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Netbackup Accelerator supported for NetApp CIFS share ??

Amer_Vilagran
Level 3
Accredited Certified

Hi everyone,

I have an environment with Netbackup 7.5.0.3 on Windows 2008 that currently makes backup of several NetApp NAS to VTL using the NDMP protocol.

We are looking to make improvements in the backup/restore performance of those. I made a test for a backup using the Netbackup Accelerator technology on a CIFS share without any improvement. Details in the jobs log showed that accelerator was used, on first and following backups, but everything was copied again and no time improvement was observed.

I have found on the NetApp Documentation the following:

 

Data ONTAP® 8.1 File Access and Protocols Management Guide For 7-Mode NetApp, 
Unsupported Windows features
Before you use CIFS in your network, you need to be aware of certain Windows features that Data ONTAP does not support.
Data ONTAP does not support the following Windows features:
• Encrypted File System (EFS)
Logging of NT File System (NTFS) events in the change journal
• Microsoft File Replication Service (FRS)
• Microsoft Windows Indexing Service
• Remote storage through Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM)
• Local user account creation from the User Manager or Microsoft Manager Console
• Quota management from Windows clients
• Windows quota semantics
• The LMHOSTS file
• NT File System (NTFS) native compression

Can anyone confirm that Accelerator can not be used on these ???

What would be the proper method to improve backup / restore performance over the NDMP protocol?

Thank you in advance,

Amer.

10 REPLIES 10

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Support for NAS CIFS shares is documented in this blog:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/plan-better-backup-break-backup-window-netbackup-accelerator 

Extract:

There are a number of great use cases for this feature today such as large file systems, NAS, and remote offices.  It can dramatically improve the backup of large network attached storage (NAS) filers, using NFS or CIFS, rather than remote NDMP, because only the changed files are backed up. 

You will not have the option to enable 'Change Journal'. So, the CIFS share will backed up similar to a Unix/Linux file system backup where this feature is not available.

 

 

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Accellerator should be OK to do this although as far as i am aware tests have been done using NFS rather than CIFS

The change journal just makes it even faster - accelerator keeps its own track log so is not dependant on the change journal

The first backup  may take a lot longer than an NDMP backup but after that it should be better

If the second run (with accelerator enabled in the schedule and policy attributes) backed up the same amount of data then it does sound like something was not quite right - can you post the full details of the first and second jobs logs for us to see please

Amer_Vilagran
Level 3
Accredited Certified

These are the logs from two test backup jobs backed to a MSDP

500K files 289GB size backup

 

FIRST BACKUP JOB

 

125        Backup        Done                0        TST_CPR01NAS004        full        v0023bkp002        v0023bkp002        29/05/2012 17:00:00        STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S        30/05/2012 1:16:51        1                289635287        551546        08:16:51        9729        29/05/2012 17:00:00        08:16:51        28%

 

 

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - Info nbjm(pid=5996) starting backup job (jobid=125) for client v0023bkp002, policy TST_CPR01NAS004, schedule full 

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - Info nbjm(pid=5996) requesting STANDARD_RESOURCE resources from RB for backup job (jobid=125, request id:{6719FFA5-4D1C-418A-BFC8-FA65AACD4E74}) 

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - requesting resource STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - requesting resource v0023bkp002.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.v0023bkp002

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - requesting resource v0023bkp002.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.TST_CPR01NAS004

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - granted resource v0023bkp002.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.v0023bkp002

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - granted resource v0023bkp002.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.TST_CPR01NAS004

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - granted resource MediaID=@aaaaf;DiskVolume=PureDiskVolume;DiskPool=MSDP_V0023BKP002_S;Path=PureDiskVolume;StorageServer=v0023bkp002;MediaServer=v0023bkp002

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - granted resource STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - estimated 110778 Kbytes needed

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - Info nbjm(pid=5996) started backup (backupid=v0023bkp002_1338303600) job for client v0023bkp002, policy TST_CPR01NAS004, schedule full on storage unit STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

29/05/2012 17:00:00 - started process bpbrm (3672)

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) v0023bkp002 is the host to backup data from    

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) reading file list from client       

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) accelerator enabled          

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) There is no complete backup image match with track journal, a regular full backup will be performed.

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) starting bpbkar32 on client        

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - connecting

29/05/2012 17:00:01 - connected; connect time: 00:00:00

29/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbkar32(pid=7328) Backup started          

29/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bptm(pid=7364) start           

29/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bptm(pid=7364) using 262144 data buffer size       

29/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bptm(pid=7364) setting receive network buffer to 1049600 bytes     

29/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bptm(pid=7364) using 30 data buffers        

29/05/2012 17:00:04 - Info bptm(pid=7364) start backup          

29/05/2012 17:00:06 - begin writing

30/05/2012 1:16:31 - Info bpbkar32(pid=7328) accelerator sent 296586533888 bytes out of 296586533888 bytes to server, optimization 0.0%

30/05/2012 1:16:31 - Info bpbkar32(pid=7328) bpbkar waited 124 times for empty buffer, delayed 929 times.  

30/05/2012 1:16:31 - Info bptm(pid=7364) waited for full buffer 569692 times, delayed 1812880 times   

30/05/2012 1:16:37 - Info bptm(pid=7364) EXITING with status 0 <----------       

30/05/2012 1:16:37 - Info v0023bkp002(pid=7364) StorageServer=PureDisk:v0023bkp002; Report=PDDO Stats for (v0023bkp002): scanned: 289651453 KB, CR sent: 207616905 KB, CR sent over FC: 0 KB, dedup: 28.3%

30/05/2012 1:16:38 - Info bpbrm(pid=3672) validating image for client v0023bkp002       

30/05/2012 1:16:41 - Info bpbkar32(pid=7328) done. status: 0: the requested operation was successfully completed   

30/05/2012 1:16:41 - end writing; write time: 08:16:35

the requested operation was successfully completed(0)

 

 

SECOND JOB, NEXT DAY.

 

132        Backup        Done                0        TST_CPR01NAS004        full        v0023bkp002        v0023bkp002        30/05/2012 17:00:01        STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S        31/05/2012 1:14:45        1                289975565        551964        08:14:44        9780        30/05/2012 17:00:01        08:14:44        99%

 

 

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info nbjm(pid=7264) starting backup job (jobid=132) for client v0023bkp002, policy TST_CPR01NAS004, schedule full 

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info nbjm(pid=7264) requesting STANDARD_RESOURCE resources from RB for backup job (jobid=132, request id:{9BC79728-A332-4C8C-81AB-E88D413C64FA}) 

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - requesting resource STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - requesting resource v0023bkp002.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.v0023bkp002

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - requesting resource v0023bkp002.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.TST_CPR01NAS004

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - granted resource v0023bkp002.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.v0023bkp002

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - granted resource v0023bkp002.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.TST_CPR01NAS004

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - granted resource MediaID=@aaaaf;DiskVolume=PureDiskVolume;DiskPool=MSDP_V0023BKP002_S;Path=PureDiskVolume;StorageServer=v0023bkp002;MediaServer=v0023bkp002

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - granted resource STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - estimated 551354 Kbytes needed

30/05/2012 17:00:01 - Info nbjm(pid=7264) started backup (backupid=v0023bkp002_1338390001) job for client v0023bkp002, policy TST_CPR01NAS004, schedule full on storage unit STU_MSDP_V0023BKP002_S

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) v0023bkp002 is the host to backup data from    

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) reading file list from client       

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) accelerator enabled          

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) There is no complete backup image match with track journal, a regular full backup will be performed.

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) starting bpbkar32 on client        

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - started process bpbrm (2628)

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - connecting

30/05/2012 17:00:02 - connected; connect time: 00:00:00

30/05/2012 17:00:05 - Info bpbkar32(pid=2156) Backup started          

30/05/2012 17:00:05 - Info bptm(pid=4736) start           

30/05/2012 17:00:05 - Info bptm(pid=4736) using 262144 data buffer size       

30/05/2012 17:00:05 - Info bptm(pid=4736) setting receive network buffer to 1049600 bytes     

30/05/2012 17:00:05 - Info bptm(pid=4736) using 30 data buffers        

30/05/2012 17:00:07 - Info bptm(pid=4736) start backup          

30/05/2012 17:00:11 - begin writing

31/05/2012 1:14:35 - Info bpbkar32(pid=2156) accelerator sent 296934978560 bytes out of 296934978560 bytes to server, optimization 0.0%

31/05/2012 1:14:35 - Info bpbkar32(pid=2156) bpbkar waited 23 times for empty buffer, delayed 321 times.  

31/05/2012 1:14:35 - Info bptm(pid=4736) waited for full buffer 603602 times, delayed 1874792 times   

31/05/2012 1:14:39 - Info bptm(pid=4736) EXITING with status 0 <----------       

31/05/2012 1:14:40 - Info v0023bkp002(pid=4736) StorageServer=PureDisk:v0023bkp002; Report=PDDO Stats for (v0023bkp002): scanned: 289991743 KB, CR sent: 2560280 KB, CR sent over FC: 0 KB, dedup: 99.1%

31/05/2012 1:14:40 - Info bpbrm(pid=2628) validating image for client v0023bkp002       

31/05/2012 1:14:41 - Info bpbkar32(pid=2156) done. status: 0: the requested operation was successfully completed   

31/05/2012 1:14:41 - end writing; write time: 08:14:30

the requested operation was successfully completed(0)

Amer_Vilagran
Level 3
Accredited Certified

Thanks for your answer. I posted the job details.

Amer_Vilagran
Level 3
Accredited Certified

Thank you Marianne for you quick response. I posted the job details in case you want to take a look.

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Take a look on the client (media server?) under:

<installdir>\NetBackup\track\<masterserver>\<storageserver>\<client>\<policy_name>\

and see what folders there are in there - these should specif the backup specification

If they are different then it has not detected thetrack logs correctly

Or maybe your media server is short of disk space and it has not had the space to create the track log though it should only actually be about 150MB based on your data

The key should be in that track log area

Hope this helps

Amer_Vilagran
Level 3
Accredited Certified

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your answer.

I've checked the track folder, and there is a folder structure under with the name of the policy. This folder is empty.

However there is another folder structure for another test policy I made, this time for a local backup, and I can see the track_journal.v1.dat files.

There is plenty of space in the disk.

Question would be how the NAS is going to communicate netbackup the track changes in its filesystem from the last backup if Netapp CIFS share does not support Logging of NT File System (NTFS) events in the change journal ?

Regards
 

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

The change journal is a Windows thing - Accelerator should not need that, only its own track log - but it does not look like the track files are being created for some reason.

It should work and is supported so it may be worth opening a case with Symantec of you are sure everything is setup correctly

Brian_Spooner
Level 5

Did you ever get Accelerator working with your NetApp CIFS share?

Is this actually supported and works? Is it necessary to map all your CIFS shares as drive letters to your media servers to accomplish this?

RLeon
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP   

I have been trying this since the day Accelerator came out. NFS works fine, CIFS never worked, with Nbu Client service logon account or not.

It would seem that Accelerator does not track changes on CIFS UNC path locations. (Not talking about NTFS USN change journal, of course.)

I could only guess that this has something to do with CIFS being user connection session centric, and NFS being more computer centric (it "becomes" part of the host's "local" file system, to a degree).