Backing up multiple companies/domains

[malarcon77]

Hello,

I have just been tasked to do research on the following:

The IT shop of my company would like to be the sole IT provider for three separate companies.  Using our current datacenters, one Production and one DR, we will use vCloud Director to service this “multi-tenant” IT environment. We would like to use Netbackup to service all of their backup needs, while leveraging our current backup infrastructure.

Here is our current environment:

• 1 Netbackup Domain
• 1 x Storagetek SL500 tape library
• 10 x LTO3 tape drives, shared by master and media servers
• 1 x Master/EMM Server - 2003 Windows Server Std x86, acting as control host to robot
• 2 x Media Servers - 2003 Windows Server Std x86
• 1 x 2TB disk staging unit

So, I need to find out all of our options for providing backup services to these three companies.  I am to assume the following at this point: (I don’t have that much info from my bosses right now, they just want to know options)

• All companies will reside in the same datacenter as “multi-tenants”
• Their network traffic will be seperated, either by way of simply no routing or by firewalls
• They will be on separate/non-trusted AD domains

If needed, I should include any software/hardware that I need to purchase to make this happen.

I was thinking of making three separate Netbackup domains and managing all of them with OpsCenter.  However, I think that a tape library cannot be shared across domains?

So, anyone have any good ideas how to get this done with minimal puchases?

Thanks!
Mark 

[Mark_Solutions]

If they are resolvable via IP address you could do a single NetBackup Domain - if not then OpsCenter would not be able to get to them all either!

You could only share a library if it could be physically partitioned at the library level itself.

From what you describe you are looking very much like three NetBackup Domains, each of which will need its own tape library and to be managed individually

Sorry it is not what you were looking for but if there is no tcpip route between them then you are stuck - it all replies on that.

Hope this helps

[malarcon77]

Mark,

Thanks for the extremely informative reply.  Not what I was hoping for ,  but very good to know!

I just talked to my network person and she said the network will involve alot of NAT'ing and PAT'ing between the three networks.

I saw a document here: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO34003 The third bullet point states a possiblity, as such:

Multiple master servers 

Use multiple NetBackup master servers that share a common media and device management domain. This means that the master servers use the same EMM server. "

Do you think you can briefly tell me how this works or do you have more documentation about this?

Thanks!

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

You can have a centralised EMM Server shared by multiple Master Servers but you would be relying on the links being good for all of them to work correctly

I do not know of anyone that has implemented this (sure someone has but i have not come across anyone)

If there is the possibility of a connection (though PAT and NAT may stop it all working!?) then i would reccomend the OpsCenter rather then a centralised EMM Server.

If one of your customers decided to go else where what would you do then? You cannot give them a "part" of your EMM Server - too scary in my opinion!

[malarcon77]

Let's say by some way of magic OpsCenter was deployable in a NAT'ed environment.  Can OpsCenter still be used if the three domains are on three seperate/non-trusted Active Directory domains?  I guess I am not sure how permissioning is done.

[Nicolai]

Netbackup nor opscenter is dependent of Windows domains or trusts. Netbackup uses host files or DNS for authentication.

[nileshj]

Did you try sharing EMM server between three NetBackup domains you have for each company? Does this approach solved your problem of sharing a single physical tape library across domain?

I am working on a similar use case, so thought I should check with you.

/Nilesh