Installing NB7.5 media server in Windows 2003 cluster

[SteveLaw]

Hi,

I'm migrating our servers to Netbackup 7.5 using Data Domain storage. For larger servers >50gb I'm installing the Netbackup media server rather than the agent because I can then configure them to have their own storage unit and with the DDBoost agent for Data Domain we get de-dupe at source. 

We have a Win2003 x64 active/passive cluster running SQL 2008. What's the best way for me to migrate this into Netbackup 7.5? I need to think about flat file and SQL backups.

Both servers have more than 50gb storage (the active node has >>1tb). As far as I can tell Netbackup 7.5 does not include a cluster-aware option. All I'm concerned with is that if the cluster fails over I'll still get a good backup. As far as I can see if I install Netbackup media server to both the physical nodes under their individual names, and set their individual backup policies to backup all local drives, then whichever node is the active cluster node I'll get the cluster data (the clustered SAN drives) - right? 

But what about the SQL data? The SQL cluster hostnamename, e.g. BISQL1, and it's associated IP address, could be running on either node. How do I configure that? I need the SQL backup to always be performed by the locally-installed client in order to benefit from dedupe at source. If the SQL client is installed on node1 but there's a failover and the database is running on node2, then the backup will read the full 1tb SQL data over the lan - from node2 to node1 - and will take about 10 hours to complete. That's what I want to avoid. 

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[RamNagalla · Accepted solution]

you need to use the app cluster to backup Cluster data  & disks

and storate unit needs to be cofigured using the appcluster name, so that it will alway points to active note.

steps in high level
1) install media server in both nodes
2) configure app cluster using the Virutal/cluster name
3) configure STU using the app cluster
4) create a policys and cluster name as clients.

_________________

On the master server, run the following command to add a host with the virtual name of the application:

nbemmcmd -addhost -machinename virtual_name -machinetype app_cluster 

On the master server, run the following command to associate the host with each node where the application runs in the cluster: nbemmcmd -updatehost -add_server_to_app_cluster -machinename node_name -machinetype media -clustername virtual_

below tech note will help you to configuer the app_cluster.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH135531

[SteveLaw]

Hi Ramnagalla,
Thanks for this very useful info and sorry to take so long to reply.

One question: This is an active/passive cluster. My virtual cluster name is SWFS01, which is the virtual Windows server you can remote desktop to regardless of which physical node the cluster is active on, and where there are several SAN drives (d: e: etc). But there is also a clustered SQL 2008 instance called COGSQLUK1, which has it's own IP address etc, so you can directly access COGSQLUK1 regardless of which physical node it is active on.
So do I configure TWO appcluster objects? example: 

nbemmcmd -addhost -machinename SWFS01 -machinetype app_cluster

nbemmcmd -addhost -machinename COGSQLUK1 -machinetype app_cluster

?

Thanks

[SteveLaw]

Well, balls.

I added the hostname and ip to the hosts file on the master. Then on the master server SERVER list I added the hostname for each node of the cluster, and the virtual name for each highly available application.

All good. But when I run the command nbemmcmd -addhost -machinename swfs01 -machinetype app_cluster on the master nbemmcmd just errors with "missing options character on parameter". I've tried running under \netbackup\bin and netbackup\bin\admincmd - makes no difference. 

I can't see anything wrong with the above, can you? 

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

The command looks right.

Did you remember to add Server entries on the master before issuing the command?

You need to add Server entries for each node of the cluster as well as virtual hostname(s).
(I believe that NBU on master must be restarted when Server entries are added.)

Steps to add app_cluster are listed in NBU HA Guide: http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5183 

If this is a W2008 master, remember to open cmd with 'Run as Administrator'.

​Remember to add all of these hostnames to the DD storage server as well.

[SteveLaw]

Hi Marianne,

It was the 'Run as Administrator' issue! Just ran dos as admin and the command completed bang! - just like that. 

Wouldn't it be nice if the nbemmcmd output was just a little bit more helpful? "You need to run dos as an administrator" is perhaps too much to hope for, but "insufficient rights" isn't too much to ask....

Thanks

[Marianne]

Well, in all fairness - NBU Installation Guide says that UAC should be disabled. I have personally seen all sorts of weird and wonderful issues with UAC. I could create policies and run backups, but reports gave 227 error code! And weird errors with restore.