NDMP 1

[pmidds]

Hi, does anyone know if you have to purchase a seperate module for this protocol on networker ?

We are going to receive a netapp filer and want our legato box to back this up. We are told it must have the NDMP protocol to do this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[605]

This is true. You in fact need a NDMP client comnection to
back this up.

If on the filer, you also need
- a (dedicated) storage node license

If you want to backup at the MW server you also need
- an NDMP tape driver license

 

[joeunixadmin]

Hi,

Although not supported, you can mount the shared volumes on your backup server and back them up from there. We have been doing this with an Auspex NS 2000 for several years and more recently with a NetApp FAS 940C as well as a F825. We have had absolutely NO problems doing this.

-Joe

 

[605]

Sure you can do this. However, these are not NDMP backups.

 

[joeunixadmin]

Hi,

I don't understand pmidds post to state needing NDMP.

NDMP sounds great in theory but, can be a great headache in reality. Legato, even in it's latest and greatest release is not able to restore more than 10000 files at a whack.

We currently use NDMP (NetWorker) to backup multiple Terabytes of data from over 20 EMC² Celerras and have multiple problems that neither EMC² or Legato seem able to fix. As a matter of fact, we've yet to receive any statement from Legato regarding the problems or possible solutions. Now that Legato is a member of the EMC² family you would think this shouldn't be the case.

Currently we use saveset recoveries as a work-around but, saveset revoceries are time intensive and because of the human interaction involved, are more susceptible to errors.

We have not tested NDMP Backups and recoveries with any NetApp Filers and I strongly suggest lengthy testing of backups and restores before commiting to Legato to backup the machine.

-Joe

 

[605]

The 1000 files/10000 files (NetApp) restriction to my knowledge
is not a restriction of NW but of NDMP. At least, since NW 7
Legato has an acceptable workaround - the "subdirectory
level restore feature".

 

[joeunixadmin]

605,

I think you are refering to Directory-Level Save Set Restores in which the Path to Recover attribute for NDMP recoveries is enabled for save set restores. A directory list belonging to the save set can be specified in the Path to Recover attribute and data from that directory is recovered. The permissions of the recovered files and directories will match their corresponding original permssions.

The key words here are "Save Set Restores" and "A directory list belonging to the save set can be specified".

As I stated in my previous post, this requires an amount of manual intervention which in a stressful situation can result in unexpected delays and inconsistent data recovery.

NDMP is great in theory but still has many bugs that need to be worked on.

When things go south and you need to recovery data reliably, save set recoveries require intense concentration and unless the operator is properly prepared for this situation, he will cause more harm than good.

I can't stress enough the importance of testing the product you are buying before placing it in production.

Be sure that your requirement document is in order and that the vendor has answered EVERY question to your satisfaction and that you understand the answers.

If the company where you work can't afford a test environment, ask the vendor to provide one. If you don't test/practice disaster recovery you will most likely fail when the poop hits the fan.

-Joe

 

[pmidds]

Thanks for your input guys. We went down the road of performing an NDMP backup but the cost of purchasing the Snap Image has put us off. Can't mount shared volumes on our networker server as we don't have NFS. Will it be possible to map a network drive to the netapp share on a Windows 2K server and then backup this mapped drive ??

I know this could be painfully slow but it would do as a work around until our new drive arrives.

Cheers.

 

[605]

Yes, this will work.

 

[pmidds]

I thought I would be able to but after mapping the CIFS resource to 'G' on a W2k server and instructing the backup to backup saveset g:\ it comes back with error

g:\ save bad directory g:\ unknown error 1783 (0*6f7)

 

[anatox]

Hi,
Some inputs of using "mount point" (mapped drive) backup:
* The save-sets should be written as FULL UNC name of the mapped drive (actually you don't have to map a drive, since you're using full UNC name) like \\netapp\volume_name.
* When a restore is required, you could have difficulties to browse the backups versions, and there is some workaround to do it, and since Legato doesn't officially supports this kind of backup, you're on tour own.
* As for the performance issue - it depends in you configuration (network, parallelism...)
GOOD-LUCK
Anat

 

[pmidds]

Thanks anatox that did the trick - the documentation was pointing towards using the mapped drive letter as the save set.

However ... Although it seems to be backing up ok I can't perform any test restores from the NT server or the Networker ( Solaris ) anyone successfully done this ??

Thanks in advance