I have a similar situation here and I tested flashbackup for Linux last in 2010. I don’t mean to dissuade you, but in my test a volume that was running 30MB/sec with the standard client actually ran 28MB/sec with flashbackup. If you get any better results I would love to hear about it. I tested on 6.5.6.

 

The “Advanced Client” you need is in the “UnixOptions” package. This is a separate package you have to download from Symantec that has many of the advanced features for Linux, including flashbackup. As far as I am aware, this is just 6.5 / there is no patch for it. You install it after the linux client.

 

The real secret of Linux flashbackup, is that the snapshot capability comes from the Veritax Filesystem (VxFS) not NetBackup. So you will have to create a VxFS volume and configure snapshots properly to get this to work. To do this you will need to get a copy of Symantec’s Storage Foundation for Linux. (I got a trial copy from my Symantec rep.)

 

Unfortunately, my notes are sparse. But you are welcome to them (below.) You will see the last note on 8/21 was the 28MB/sec. At this point the group with the millions of tiny files decided to purchase a NetApp and use the SnapMirror to Tape capability for backups. (Works very well.) I think I could have had better than 28MB/sec, but it requires an indepth knowledge of VxFS.

 

-Jonathan

 

5/26 – Created VxVM volume and VxFS file system.  Mapped to /export

 

Install dell MD3000 multipath driver

 

Rescan for new disks: mppBusRescan

parted /dev/sdb
mklabel gpt

 

http://eval.veritas.com/downloads/van/vm_quickref.pdf

 

/opt/VRTS/bin/vxdiskadm

 

[root@pbnas01 bin]# vxassist -g dg1 maxsize

Maximum volume size: 3984535552 (1945574Mb)

[root@pbnas01 bin]# vxassist -b -g dg1 make vol2 3984535552

 

vxassist -b -g dg1 make vol1 100g 3PARDATA0_1

 

vxdisk -o alldgs list

disk should be online invalid

/etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i sdb format=simple

vxdg -g dg1  adddisk diskname=/dev/sdd

Add to diskgroup dg1 (disk group 1)

mkfs -t vxfs -o bsize=8192,logsize=32768 /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol1

(May need to use /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1 instead of rdsk)

mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1 /export

 

5/27 – ran flashbackup.  <1MB for 1 hour, then ~25MB/sec.  Slower than 30MB/sec standard run

5/28 – creating .tar file to test total speed

6/1 – contacted Tyler Rothchild for assistance, Test backup sequential 700GB .tar file. ~67MB/sec

6/2 - Case 412-321-125 opened with NetBackup support

 

Pending: Upgrade NetBackup to 6.5.6

 

Dave Hamacher

(407) 739-2970

david_hamacher AT symantec DOT com

 

 

NBU 6.5 client Upgrade Issue

 

To resolve this issue, please create a file called “version” under /usr/openv/netbackup.  The content of this file will be the following:

 

HARDWARE LINUX_RH_X86
VERSION NetBackup 6.5
RELEASEDATE Sat May 31 10:25:31 CDT 2008
BUILDNUMBER 20080522c

 

/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1

/dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol1

/dev/sdc1

 

8/19 – begin new round of testing.

Test 1

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/sdc1

Selection: /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1

Result: Ran for 10 min @ 454KB/sec

 

Test 2

Snapshot: disabled

Selection: /dev/vx/dmp/sdb1

Result: failed - invalid command parameter(20)

 

Test 3

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/sdc1

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1

Result: 296768000 in 3:19:45

 

Created /export2 (2TB), Copying /export1 to /export2.

 

8/20 – copy complete

Test 4

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/sdc1

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1, /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol2

Result:

 

8/20/2010 9:03:57 AM - begin Create Snapshot

8/20/2010 9:04:04 AM - snapshot backup of client pbnas01 using method VxFS_Snapshot

8/20/2010 9:04:04 AM - Critical bpbrm(pid=8808) from client pbnas01: FTL - snapshot creation failed, status 156  

8/20/2010 9:04:04 AM - Warning bpbrm(pid=8808) from client pbnas01: WRN - /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol1 is not frozen   

8/20/2010 9:04:04 AM - Warning bpbrm(pid=8808) from client pbnas01: WRN - /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol2 is not frozen   

8/20/2010 9:04:04 AM - end Create Snapshot; elapsed time: 00:00:07

8/20/2010 9:04:09 AM - end writing

Status 156

 

Test 4

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/sdc

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1, /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol2 (2 streams)

Result: 1:40 - <3MB/sec

 

Test 5

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol3 (formerly /dev/sdc, formatted w/ vxfs in vxvm)

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1, /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol2 (2 streams)

Result:  1:25 <3MB/sec

 

Test 6

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol3

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1

Result:  258652672KB in 3:12

 

Test 7 (to tape)

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol3

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg2/vol1

Result: 

 

10/18 – Opened case w/ Datalink

 

10/21 – Testing for baseline

Snapshot: Vxfs_snapshot

Cache: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol3

Selection: /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol1

Result:  18156000 files / 2560548160KB in 24:40:20 ~28MB/sec