Linux File System for Master Server

Asking this question in a Symantec forum, my recommendation is Veritas Filesystem.

If you are prepared to purchase a decent Volume Manager and Filesystem - Veritas Storage Foundation is the perfect solution.

Read more about Storage Foundation here: http://www.symantec.com/en/za/storage-foundation

There is a free version available for single and dual-processor servers : http://www.symantec.com/en/za/storage-foundation-basic

1 disk should make mirror

2 if you use default file system,you can use lvm create /usr/openv system.

3 you can reference http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC4483  Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide

As in linux docs, by default the installation dir and catalog will be put in /usr/openv
Should I prepare dedicated partition for /usr ?
How much space I should prepare for this?

Thanks
 

You should create separate file system for:
 

/usr/openv   35G

/usr/openv/netbackup/logs 20G

/usr/openv/netbackup/db (file system can grow very large) at least 100G

/usr/openv/logs 20G

/usr/openv/db 15G

/usr is a separate file system and part of the OS installation.

Make sure all Linux installation are 64bit. 32 bit is not supported and will not work. I recommend the use of VxFS and VxVM but is no one has experience using Storage Foundation use LVM2 and ext3 or ext4. Do not use other file system than those two.

Remeber you can online resize file system with both ext and VxFS.

Please find File System layout details below

/     50 GB
/var      100 GB
/home     20 GB
/opt     30 GB
/usr/openv   35G
/usr/openv/netbackup/logs 20G
/usr/openv/netbackup/db 200G
/usr/openv/logs 20G
/usr/openv/db 15G
swap 64G
with LVM2 ext4

I will use this as a single master/media server to backup around 200 cilent servers.
Do you think, FS layout above is ok?
 

Thanks

@iaw,

Could you please give more detail about your SAS disk?

Is it a HW raid? if so which level (0,1,5,10)?

How many disk do you have locally and what are their capacity (size)?

Do you plan to configure it as standalone sesrver or Cluster node with Veritas Storage fondation ?

1. Best practices (basic LPIC-1 objective) in partition layout for system is:

/ (eg. 50Gb)

/var (eg. 30Gb)

swap (eg. 16Gb)

optionally, you can create a seperate partition for /home

2. You must create a seperate partittion for the Catalog. We have actually design a partition of  200Gb for the catalog. It depend also on how much policies you plan to have, for this you need to analyse your need for the sizing (See netbackup Admin guide).

When you install netbackup, the catalog will be located under /usr/openv/netbackup/db. Once installed, you need to create a symbolic link to your dedicated partition for the Catalog. Example, this is my symbolic link the catalog location which is on a seperate partition:

[root@master]# ls -ld /usr/openv/netbackup/db
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 21 May 14 14:21 /usr/openv/netbackup/db -> /catalog/netbackup/db
[root@master]#

3. Netbackup binaries will be located under /usr/openv/netbackup (/usr/openv is the top directory used for it) directory. You need to have enough space (see point 1 / sizing). Our actual space used for /usr/openv is 16Gb:

[root@master]# du -hsc /usr/openv
16G     /usr/openv
16G     total
 

4. If you plan to configure it as a cluster node, i recommend you to read installation guide for netbackup  in Cluster and also use Veritas storage Foundation as Cluster software. Don't use LVM for your root file system if you have a RAID hw (eg. Fujitsu RX300 comes with local disk in RAID1 HW through LSI controller)

If you have more questions or need more details don't hesitate to ask ;-)

./nathan

It's hardware raid, SAS 15K
2x147G raid1
3x300G raid5
Plan to configure as standalone media server.
Clients : 200 server

Please suggest the ideal fs layout for this spec?
Which one better for the catalog, create symlink or create seperate partition /usr/openv/netbackup/db?

Thanks and regards,
IAW

@iaw,

Ok great. This is what i was expecting.

But you didn't you plan to build a master server ?

As you plan to use it as standalone, you do need Veritas or LVM to be installed or configured.

Your RAID hardware level will give you a redundancy solution in case of disk failure

Regarding the symbolink link

If you plan to use it as Master server, you have no choice:

1. install netbackup software

2. Stop netbackup process with bp.kill_all

3. Create the new catalog mount point with mkdir, label the disk with fdisk or parted, format it with mkfs (or mkfs.extx, where x = 4), mount the file system with mount and then modify /etc/fstab so after reboot it will be automatically mounted.

4. move the folder /usr/openv/netbackup/db to this new mount point with mv (eg. /catalog)

5. Create the symbolic link with ln

If you plan to use it as media server thos steps are not required because it doens't host the Catalago ;-)

Regarding the disk layout, you can do as i said:

On your logical disk (RAID 1) :

/boot (eg. 200Mb)

/ (eg. 80gb)

/var (eg. 30gb)

swap (eg. 16gb)

/home (eg. 20gb or the rest of the disk (growth))

The 'extra' available logic disk of 300gb ca be used for other purpose as you want:

- disk staging (iso images, netbackup packages and patches ...)

- Catalog backup disk. In my environment , i use a seperate file system only for Catalog backup because when you configure the Policy for catalog backup, you need to specify the storage where you will save the backup of your calalog. in my environement, i have created a mount point called /backup which contains catalaog backup:

[root@master]# ls -lrt /backup/*
-rw-------. 1 root root 2888 Sep  7  2012 /backup/netbackup_lnx_catalog_prod_1346968829_INCR
-rw-------. 1 root root 3191 Sep  8  2012 /backup/netbackup_lnx_catalog_prod_1347055228_INCR

....

netbackup_lnx_catalog_prod is the name of my policy

[root@master]# df -h /backup
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1               150G  104M  141G   1% /backup
[root@master]#

Any way, if you plan to use this 'extra' space (entire disk), you can follow the same steps like this:

1. Create a mount point with mkdir

2.  label the disk with fdisk or parted

3. format it with mkfs (or mkfs.extx, where x = 4)

4. mount the file system with mount

5. modify /etc/fstab so after reboot it will be automatically mounted.

./nathan
 

@ nathan

Thanks a lot for your details explaination :)
Yea, I am building Master & Media server install on the same server.
So, I guess I have to create seperate partition of /usr/openv and /usr/openv/netbackup/db, either use symlink or LVM2.

For below mount points:
/usr/openv/netbackup/logs
/usr/openv/logs
/usr/openv/db
is it necessary to create seperate partition? any pros and cons would help?

Thanks,
IAW

@Iaw,

You should make it simple and follow what i wrote above.

It is not necessary to create seperate partition for netbackup installation. All the binaries, docs, config files and so on will be installed into /usr/openv.

As you have hardware RAID controller which provide two logical disk (RAID1 and RAID5), you have redundancy, so no need to use LMV2 (during Linux installation you have the choice to use LVM or not). Now, if for some reason you need to configure it, then you need to know how to configure it (or activate it during your Linux installation).

Here is a summary of steps:

1. Install Linux and design your partition as i wrote above (/boot, / , /var, swap , /home) on the first logical disk (RAID 1 hw of 2x 147gb)

2. Install netbackup client and apply relevant patch

3. As you have a second logical disk (RAID 5) you can used it for your catalog db and backup of the catalog:

 3.1 create two partition on this disk (eg. /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2)

 3.2 format those two partition  with fdisk or parted command

 3.3 Create two mount point (eg. /catalog and /backup)

 3.4 mount each partition on each mount point (eg. mount /dev/sdb1 on /catalog and /dev/sdb2 on /backup). Modify /etc/fstab accordingly so the next boot they will be mounted automatically

3.5 Create a subfolder named 'db' under /catalog (eg mkdir -p /catalog/db)

3.6 Stop all netbackup processes with bp.kill_all  command

3.6 move the folder /usr/openv/netbackup/db to /catalog/db witgh mv command

3.7 Create the symbolic link from /usr/openv/netbackup/db to /catalog/db with ln command and make sure it is redirected correctly

3.6 Start all netbackup processes with bp.start_all command and verirfy that everything is ok (admin console, catalog, emm ...)

3.8 Create a policy for catalog backup (eg. catalog_backup) and specify the path with /backup from the disaster recovery tab in your policy.

3.9 Take a backup of your catalog and make sure data are written into /backup

I did a lot netbackup master/media integration/installation in standalone or cluster environment (VERITAS) from scratch based on what i wrote above without any problem.

I am not saying that you must follow what i wrote but this is a very good guideline to help you for the design of your linux master/media server and netbackup installation.