there are so many ways to design it.

William Brown

"Donaldson, Mark" <Mark.Donaldson AT Staples DOT com> wrote on 20/10/2009 
17:13:12:

> Given the very narrow range of hardware & OS, why not simply use SAN
> Media Server?
> 
> Data over the SAN, meta-data over the network - seems like nearly the
> same with far less implementation problems.
> 
> -M
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of
> william.d.brown AT gsk DOT com
> Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:22 PM
> To: VERITAS-BU AT MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup Fibre Transport Client Backups
> 
> Simon, I think that some of the replies on the list are not quite
> correct. 
>  We are implementing the SAN Client/FT Media Server for a production
> data 
> centre, and I've spent several months working on it in our test labs.
> 
> It's true that the documentation is slightly confusing, especially if
> you 
> don't get the latest versions.  The book to read is the Shared Storage 
> Guide that was updated at 6.5.4.  There is also a technote with 
> troubleshooting information.
> 
> The *licence* for the SAN Client is the same Enterprise Client licence
> as 
> allows you to run the SAN Media Server, and this naming causes a lot of 
> confusion.
> 
> You do indeed need an 'FT Media Server', which is a normal media server 
> that has some very specific fibre HBAs installed.  There is a *very* 
> narrow support matrix.  The only supported platforms at the moment are 
> Solaris/SPARC and Linux (I think RHEL4, and that is new at 6.5.4).  We
> are 
> using Solaris/SPARC.   We are using Sun-badged Qlogic HBAs; the HBAs
> must 
> be Qlogic, and again only some are supported.
> 
> These HBAs are reconfigured as part of the setup to work in target mode.
> 
> This incidentally causes various tools like 'fcinfo' to not see them at 
> all any more.  You can do this 'card marking' in a server other then the
> 
> one you want to use as an FT Media Server, e.g. to cut down downtime.
> Once 
> marked the HBAs can be installed where you want.  *But* on Solaris only 
> target HBAs on one PCI bus will be used, so you need to choose a server 
> that not only has a fast PCI-X or PCIe bus but also enough slots on that
> 
> bus for your needs.  There are limits on the number of ports an FT Media
> 
> Server can support, about 4 I think (2 x dual-port cards).
> 
> A special driver by jungo is attached to these HBAs in the FT Media
> Server 
> when you enable the function.  You will then have a couple more
> NetBackup 
> processes running, and the server will be presenting to the SAN two 
> 'ARCHIVE Python' tape targets per HBA port.
> 
> You must create touch files in /usr/openv/netbackup/db/config:
> 
> NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS_FT - should be 16, maybe 32 on Solaris, but on RHEL 
> there are other limits, read the technotes.
> SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_FT - set to 262144, fail to do this and it uses the 
> value in SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS if writing to tape and SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_DISK
> 
> if writing to disk; but FT fails if the value it uses is above 512K.
> 
> The SAN Client uses the Standard Client install (even though it uses the
> 
> same licence as SAN Media Server, it does not use the same code).  This
> is 
> one of the plus points, smaller code and it is just the normal client, 
> very easy to manage and update.   You zone the HBAs on the client to the
> 
> FT Media Server(s) target ports.  As usual, don't mix tape & disk on the
> 
> client HBA port; but you can use *any* HBA in the SAN Client.
> 
> You have to configure the OS to find the drives, varies by OS.  The
> Device 
> Configuration Guide now has information on SAN Client, though it took me
> 
> some time to work it out.  I could give you more detail off-list and I'm
> 
> only the other end of Gunnels Wood Road.  Windows and AIX were very
> easy. 
> Once the OS can see the ARCHIVE Python devices, you can enable SAN
> Client 
> function.  Entry in bp.conf, or there is a  CLI command to enable it.
> Then 
> run bp.start_all, which reports 'starting FT client' whether it is
> enabled 
> or not!
> 
> Many reasons for it immediately shutting down:
> 1)      No SAN Client licence on Master Server
> 2)      Trying to run on a server that has a 'server' install, not just 
> the client
> ...more...
> 
> Performance can be good, it depends on how slow your LAN is.   Our GbE
> LAN 
> can be as fast as the SAN Client, because the limiting factor becomes
> the 
> speed the Media Server can write the data to disk or tape.   It should
> be 
> faster, it should use less resource on the SAN Client as the Ethernet 
> overhead is gone - but if you used TOE cards it would make less 
> difference.  But if a server was on 100Mb, then backing up over 2Gb
> fibre 
> would be a lot quicker.  Our plan is to eliminate SAN Media Servers and 
> SSO.
> 
> There is a lot of small print about multiplexing, which is a bit 
> different.
> 
> There are a number of new OIDs to learn for logging.  You will want to 
> find the 'nbrbutil -listOrphanedPipes' command.  I found at least on 
> WIndows that the bpbkar log  had some new information when logging was 
> turned up about retries and errors on the fibre links.
> 
> 
> William D L Brown
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "WEAVER, Simon (external)" <simon.weaver AT astrium.eads DOT net> 
> Sent by: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> 13-Oct-2009 17:20
> 
> To
> "VERITAS-BU AT MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN DOT EDU" <VERITAS-BU AT mailman.eng.auburn 
> DOT edu>
> cc
> 
> Subject
> [Veritas-bu] NetBackup Fibre Transport Client Backups
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi All 
> Currently looking into the SAN Client / Fibre Transport clients. 
> Wondered if anyone else has implemented this on 6.5 and any pros cons? 
> While readin the SS Guide - it seems to imply you need a "Media" Server,
> 
> but does not really explain if you can use a "Master" Server for this 
> (even though a Master / Media Server is on the same box)? From the
> looks, 
> it seems that I need an FT Media Server to handle this !
> Any comments would be appreicated, even if it is a "dont do it"  :-) 
> Regards 
> Simon 
> 
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