Solaris cluster zones client support

[diego_marco]

Hi all.

Master server: Veritas NetBackup 7.1 running in Solaris 10 SPARC with Sun Cluster.

I have a Sun Cluster with zones as client. Two physical nodes (NA and NB) and several local zones (Z1, Z2...). The zones can be balanced between both nodes. I installed NetBackup client in physical nodes.

I know I can backup the global zones (physical nodes) and de local zones filesystems, as they can be accesed from the global zone, using as client the physical node. But this means the backups can be made sometimes from NA, sometimes from NB. This is not good when you are looking for a restore (you must look into both nodes to see where is your backup to restore).

My question is: Can I configure the backup policy to use as client the local zone IP? Is this supported without veritas cluster?

I've read several documents and tech notes about support for Solaris zones (but not about solaris zones in cluster).

Thank you all!

Diego

[Mark_Solutions]

I am not a Solaris Cluster expert and how exactly they work but if similar to windows where the zone has a virtual name then i would have thought this could be done in a similar manner

The NetBackup release notes covers the installation in a zones (why there and no where else I am not sure) but I would have thought once installed on each node in each zone the rest would work based on the virtual name

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC3643

As I said I am not an expert but we dont install Windows cluster nodes to be clustered - it just works!

Maybe need the No.Restrictions file in place for restores

Hope this helps

[diego_marco]

Mark,

I have backups with Oracle or MS SQL Server clusters working without problems. I also know that Veritas Cluster is supported to work with NetBackup. And also Solaris Zones are supported. But I have a zone cluster with Sun Cluster, and I don't get it working.

That's why I ask if this scenario (Sun Cluster with zones) is supported with NetBackup or not.

Thanks for your response.

Diego.

[AAlmroth]

Do you mean you cannot install the NBU client pkg in the local zones? Please elaborate on the exact issue.

There is a TN on this: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH65627

I don't know why Sun Cluster would interfer with a plain NBU client. Is due to ZFS?

There is also another TN on backup/restore considerations regarding loopback file systems (lofs) where these are not read/write in local zones http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH44045

/A

[Mick_Scott]

what sort of zones do you have ? are they whole root zones or sparse zones

see the following

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH162994

How are the zones used in the cluster are they ?

- Failover zones - the zones failover between nodes in the cluster (ie HA Container agent)

- Zone Nodes - zones are static and application failovers over between nodes

- Zone Clusters - zones act as a cluster

[diego_marco]

Hi all,

First, thank you all for your time. I think I found the answer in this link:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH126902

I'll explain a little bit more what my question was:

I have two physical nodes with several failover local zones.

What i was trying is:

  - Install NetBackup client only in physical nodes.

  - Make backups configuring as client the local zone IP, no matter in which node it's running.

I readed the technotes about solaris virtualization support, but they have no cluster support mention (so I think it's not supported).

As I comment before, in the cluster compatibility list note, Solaris cluster is not supported in clients...
 so this ticket can be closed.

Thanks again.

diego

[Mick_Scott · Accepted solution]

I dont see why  you say NBU client isn't supported  with Solaris Cluster.

The Technote you reference says in the Introduction "Cluster compatibility is only listed for NetBackup Components that are cluster aware. NetBackup clients and agents are supported in cluster environments but are not cluster aware."

If you are using failover zones then you should be able to install NBU directly into each local zone. NBU client isnt cluster aware.