Is anyone using NetBackup LUA (Live Update Agent)...

[sdo]

1) Does it work?

2) Is it any good?

3) The examples in the manual are particularly weak, and the recent tech note for configuraing a Windows LU server is not at all secure.  Does anyone have any tips on how to do it properly?

Master: Solaris 10, VCS, NBU ES v6.5.3.1

Medias x 4: Solaris 10, NBU ES v6.5.3.1

Medias x 2: Win2003 R2 SP2, NBU ES v6.5.3.1

[Stumpr2]

"Does anyone have any tips on how to do it properly"

Download and install manually.

[Gerald_W__Gitau]

Use a web server if your environment does not allow the use of LAN protocol and using null shares. Check documentation on 6.5 release notes from page 115. ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/NetBackup_Enterprise_Server/290198.pdf

[sdo]

...weak documentation.  The knowledge base has already accepted that the referenced manual is at best weak, and that the documented example (in the manual) for a LAN based distribution is incorrect/incomplete - but the tech note's suggested (recommended) solution is to create a totally vulnerable/open server share, which is just plain ridiculous - I can't believe that Symantec (a supposedly security concious organization) would recommend this, it just beggars belief - and doesn't help me anyway because we don't install an SMB client on our Unix servers and thus cannot map to UNC paths on Windows servers.

I've read all the docs several times already.  The best examples/notes so far have come from the web, and an http based solution seems to be the way to go.

Thanks though Bob - if anyone was going to have any useful feedback - it would be you.

The more I use this "glossy" new site, the more I realise that the design purpose is not to help users but to quickly roll real issues out of the public gaze.

[Trevor_Jackson1]

Hey guys,

I use Netbackup LiveUpdate from our Master server (Solaris 10 Sparc) to our Windows, Linux and Solaris servers.

The trick is to create the liveupdate folder all in lower case. The rest of the documentation then worked perfectly.

In the documentation they recommend LiveUpdate (but then the unix based systems do not work).

Also, remotely configuring NBLU works well for unix boxes via the update_nblu -ForceInstall -ClientList client.lst

Where the client.lst file contains the following:

Linux RedHat2.6 Linuxservername 
Solaris Solaris10 Solarisservername 

If you want I can post the way we configured the utility here or in an article.

Cheers,

Trevor

[sdo]

Hey, thanks again Trevor.
Yes, any further "real-world" configuration tips are always greatly appreciated.
I think I might look into this again now.

We have approx 400 clients, split 200 production, 200 non-prod.
I'm thinking of implementing LUA just for non-prod clients for now.
Do you use it in production?  How do you handle if reboots are required?

[Trevor_Jackson1]

Reboots?

Never needs reboots, it stops the client agent software, installs the new software and restarts it again. Very similar to an Anti-Virus software update program....I wonder where they got their idea from....lol

We only have about 100 clients, but they are widely diverse and spread all over Canada and the USA, we do update production servers with NBLU as it allows us to make sure we are all up to date.

The biggest issue is making sure that the hostname lookup is all setup okay. It can be very sensitive, but seems to work all good.

We updated our entire site using one job, after 5pm with a change record of course...;-P and we had one failure due to accidentally typing in the wrong OS for a server. 

If you need me to post more details of how we configured this, let me know.

Thanks

Trevor

[James_Perry]

I did not find it useful in testing across my enterprise of Unix, Linux and MS master/media servers.  It did not work for media servers at all and for clients it was very flaky requiring the MS Admins to uninstall and resinstall the client files and then patch by hand.

For Unix/Linux clients, it was just easier to script out an update_client_files with the proper security and host names and let it run.

[Trevor_Jackson1]

James,

Whenever a new client agent for NetBackup is installed, it is most important to make sure that the name within the ‘etc/hosts’ file for the client agent is exactly what is typed in during the installation. It is also imperative that the name typed in during the installation is the same name (case sensitive) that is shown by using the ‘hostname’ command.

Normally Windows is not case sensitive when resolving the hostname, but the NetBackup system requires that the case is correct for a number of key reasons:

1) Hostname is used by the NetBackup product to communicate with the client agent from the Master Server.
2) Clientname is used by the Backup, Restore and Archive program, allowing restores, to communicate with the NetBackup catalog and locate backup history

There are other reasons, but I am not an expert (ex as in was, spert as in drip under pressure)

Installation planning and process are the key to success with any product, not just NetBackup LiveUpdate...

Trevor