Forum Discussion

Zahid_Haseeb's avatar
Zahid_Haseeb
Moderator
2 years ago

Traffic view on Fiber Optics

ENVIRONMENT

Netbackup = 10.1.1

Netbackup OS = 2019

Robotic Tape Library Drives are connected with NDMP host and Netbackup Server thru Fiber Channel

QUERY

How we can see the FC Traffic between NDMP host and Robotic Tape Library while backups are happening at Netbackup Server. Except the below way

 

 

 

 

7 Replies

  • Hi Zahid_Haseeb 

    Not sure I understand. Can you elaborate ?

    Media Transport Type has two values as I recall : LAN or FT (Fibre Transport).

    I don't think you will see something like "SCSI" or SAN

  • Yes I mean FT.

    The configuration what I see "Robot Control is attached to an NDMP host" means the backups should use a FT path directly between NDMP host and Tape Drives. However I see a traffic (when triggering backup policy) increase when I see the Task Manager of Windows where Netbackup is installed

    Netbackup Server Ethernet has nothing to do. No need to increase the traffic on its own Ethernet. The backups should use a FT path directly between NDMP host and Tape Drives 

    Just want to see if there is any Netbackup command available which can show the backup path being followed by backup policy 

    • Michal_Mikulik1's avatar
      Michal_Mikulik1
      Moderator

      Hello,

      There is a confusion in at least 2 things:


      Transport Type = FT is not used for every data movement over FC. It is used for a specialized transport where data between Client and Media Server are moved through SAN (= so called Fibre Transport protocol). Movements between Media Server and backup device are not reflected here, even if Media Server is identical with Client and there is no transport over LAN.
      Robot Control Host is irrelevant for backup transport. It only defines a server/device which moves with robotic arm while loading/unloading media. Backup data flow can be in a different way and depends on a policy/schedule storage unit. When misconfigued, even data from this NDMP host can flow over LAN to the library drives.
      There is no command which would display backup path for a policy on a low level. Just check policy storage unit and its definition, and where are client data. We see just a part of your NBU domain, not the whole context, so we cannot assess this.

       

      Regards

      Michal

      • Zahid_Haseeb's avatar
        Zahid_Haseeb
        Moderator

        So is this possible to use a Fiber Optic between NDMP and Robot Tape Library if all Netbackup/Robot TL and NDMP all are connected via Fiber Switch as well

        My Policy for reference:

         

         

        Just for reference.

         

         

         

  • Hi Zahid_Haseeb 

    Whether Netbackup or the NDMP device control the robot - meaning sending commands to move tapes around in the roboto, has no impact on backup speed. 

    A command to move a tape within the robot is just a few bytes long, basically just get,put & move commands.

    /Nicolai

     

  • Team, Thanks for your contributions on my query. I noticed the Robotic TL is configured under Storage Unit as Media Manager instead of NDMP. I corrected it with NDMP. After that the NDMP Host admin also confirmed me that he is receiving data flow on fiber switch port when triggering the backup policy