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msodonnell
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May 11th, 2007 13:00
Backup CX700 through SAN using NDMP from CX700?
We have several Windows 2003 and HPUX servers attached to our CX700 through fiber channel (Brocade) switches. We've been backing them up through the regular Ethernet connections using Veritas netbackup Enterprise. The Veritas servers are attached to LTO tape libraries through the SAN.
Due to the size of the data (about 10TB and growing), we want to be able to back up some of the servers through the SAN connection. We've been looking at the Veritas "SAN Media Server", but in a meeting earlier today, someone mentioned using NDMP as a possible solution. I've done some searching, and it appears that NDMP is only an option on the NAS devices like the NS82, etc. We do not have any of those units.
My question is: can the Windows and Unix data on the CX700 be backed up through the SAN using NDMP without having a NAS device? If so, can anyone provide some insights on what needs to be done (if anything) on the CX700 and/or SAN switch to set this up? Would it provide for file level restores?
Any information would be appreciated.
Mike O'Donnell
Due to the size of the data (about 10TB and growing), we want to be able to back up some of the servers through the SAN connection. We've been looking at the Veritas "SAN Media Server", but in a meeting earlier today, someone mentioned using NDMP as a possible solution. I've done some searching, and it appears that NDMP is only an option on the NAS devices like the NS82, etc. We do not have any of those units.
My question is: can the Windows and Unix data on the CX700 be backed up through the SAN using NDMP without having a NAS device? If so, can anyone provide some insights on what needs to be done (if anything) on the CX700 and/or SAN switch to set this up? Would it provide for file level restores?
Any information would be appreciated.
Mike O'Donnell
946
0
Posted May 11th, 2007 14:00
to my knowledge NDMP only works with NAS appliances.
You could zone your tape drives directly to your
hosts. We put dedicated hbas for connecting systems
to our tape san as we dont want to mix data and tape
traffic on the same hbas. Enterprise backup product
should have lan-free functionality, it might requires
additional licenses
Thanks for the reply. If we go with the Veritas SAN media server, that's what it does; you zone the tape drive with your file server, then the Veritas software is loaded on the file server itself. We have some copies of the software, but we're looking to see if there's an option besides loading even more software on an already busy file server.
Mike946
1
Posted May 11th, 2007 15:00
could you potentially take a snapshot/clone of your production luns and mount them on the backup server itself or maybe another server and spin it to tape.841
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Posted May 11th, 2007 15:00
I'm not sure for VRTS world, but they seems to have same product types as EMC... with EMC you have product called SnapImage which gives you that possibility. However SnapImage is working with NetWorker only as far as I know. Nevertheless, VRTS might have same product too (it's been quite some time for me being outside VRTS world, but I remember someone mentioned something called as flash backup option in NB which was by description similar to SnapImage).
Another approach is what dynamox says to take a snap/clone and do backups on off the host. In EMC world we use POwerSnap module for that (again, in VRTS world something like that should also exist). In this case NDMP is not used (while with SI it is).946
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Posted May 12th, 2007 06:00
you will not have any problems mounting snapshots/clones on another windows server. We do it all the time. You will be able to script it on the Clariion side as well as on the windows side. On the windows side you can mount drives by using mountvol command, then you will run chkdks and should be good to go. Of course for HPUX you will need to mount them on HPUX system. Also on the windows side you might want to run some kind of flush utility to flush data to the disk before issuing snap/clone command.946
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Posted May 12th, 2007 06:00
could you potentially take a snapshot/clone of your
production luns and mount them on the backup server
itself or maybe another server and spin it to tape.
Can you do snapshots on Windows LUN's and mount them on a different Windows server? We're starting to work with those on some of the larger Unix database servers, but I didn't know if that would work with Windows, since it's much more "picky" about accessing "drives" from other servers.841
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Posted May 12th, 2007 06:00
I'm not sure for VRTS world, but they seems to have
same product types as EMC... with EMC you have
product called SnapImage which gives you that
possibility. However SnapImage is working with
NetWorker only as far as I know. Nevertheless, VRTS
might have same product too (it's been quite some
time for me being outside VRTS world, but I remember
someone mentioned something called as flash backup
option in NB which was by description similar to
SnapImage).
Another approach is what dynamox says to take a
snap/clone and do backups on off the host. In EMC
world we use POwerSnap module for that (again, in
VRTS world something like that should also exist).
In this case NDMP is not used (while with SI it is).
Thanks for the reply. We're starting testing with snapshots on some of the larger Unix databases so that we can backup with minimal downtime. Can snapshots work with LUNs with general Windows files? Windows seems to be more picky about seeing "drives" from other systems (except in a cluster).
Unfortunately, it's a very "political" issue right now. We are already moving toward setup and testing of the Veritas SAN Media Backup, and a manager from another group brought up that we should be using NDMP. This person has upper management's ear, and sometimes knows what they're talking about, but usually has his own agenda (mostly to make our group look like we we're clueless..). I thought NDMP only worked with NAS, and wouldn't be an option for us at this time, but 'm trying to find out for sure so that we can report back
Mike.943
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Posted May 14th, 2007 03:00
Also on the windows side you might want to run some kind of flush utility
EMC provides ADMSNAP utility to flush the disks buffers on host and also to remove drive letters..943
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Posted May 14th, 2007 05:00
i have not used ADMSNAP before, been using sync from systernals. You can tell ADMSNAP not to remove drive letters, can't you ? I would hate to lose access to my production LUNs just to flush them.601
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Posted May 14th, 2007 06:00
you needn't remove the volume letter, the drive letter in the command is mandatory, so it does it while in production
ref primus: emc138167
e.g.
admsnap flush -o E:
":" after drive letter is mandatory though
dynamox
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Posted May 11th, 2007 14:00