08-29-2007 11:02 PM
08-29-2007 11:20 PM
09-03-2007 02:05 AM
09-03-2007 11:55 AM
09-06-2007 06:18 AM
09-06-2007 12:02 PM
09-06-2007 07:59 PM
09-06-2007 08:12 PM
SAN Client and Fibre Transport
The information in this section is new for NetBackup 6.5.
■ When used for SAN Client target mode, the QLA-2344 four-port FC adapter's
usable aggregate performance is not significantly greater than a two-port
QLA-2342 when used in the same PCI-x slot. The advantage a QLA-2344
HBA offers is the ability to spread its aggregate performance over four ports
instead of two. If you use direct-connection (rather than FC switches or
bridges) between SAN clients and a Fibre Transport (FT) media server and
only two ports are fully loaded with Fibre Transport traffic at the same time,
the QLA-2344 HBA performs similarly to two QLA-2342 HBAs but uses one
less PCI slot.
■ The SAN Client HBA's and their drivers must use 256K size buffers for data
transfer.
■ The IBM 6228 HBAs require the following version of the AIX FC driver to
ensure that the appropriate data is returned when a task is aborted. Not
installing the following drive could result in a hung Fiber Transport (FT).
AIX FC driver version level 5.2.0.75 for IBM 6228 card _ AIX Oslevel
5200-07
■ For NetBackup media servers, only 64-bit, PCI-X slots are supported for the
QLogic Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) that are used to connect to
the NetBackup SAN clients. Legacy PCI 33 and 66 Mhz slots are not
supported. Also, slots that share an interrupt are not supported.
■ On the NetBackup media servers, Symantec recommends that you do not
use legacy PCI cards on the same bus as a QLogic FC HBA that is used to
connect to SAN clients. A slower PCI card reduces the speed of the
controlling bus and therefore all other cards in that bus. Consequently, data
transfer rates are reduced and performance is degraded.
■ On the NetBackup SAN clients, a legacy PCI card on the same PCI-X bus as
the FC HBA that connects to the media server also reduces the speed of the
controlling bus. NetBackup FT performance may not be affected as much as
on a media server, but performance may degrade to unacceptable levels.
■ Fibre Transport (FT) is limited to Disk based storage units in the NetBackup
6.5 Release.
■ If you use data compression or encryption for backups, backup and restore
Fibre Transport pipe performance may degrade significantly. In some
configurations, compression may reduce performance by up to 95% of
uncompressed performance.
■ NetBackup SAN clients cannot also be NetBackup servers.
■ No support for FlashBackup restores over an FT pipe.
■ No support for Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) hubs.
09-12-2007 01:16 AM
10-13-2008 06:38 AM
hi bob ... thanks for your informative mail,
however i have a small doubt to this , i went through most of the admin guides n SSO guides,,it is turning more complicating to me...
We have currently base version installed which is presently backing up 20 clients(standard client ) in LAN .. we are moving all these 20 clients from Lan to san based enviornment due to bandwidth issues .. This is a Two – Tier architecture which we are converting presently to enterprise version for getting all the advanced features
Which are the new additional components needed for implementing this change ie : All client backups being routed via SAN ?
we have only one masterserver acting as media server itself
kindly request you assist me ...
09-02-2009 12:47 PM
After reading a bit here are some good docs you need to read before going to SAN Client
Netbackup Shared Storage Guide, Chapter 4
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/290238.htm
NetBackup SAN Client and Fibre Transport Troubleshooting Guide
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/288437.htm
SAN Client Deployment - Best Practices and Performance Metrics
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/293110.htm
Basicaly SAN Client is a client that uses a media server but instead of sending the data through the network or TCP/IP protocol it uses Fiber Channel Protocol and consist in some few steps:
1. A media server needs an exclusive HBA configured has target HBA Qlogic is the only supported one
2. The client needs an HBA who will connect to the media server HBA
3. Zones in the SAN fabric must be configured between Media Server and Client
4. Netbackup SAN Client must be installed in the Client
5. Media server needs to be configured has a SAN Target (see Netbackup Shared Storage doc)
6. Start the nbhba service on the media server
7. Mark the ports
8. Configure Fiber Transport (FT) services under the media server
9. Configure SAN Client in the client.
10. Start a normal backup, what will happen here is that the client will use the SAN Network, but if after a while there is no available resources the backup will go through the TCP/IP Network, this can be configured under the Host Properties of the Media Server where you can specify if after certain time waiting you want the client to go through the regular network or if you want to force it to wait until a resource is available so you can use the FT.
Is a very interesting technology In my opinion instead of configured tape drives or SSO this will be the best options for clients with big amounts of data.
Hope this helps.
regards.
09-02-2009 12:47 PM
After reading a bit here are some good docs you need to read before going to SAN Client
Netbackup Shared Storage Guide, Chapter 4
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/290238.htm
NetBackup SAN Client and Fibre Transport Troubleshooting Guide
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/288437.htm
SAN Client Deployment - Best Practices and Performance Metrics
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/293110.htm
Basicaly SAN Client is a client that uses a media server but instead of sending the data through the network or TCP/IP protocol it uses Fiber Channel Protocol and consist in some few steps:
1. A media server needs an exclusive HBA configured has target HBA Qlogic is the only supported one
2. The client needs an HBA who will connect to the media server HBA
3. Zones in the SAN fabric must be configured between Media Server and Client
4. Netbackup SAN Client must be installed in the Client
5. Media server needs to be configured has a SAN Target (see Netbackup Shared Storage doc)
6. Start the nbhba service on the media server
7. Mark the ports
8. Configure Fiber Transport (FT) services under the media server
9. Configure SAN Client in the client.
10. Start a normal backup, what will happen here is that the client will use the SAN Network, but if after a while there is no available resources the backup will go through the TCP/IP Network, this can be configured under the Host Properties of the Media Server where you can specify if after certain time waiting you want the client to go through the regular network or if you want to force it to wait until a resource is available so you can use the FT.
Is a very interesting technology In my opinion instead of configured tape drives or SSO this will be the best options for clients with big amounts of data.
Hope this helps.
regards.
09-02-2009 10:58 PM
09-03-2009 11:01 AM
SAN Clients can be any platform but the FT Media Server must be a Solaris 10 or RHES4 64bit is are the only supported OS's at this point.
09-14-2009 02:50 AM
09-14-2009 02:50 AM