Forum Discussion

mprazeres's avatar
mprazeres
Level 3
8 years ago

Netbackup solution for a global infrastructure

Dear Veritas Community.

We are planning to get rid of Avamar backup and use Netbackup 8 for our future software, but regarding this I have a question that I'm pretty sure someone of you can deliver to me that or those answers:

So those are my questions:

  1. We run a primary site, this primary site let's say is Country A. Where we have an infrastructure of about 300 physical ESX Hosts with approximatelly 5'000 vGuests, that we will backup using a Master server and a lot of Media servers to get the Daily and Weekly backups done. That's actually not the problem, I get this point, but and there it comes. We do have in 170 Countries (so 170 sites with 2 esx hosts and about 40 vGuests). What is the configuration you will need, if you want the possibility to restore locally if the connection between the Master server running in Country A is not available? Do I have to install on each site 1 or 2 Mediaservers (just for the fact of HA) and then have then deliver the data to the Masterserver? and if I do so, will I be able to restore? if perhabs the line to the remote Country is down? As we do use Satelite connections to some countries? This is something I can't really understand how Netbackup resolves this issue. I need a backup to be taken locally and be able to be restored when the connection to the Master Server in country A is down, but at the same time, I want the data from all those 170 Countries to be saved in our Master Server in Country A, as there we do have our BIG DATA archive (10000TB Datadomain Space).
  2. And how is it with vmware backups? is it possible to restore them only fully? Or do you have the possibility to restore it (file by file).
  3. Last question, is there special installation needs for SQL and EXCHANGE server?

Thanks a lot,
It's a maybe difficult one, but I'm sure you pros out there can help me out on building my POC.

  • ejporter's avatar
    ejporter
    8 years ago

    If you have a remote sites and they need to run when the link is down you are going to need a master server at each site with its own media server.   In gneral I belive if it is beyond a campus network, you most likely want a master server at all the remote sites.

    We do exactly this with netbackup apliances acting as master/media servers at remote sites.  Then we use AIR to move the data offsite.  Note, AIR is  only applicable for disk based (MSDP) backups.

    If the site is small you should look into the virtual appliance.

    If you are worreid about HA at site, then look at two media servers, and maybe use a virtual appliance for the master so you easily move it to another host if need be.  Personally,  I try to keep HA out of the backup environment because of cost and complexity.  Most (but not all) environments can tolorate a rare unplanned outage in the backup enivironment.

    VMWare backups can do file level recovery.  Look at  the compatibily documetation.   The OS and the filesysem must be supported.  People often overlook the filesystem support and get in trouble.

    Finally agents exist for things like datbases, exchange, sharepiont.   Again read the documentation on revs and support.

    For something this large,  I stronly suggest  Veritas or your reseller should be helping you size and architect your initial implimentaion.  As you are swapping out a competative product,  I expect you can get a lot of help with this.  :-)

  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    Level 6
    8 years ago

    Hello

    Congratulations on your decision :)

    1. What you'd want to do is take a look at all these countries and see how much data there is in a site, what the bandwidth is between it and other sites in the same region, and what the bandwidth is between it and sites in other regions. In NetBackup we can have a master control media servers is multiple sites, but with that comes the caveat that if the link fails then that media server is disconnected from the master and can't perform backups and restores. There is also a feature called AIR (automated image replication) that can (with supported OST devices) replicate images between domains i.e. from one master to another. You'll therefore need to took at the reliability of the links, and the bandwith and then  maybe groups countries into domains based on those characteristics. You can perform targeted replication from certain masters to other masters depending on your requirement, or as you say replicate all countries in to the Head office. Each domain would require at least a master server, a media server + OST storage or an appliance.
    2. You can restore VM's fully and files from virtuals with a supported OS. Windows and most linux are supported for file restore.
    3. Download the SQL and Exchange Admin guide for netbackup 8.0 and review the prerequisites. Mostly its only a few permissions that need to be set.

    HTH

    • mprazeres's avatar
      mprazeres
      Level 3
      8 years ago

      Thank you so much for this reply! This will help us a lot on the desing perpectives.

  • ejporter's avatar
    ejporter
    Level 4
    8 years ago

    If you have a remote sites and they need to run when the link is down you are going to need a master server at each site with its own media server.   In gneral I belive if it is beyond a campus network, you most likely want a master server at all the remote sites.

    We do exactly this with netbackup apliances acting as master/media servers at remote sites.  Then we use AIR to move the data offsite.  Note, AIR is  only applicable for disk based (MSDP) backups.

    If the site is small you should look into the virtual appliance.

    If you are worreid about HA at site, then look at two media servers, and maybe use a virtual appliance for the master so you easily move it to another host if need be.  Personally,  I try to keep HA out of the backup environment because of cost and complexity.  Most (but not all) environments can tolorate a rare unplanned outage in the backup enivironment.

    VMWare backups can do file level recovery.  Look at  the compatibily documetation.   The OS and the filesysem must be supported.  People often overlook the filesystem support and get in trouble.

    Finally agents exist for things like datbases, exchange, sharepiont.   Again read the documentation on revs and support.

    For something this large,  I stronly suggest  Veritas or your reseller should be helping you size and architect your initial implimentaion.  As you are swapping out a competative product,  I expect you can get a lot of help with this.  :-)