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j083418's avatar
j083418
Level 5
15 years ago
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Flashbackups and Encryption

There is a business need to encrypt the backups that are currently being taken at my place of work. A lot of the backups are Flashbackups and I was wondering if anyone had tried this before?

 

Currently running Netbackup 6.5.4 and think I read somewhere that encrpyting Flashbackups was not possible.

 

Has anyone implemented encryption with Flashbackup?

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  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    15 years ago

    Dont think that's possible, FlashBackup is a block level backup of the File System. Can't encrypt a block. Also dont think it will be worth much without the catalog information, so its basically encrypted anyways :)

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  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    Dont think that's possible, FlashBackup is a block level backup of the File System. Can't encrypt a block. Also dont think it will be worth much without the catalog information, so its basically encrypted anyways :)

  • Deeps's avatar
    Deeps
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    I think we can use hardware encryption in this situation ?

  • Deeps's avatar
    Deeps
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    1) Install and configure NetBackup Media Server Encryption Option (MSEO)

    2) Configure NetBackup Key Management Service (KMS) ONLY if you are running LTO-4 or IBM Total Storage drives .

    3) Use a 3rd party hardware device to encrypt the data.
     

  • Ed_Wilts's avatar
    Ed_Wilts
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    We use Decru (now NetApp) devices to encrypt all of our backups, whether they're FlashBackup or not.  These appliances have now reached (or about to reach) their end of sale date.

    Your other option is to investigate LTO-4 tape drives and encrypt at the drive level.  That's what we'll likely do next.

  • Karthikeyan_Sun's avatar
    Karthikeyan_Sun
    Level 6
    15 years ago

     

    This doc is for NB 5.x, i dont find info for NB 6.x but i hope its similar only

    The following limitations exist with the FlashBackup option for Windows:
     

    • The NetBackup 5.0 Advanced Client license key is required on the master server
    • The master server must be Windows 2000 or 2003. UNIX master server support is planned to be added later
    • Clients must be Windows 2000 or 2003
    • Clients must have NetBackup 5.0 installed
    • Policies must be of the type FlashBackup-Windows
    • Files list of the policy must be in the format: \\.\<drive_letter>:
    Example: \\.\D:  
    • The ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive is not supported  
    • User Backup and User Archive policy schedules are not supported. Only full, differential incremental, and cumulative incremental schedule types are supported
    • The following policy attributes are not supported:
    - "backup network drives"
    - "cross mount points"
    - "collect True Image Restore (TIR) information"
    - "compression"
    - "encryption"

    - "collect disaster information"

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH30893&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1293165442890

  • j083418's avatar
    j083418
    Level 5
    15 years ago

    Thanks for all the responses. It's as I thought, Flashbackups don't seem to be supported for Netbackup Encryption. Will have to try encrypting them at the drive level as Ed has suggested.