Forum Discussion

NBU35's avatar
NBU35
Level 6
5 years ago

offsite copy

Master & media - NBU 8.1.2 and RHEL 7.7
CLients- windows, Hyper V, SQL, Linux

We have are backing up on local disk of media server. In order to maintain a offsite copy of Monthly/weekly FUll backups, Can backups images be duplicated to portable USB disk?
1) data will be duplicated to portable disk manually or SLP.
2) after the completion of backups, disks will be removed and kept offiste.
3) during next schedule of backups, portable disk will be connected and after the completion of backups same process will be followed.

Is it possible ? if yes, what things shoudl be considered ? what type of STU are supported except basic stu?

8.1.2
Linux
  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    Moderator
    5 years ago

    Some thoughts:

    1) AFAIK Basic Disk cannot be used as a storage unit in an SLP, so you'll have to use Advanced Disk.

    2) Can USB disk be used as the storage for an Advanced Disk storage unit in Windows?  I don't actually know.  Why not test it?

    3) Can USB disk be used as the storage for an Advanced Disk storage unit in Linux?  Again, I don't know for sure, but I would think it much more likely to work.

    4) You really need USB3 speeds.  USB2 theoretical max throughput is 30MB/s, but in practical use is only 20 to 25 MB/s.

    5) Be careful to test with a USB disk, and not to test with a USB stick.  USB sticks and USB disks report differently to the OS.

    6) What about encryption?  Yes, you definitely can use NetBackup KMS to encrypt NetBackup images saved to Advanced Disk - I have tested this myself and it works.

    6a) you then need to think about off-site key management too.  And keeping a copy of the NetBackup install software and license keys off-site too.  But don;t store them all together.  You need to do this:

    6a1) store the encrypted images on USB disk at offsite site 1.

    6a2) store two copies of the encryption keys on two different USB sticks at offsite site 2.

    6a3) store the install media and license keys at either offsite site 1 or site 2 - it doesn't matter.

    - just keep the encrypted images away from the encryption keys.

    - but then again if your storage site is very very very secure, then maybe you can store it all together at the one site - my advice is to make this your bosses decision - i.e. do not decide this for yourself.

    7) How will the NetBackup Catalog (i.e. NetBackup Database Manager (i.e. "bpdbm" process)) handle expiring backup images when the underlying storage underneath an Advanced Disk storage unit is no longer present?  I don't actually know.  I wouldn't expect it to crash, but instead to log errors describing how the image expirty routines were unable to delete to old expired images.  Will the catalog entries remains within the catalog?  Again, I don't know.  Why not test this yourself with a short lived backup image.

    8) You probably want a minimum of two physical disks, so that you always have one copy off-site - i.e. so that you never have both off-site physicals disks on-site at the same time - i.e. so that you rotate them - e.f. you write the next off-site copy whilst the other copy is still off-site.

    • sdo's avatar
      sdo
      Moderator
      5 years ago

      When I previously tested this concept on Linux, and also separately tested again on Windows, I used an NFS mount point (on Linux), and a CIFS/SMB share on Windows, as the underlying storage of the NetBackup KMS encrypted Advanced Disk storage unit.

      So, my personal recommendation to you would be to get a NAS device that supports both NFS (and also SMB just in case) and use that instead - i.e. I would not test this with a USB disk, I would test this with NFS storage (if Linux), or SMB storage (if Windows).  The advantage of a NAS device is that it should continue to work irrespective of OS choice or version, and you can rack / cable up the NAS anywhere in your network (which is routable and fast enough).  Other advantages (limitations) of a NAS box are the 1 Gb/s (i.e. 112 MB/s) - or 10 Gb/s, plus they are usually RAID arrays and so will usually tolerate at least one physical disk failure, plus they can usually grow (i.e. swap out lower capacity spindles for larger capacity spindles).

      I could share my proof-of-concept process with you, but I won't be able to support you.  If you are unable to get it to work, then I will not be able to help you.

      • sdo's avatar
        sdo
        Moderator
        5 years ago

        Have you done your math?   :p

        How many TB are you looking to duplicate to portable storage?

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    5 years ago

    In the long run, I think a DR master server and AIR replication using MSDP will be a better solution. Alternative having a media server is a remote location with a separate disk storage unit, and only hold the most recent backups there using SLP's.

    Less human action (human do errors), No handling of disks, no data breach because of lost disks, no bad PR becuase of data breach. 

    You will need at least the advanced disk or MSDP to use SLP's. The basic stu does not support SLP's.

    • Michal_Mikulik1's avatar
      Michal_Mikulik1
      Moderator
      5 years ago

      Hello,

      IMHO backups/copies to USB fit to desktop world, not server world.

      Regards

      Michal

      • sdo's avatar
        sdo
        Moderator
        5 years ago

        NBU35 both Nicolai and Michal_Mikulik1 are right.  If your company has deemed there to be a business risk requirement to off-site regularly, then do it properly with a MSDP AIR server grade solution.  This is exactly what MSDP AIR was designed for.

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    5 years ago

    NBU35 Why do you want to use USB disks, it is a cost issue ?

    A  expense for backup equipment, need to be compared to the value of the protected data.