Barracuda email archiver backup using Netbackup?

[Toddman214]

Netbackup 7504 Windows 2008r2 Master and media servers.

Hello all. Me again.

I've been asked to start backing up our Barracuda email archivers. One is 12TB and one is 4TB. I already have a Symantec case opened, and have been working for 2 days with a Technical Support Engineer, but am so far not moving forward. He's very fixated on the fact that when I test this, it fails with a status 71, which I fully expected and know why. The issue I'm having is that Netbackup cannot see/access the share, probably because the Barracuda is not on the domain....it is in its own workgroup, and mapped to the media server using its local SMB credential. I am able to map a drive to the data from the media server, and see everything in it. Of course, when I set up a policy, and go into the backup selection tab, the drive isnt visible or available to select. I'm not sure there is anything special here about it being a Barracuda appliance, or if this should just be approached the same way as backing up any other non-domain data.

So far, I've tried.........

- creating a CIFs share on our DataDomain, and building out a new Storage Unit with an absolute path pointing to \\DataDomain\CIFS_Share. Added this to the policy and tried pointing the backup seletion to it.

- setting the policy to just point to an existing storage unit, and again, trying to back up the mapped drive from the media server.

Either way, where I get stopped is not being able to locate the share in Netbackup, which is why I'm thinking it's all just relating to permissions. I have typed in the full path as well, but the job fails.

Lastly, assuming what I'm dealing with here are some access issues that can get resolved, given this large amount of data that I need to back up, what method would you all prefer to use to back up this data if it were you doing this? Im sure I'm not seeing all options.

Oh. Yes, I've been researching this on my own, I have attached a link below to another similar discussion to this, but I dont fully understand all of the steps involved. I have created a new local account on the media server, logged in with that, and mapped a drive to the data on the Barracuda appliance, but where I get confused is changing accounts used to run the netbackup service, which concerns me, due to possibly killing existing backups. Sounds almost like another media server would be needed??  I'm just not sure.

http://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/barracuda-850-archive-backup-methods

Thanks all.

Todd

[sdo]

The post that you linked to didn't use a separate account for the NetBackup client services. It appears that what they did was map a drive to Z: to point to this CIFS share on the Barracuda, and authenticate using the server-name\user of the local account on the Barracuda... Then use the Windows mlink command to create a folder link to the Barracuda //server-name/share-name ...and then you should be able to browse the client's folders (the mount point created by mlink) in the backup admin console. Another thing you could try is to use a scheduled task to run at boot time on a server that runs a dos batch file that has two statements in it... A 'net use' to map a drive, and 'pause'. Get this scheduled task to run as NT Local System Authority - then the drive letter should be visible to NetBackup Client. HTH

[SymTerry]

Hello Todd,

Could you please PM me the case number? A 71 is caused by Netbackup not seeing or being able access the files like those on your network share.  Just curious, is Backup Network drives checked on the policy?  

[Toddman214]

Thanks sdo,

Then the mount point could possibly be all I'm missing?  I do have a drive letter mapped, and I am using the full path in the policy backup selection. It is mapped using the local account credentials of the smb account on the Barracuda, and set to 'reconnect at logon." It may be of interest that when I add in the path, it gives me the attached error, but lets me select "yes" to continue. This is the permissions issue I'm having trouble with. 

SymTerry, I sent you the case ID. Yes, the network drives option is enabled.

[Marianne]

Have a look at this TN: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH44652

Extract:

.... in order to back up mapped drives, they need to be mapped into the user context of the NetBackup processes. The way to do this is to use the bpstart_notify script on the NetBackup client, where the backup is run:

Create  bpstart_notify.bat in the (default) path C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin directory. In the bat file, add the following line to map a drive before backup starts:

net use K: \\server_name\share password /USER:domain_name\user_name

See TN for more info.

Hope this helps. 

[Toddman214]

Hi Marianne. I see this phrase "The way to do this is to use the bpstart_notify script on the NetBackup client." I had previously seen the TN, but thank you for it. The client data to be backed up in this case is a share from a Barracuda email archive appliance. Yes, I'm asked to do some strange things. :\  Does most of this information still apply to this situation?

[sdo]

Todd - did you get this to work?