Monthly Archives: January 2010

Don’t run DNS as a virtual machine

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OK, so I’m not saying not to run DNS as a virtual machine, just don’t run the DNS server for your VMware ESX cluster as a virtual machine on that cluster.  Without DNS most/many components of VMware ESX clusters can not work…and then you have a chicken and egg problem.  So if you’re going to run DNS as a virtual machine on the ESX cluster, just make sure you have another DNS server somewhere that is also running DNS that your ESX servers are pointed at…or use host files on the ESX servers.

How-To : Symantec Netbackup – Increase Number of Days in Activity Monitor Job History

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By default (in Netbackup 6.5.x) Netbackup will only keep 78 hours (3.25 days) worth of job history under the activity monitor. For some environments this is not enough so this lesson will show how to increase this setting so that more days are kept in the activity monitor.

Query the Current Setting

media_1263671092837.png

To see what the current setting is, you can use the command:
bpgetconfig -M masterserver KEEP_JOBS_SUCCESSFUL_HOURS
This command is located under: <InstallDir>binadmincmd
As you can see in the screenshot, the default setting is 78 hours (3.25 days).

Changing/Increasing the Setting

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Make a simple text file on the Netbackup Master server and put the following 2 lines in it:
KEEP_JOBS_SUCCESSFUL_HOURS = new-number
KEEP_JOBS_HOURS = new-number
Where "new-number" is, enter the new number/amount of hours that you want to keep in the Activity monitor.
In my example, I’ll use 128, which equals a little over 5 days.

Update Setting on Master Server

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Now, to update the setting on the Master server, run the command:
bpsetconfig -h masterserver mytxtfilename.txt
Replace masterserver with your master server name.
Replace mytxtfilename.txt with the location and the name of the text file that you created in the previous step.
In my example, the command is:
bpsetconfig -h masterserver d:myfile.txt

Restart Netbackup Services

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In order to apply the changes, you’ll need to restart the Netbackup services. Make sure no backup or restore jobs are running before you restart services.

To do this on a Windows master, you can use the following commands to achieve this:
bpdown
bpup
These scripts are located under the <installpath>bin directory.

To do this on a Linux master, you can use the following commands to achieve this:
service netbackup stop
service netbackup start

To do this on a Solaris master, you can use the following commands to achieve this:
netbackup stop
netbackup start

After the services are restarted, you can start the Netbackup Administration Console and you should now start seeing additional days worth of jobs kept in the Activity Monitor.

Netbackup 7 First Availability (FA) Released

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Symantec released the Netbackup 7 First Availability (FA) code yesterday!

More info about the FA code (which is the same as the General Availability or GA code) can be found here:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/336166.htm

There is a link at the bottom to sign up for the FA program, although since now that it’s already released I don’t know how they are handling signups that are new. We should see the GA release announcement soon!

Here’s some information regarding Netbackup 7:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/334273.htm = Back-Level Media Server and Client Versions that are Supported

New Features of Netbackup 7 – Taken from the FA Release Notes

Symantec NetBackup increase the scalability and functionality of NetBackup for its large enterprise customers. The following list highlights some of the major features that comprise NetBackup 7.0

Integrated deduplication:

■ Client deduplication

■ Media server deduplication 

OpsCenter:

■ Convergence of NOM and VBR

■ Improved ease-of-use

■ Additional base reporting functionality

■ Direct upgrade path

■ Expanded and simplified deployment

OpsCenter Analytics:

■ Turnkey operation to enable advanced, business reporting

■ Improved reporting features

NetBackup for VMware:

■ Fully integrated with VMware vStorage APIs

■ New VM and file recovery from incremental backups

■ New recovery wizard

■ Tighter vCenter integration

Guided application recovery for Oracle databases

New database agents and enhancements to existing agents:

■ Exchange 2010 support

■ Windows 7/2008R2 client support

■ Support all Enterprise Vault 8.0 databases using the Enterprise Vault Agent including the Fingerprint database, FSA Reporting database, and Auditing database

Enterprise Vault 8.0 support for granular quiescence

Enterprise Vault Migrator is now included with NetBackup

Enhancements to the NetBackup Enterprise Vault agent

Enhancements to the Netbackup for Hyper-V agent

■ New file-level incremental backups

■ Two types of off-host backup

■ Hyper-V R2 and Cluster shared volumes (CSV)

■ Flexible VM identification

Improved SharePoint Granular Recovery

This release adds the following proliferation support:

■ HP-UX 11.31 IA BMR master server support for NetBackup 7.0

■ BMR WINPE 2.1 support

■ Java user interface support on RHEL 5 systems

■ NetBackup Support Utility (nbsu) enhancements

A Little About Netbackup Deduplication (From the Netbackup 7 FA Release Notes):

NetBackup now provides integrated data deduplication within NetBackup. You do not have to use the separate PureDisk interface to deduplicate data. You use NetBackup interfaces to install, configure, and manage storage, servers, backups, and deduplication. Symantec packaged PureDisk into a modular engine, and NetBackup uses the PureDisk Deduplication Engine (PDDE) to deduplicate backup data.

You can use NetBackup deduplication at 2 points in the backup process:

■ On a NetBackup client. The NetBackup client deduplicates its own data and then sends it directly to a storage server, bypassing media server processing. Because unique data segments only are transferred, this option reduces network load.

■ On a media server. NetBackup clients send their backups to a NetBackup media server, which deduplicates the backup data. The media server writes the data to the storage and manages the deduplicated data.

Is virtualized Exchange 2010 supported? YES!

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See the details in the link… in short.. YES, Exhange 2010 is supported on all major hypervisors!  Lewan & Associates has done many Exchange 2007 implementations on virtual hardware and we’re gearing up for some very exciting Exchange 2010 installations and upgrades!

http://blogs.technet.com/ucedsg/archive/2010/01/12/can-i-virtualize-exchange-server-2010-and-be-supported.aspx