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