Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] Remote NDMP to master (5.1) server - dedicated drive needed?

2005-03-24 12:45:10
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Remote NDMP to master (5.1) server - dedicated drive needed?
From: Chris.Romano AT Lazard DOT com (Chris.Romano AT Lazard DOT com)
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:45:10 -0500
William....

If we use the "NDMP Mover Agent"...how is the I/O transferred to the Netbackup
tape drives..over the IP network?..or over the SAN somehow?


Thanks,
Chris.


                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                


                                                                                
                                                            
                                                                                
                                                            
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              william.d.brown AT gsk DOT com                     cc:            
                                                                   
              Sent by:                                    Subject: RE: 
[Veritas-bu] Remote NDMP to master (5.1) server - dedicated drive    
              veritas-bu-admin AT mailman DOT eng.auburn.        needed?        
                                                                   
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              24 Mar 2005 11:46 AM                                              
                                                            
                                                                                
                                                            
                                                                                
                                                            


A NetApp can use its own dump command to write tapes, in which case the
drive must be direct attached to the NetApp.  All our older NetApps used
this, with backups run on a schedule on the NetApp.  They used tape
stackers.

Once you move to using NetBackup with NDMP, you can backup using NDMP to
any NDMP target - that can be the NDMP tape handler in the NetApp for a
local attached drive (maybe SAN attached), or it can be the "NDMP Mover
Agent" provided by NetBackup, on a server that has a tape drive attached
(that drive does have to be dedicated to the NDMP mover agent, so you
still end up with a dedicated drive); or you can use devices like the
Quantum P-series with the NDMP agent on the GbE interfaced drives.

As I understand it Veritas are working to allow the NDMP Mover Agent to
understand SSO, so the drive can be shared.  That is not a feature in any
released version, and you would have to talk to Veritas to see if this is
even planned.

On your second point, if you go to the NetApp NOW site and look into the
product configurator pages, you will see that there are different part
numbers for:

HBAs for connecting the NetApp's own disks.
HBAs for connecting tapes
HBAs to act as targets if you use the NetApp in FC mode, i.e. as a block
stoareg device.

So there are definitely separate and different HBAs for tape.  Current
ones are dual-port, I think QLogic.  There is a limit how many you can fit
in a filer, and so there is also a limit how many tape drives you can use
- though I guess the filer CPU may run out before you fill the pipe.  That
means that there is a limit what you can backup in one night, which is a
lot less than what you can attach to a filer.

William D L Brown


veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu wrote on 24/03/2005 14:48:45:

>
> I was told by Veritas that the Netapps Filer must write to the tape
drive I/O
> via it's own dump/restore commands and thus would need to have physical
access
> to the tape drive.  NDMP is a protocol whereby file inode info is sent
over
> tcp/ip to the Netbackup master catalog, and the data is written by the
NDMP
> client.
>
> We are in the process of setting up Netapps Filers and are also getting
> conflicting info (from Netapps) about whether we will need fiber cards
in the
> Filer dedicated to the Tape Library (or Tape SAN) for use with NDMP
>
>
> Chris.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                                                           To:
> brounb AT adi-limited DOT com, veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>               "David Turner" <Dturner AT manh DOT com>           cc:
>               Sent by:                                    Subject:
> RE: [Veritas-bu] Remote NDMP to master (5.1) server - dedicated drive
>               veritas-bu-admin AT mailman DOT eng.auburn.        needed?
>               edu
>
>               24 Mar 2005 09:14 AM
>
>
>
>
> 3yrs ago I was having similar issues which were never resolved. I ended
> up dedicating a drive and it has been working ever since.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> [mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Broun,
> Bevan
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 4:56 PM
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] Remote NDMP to master (5.1) server - dedicated
> drive needed?
>
> Hi all
>
> Im getting conflicting information from veritas on the need to have a
> dedicated drive for ndmp backup. The scenario is:
>
> netapp filer backed up over tcp/ip to tape library scsi attached to the
> windows 5.1 master.
>
> Ive been told that a dedicated drive was needed. I then had this looked
> into and was told it wasnt. (now Im trying to get it working).
>
> TIA
>
> BB
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