NBU Appliance 5230

[Bachchan]

I have a question regarding the appliance....is it possible to attach an external hard drive to the NBU appliance and confugure it as a storage unit(basic,advance or pure disk)? what about if I buy 5230 appliance say 14TB and rather then buying the storage shelf I want to use the NAS or SAN that i have in the environment can it be configured to be used as basic,advance or even pure disk?

thanks in advance

[Systems_Team]

Hi Bachchan,

I have been down this path before.  As I work in government, I had to prove that third party disk was not able to be used, as there is quite a difference in price.  Because I wanted to buy Veritas expansion shelves, I had to go through an exemption process proving there was no alternative.

Although you may be able to physically attach a third party storage device, it will leave your appliance in an unsupported configuration.  I received confirmation of this from Veritas, and the same info is included in a number of their docs.  I've included extracts from two Veritas docs for the appliance which covers this:

• Extract from “NetBackup Appliance Compatibility Notes”

The NetBackup appliances are Veritas defined platforms of hardware, firmware and software.  This includes driver revisions, OS levels and patches of all devices or software components.  There are no modifications allowed without the express instructions of Veritas Technical Support.  Modifications to the appliance in any fashion without express instructions from Veritas Technical Support will void warranty and result in an unsupported configuration.

• Extract from “NetBackup Appliance Support Policy”

“Supported Configuration” means a configuration in which the Appliance operates in a customer’s environment that solely consists of supported operating systems, hardware platforms, software applications, firmware levels, databases, devices, device drivers, and Veritas custom-developed scripts and other configuration elements stated in your Documentation, or that we have validated, approved, or verified for operation in conjunction with the Appliance.  Appliances that include additional software or third party hardware that has not been validated, approved or verified by Veritas will not be considered as operating in a Supported configuration.  For these purposes, references to the “environment” mean the hardware platforms, operating systems, software applications, and other third party solutions you are using with the Appliance.

Steve

[Bachchan]

thanks for the reply Steve. so the answer is basically NO and in case i have to add more capacity i have to buy the Expansion Shelf?

[Systems_Team · Accepted solution]

Hi Bachchan,

Unfortunately No.  If you want to have a supported environment, that is your only path.

As mentioned previously, even if you successfully add third party storage you will be in an unsupported configuration.  Should you even be able to configure and use third party storage, and you have a major issue, it would be highly embarrassing once Veritas investigate and then tell you that they cannot provide support.  What do you tell your management then?

What happens if your third party storage becomes corrupted or damaged, and that is where all your backup images are?  No support AND no backup images = VERY sad backup admin

With the Veritas storage shelves, you also get the health monitoring and call-home features.  I've had cases where Veritas has alerted me to a failing or failed hard drive before I even knew.  I doubt you would get any of that with third party.  It may cost more, but the only option in the long run.

Steve

PS:  Don't forget to mark a solution with the post that helped you the most.