Backing up Oracle ZFS 7120 to Tape using NetBackUp

[h_almemar]

Hi Everyone,

Earlier today my Oracle DBA asked if I am able to backup his Oracle ZFS 7120 appliance with Netbackup, today was the first time I've heard of ZFS. He wants to perform a weekly full of the whole ZFS drive, which is about 10 TB and back it up to tape and send it offsite for DR purposes, So I have the following questions: Thank you in advance for all your assistance.

1. is it possible to use netbackup 7.6 to perform a backup from the zfs appliance straight to tape? how does that work if the databases are constantly being written to?

2. after doing research, I found an Oracle ZFS plugin for NetBackup, would installing thi software cause MBU to crash?

3. If I am wrong about the Oracle ZFS plugin for netbackup, how would I go about getting netbackup to talk to the ZFS appliance, and then schedule the weekly full straight to tape?

Thank you for your time.

[Marianne]

The plugin is for the ZFS Appliance to be used as backup target - in other words, using it as advanced type of disk storage unit in NBU.
If you look at the NBU HCL under OST section, you will find Oracle ZFS Appliances in the OST Storage Servers - Vendor Compatibility section. 
NBU 7 - 7.6 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL): http://www.veritas.com/docs/000040791
NBU 7.7 HCL: http://www.veritas.com/docs/000025228

Your Oracle team want you to backup the data on the Appliance to tape.
NetBackup supports this with NDMP type backup.
Have a look in the same HCL under NDMP Devices.

Backup software cannot be installed on NAS appliances - it uses NDMP.
NDMP is a special backup protocol installed on NAS appliances that backup software can interact with to back it up. 
As per the HCL, the ZFS Appliance supports network backup to a media server (Remote) as well as Direct-attach, where tape drives are attached directly (or shared with other media servers via SAN in SSO config).

You will need NetBackup for NDMP license (or Capacity license) to enable NDMP type backup.

I found these NDMP-related docs on Oracle site:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27998_01/html/E48433/configuration__services__ndmp.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/sun-unified-storage/documentation/ndmp-implem-0615-...

NetBackup manual: NetBackup for NDMP Administrator's Guide