NB 7.5.0.4 Windows Master - setting up deduplication

[lovethatcheese]

Hello. On a new Master install of NB, on Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. Media server is same OS.

I'm going to have multiple media servers running deduplication, and one master controlling it.

The master / media server are talking to each other. That is all for configuration so far.

I have a basic disk from iSCSI Initiator that is sitting on my media server OS, with drive letter N:\

In running through the wizard on Master to create a new MSDP pool, I am following along until I get to this screen:

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Storage Path:  (once these properties are defined, they cannot be changed)

obviously, this warning seems pretty serious. If they don't want a drive letter, am I supposed to create a new directory on the N:\ ? what else would the storage path be? For example, n:\netbackup instead of n: ?

As for alternate path for deduplication database - would this point to the Master, as that's where the catalog information will be? There is no storage on my Master. I could give it another drive from my SAN if need be.

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Just want to by crystal clear in setting this up.

Once this is done, do I set up my tape drive through the Master, or through the Media server in which it is connected / linked to?

[lovethatcheese]

As an FYI:  for the storage path, I am referring to the help topics, when they state:

Storage path

The path to the storage. Because the storage requires a directory path, do not use only a root node (/) or drive letter (G:\) as the storage path

[PeteWall · Accepted solution]

Hello,

During configuration of the Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP), we don't allow you to use the root level of a drive letter, because we create many directories and files inside of our storage directory, and we don't want to risk shareing that drive with other directories or files.  You can simply specify the path and we'll create any folders necessary.  For example, if you specified "N:\DedupeStorage" in the NetBackup Admin GUI, we would create the DedupeStorage directory and use that for the configuration.

For the database path, that's a separate directory on the media server.  It does not affect anything on the master server because the databases it's refering to are the internal databases for MSDP and not the NetBackup catalog or EMM.  You can leave the database path blank if you want the databases to be stored in the storage path, or you can choose a directory to configure the database to.

Hope this helps,

-Pete