Backing up a host over the secondary NIC on Media Server

[manmountain]

Hi, Is it possible to use the secondary interface for backing up a host rather than the primary. Both have connectivity to the host that I want to backup. The secondary interface is plumbed on the same VLAN as the host so I would prefer that it uses the secondary interface.

Will netbackup use the secondary interface anyway even though the hostname of the secondary interface is different that the netbackup media server?

Thanks!

[Nicolai · Accepted solution]

Yes it possible - but difficult to explain exactly how based on the information provided you provided.

Netbackup rely on the OS internal routing - You need to specify the name of the secondary NIC in Netbackup. Depending on default gateways (NBU and client) you may need to specify static routes on both NBU server and client. Hint - netstat is a great tool to check network connection

[manmountain]

Well if netbackup relies on the OS for routing then it should choose the secondary interface. If I ping the host that I want to backup then OS will choose secondary interface to send ICMP request. I guess I'll just have to do a backup and snoop on the interface.

[Nicolai]

You are right. A snoop will be the right thing to do 

I think you will find this tehnote interesting as well:

REQUIRED_INTERFACE bp.conf entry for UNIX servers and clients 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO33232

The note is the T/N is important 

REQUIRED_INTERFACE is not used when NetBackup responds to a request that was not initiated over the required interface. In those cases, the operating system determines the network interface to use by default.

The REQUIRED_INTERFACE is a Windows option also.

[Nicolai]

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[Nicolai]

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