Tape Library Partitioning

[shahriar_sadm]

Hi dear all,

First at all I discribe our environment, we have a NBU master server with more than 50 media server connected to Scalar i6000 directly, each media server has own storage unit, for isilon (NDMP) backup H need new tape library or new partition in current library, we have 40 active drive on Scalar i6000 and 2 spare drive, and we have one partition on tape library contains all resources (drive, magazine,slot, media).

Now whats your solution for NDMP backup? can I make new partiton with 2 spare drive with minimum effect? or I need to re-partitiong all library resources? what is the amount of risk? what are the processes or configuration that I should done in netbackup? any document?

Thanks 

[Marianne]

Configure groups of media servers in SSO config.
Add NDMP into SSO configuration to share existing tape drives.

[shahriar_sadm]

Hi Marianne, 

I used a solution that a media server attached to isilon via LAN and media server directly attached to library via SAN, now I have 2 issue, transfer rate is below 10 Mbps and this way not support multiplexing, is this the way that you talked about? in this way we bypass our isilon backup accelerator (a100)?

Thanks 

[Marianne]

No. 

My suggestion was direct (SAN) attached using Shared Storage Option. 

[Michael_G_Ander]

I am struggling to understand the setup, but NDMP throughput issues is usually to do with the filer rather than NetBackup.

Do be aware that NDMP is a low priority process on some filers. This was one of the reasons many people went for accelerator backup for the share(s) rather than NDMP.

Question is the a100 supported by Netbackup ?

How many backups are you starting per filer ? have seen some system where ndmp process was singlethreaded so was a bad idea to start to many backups at once.

[Marianne]

According to NBU HCL Isilon Scale-Out NAS is supported via all connection methods:
Direct-attach  (SAN), Remote (LAN via media server), 3-way (LAN via another direct-attached filer). 

There are lots of additional info in the 'Notes' column, e.g. 
Accelerator and A100 Performance Accelerator are supported with this device.

NBU for NDMP documentation is very 'generic' and NetBackup for NDMP: NAS appliance information has one page for Isilon with very little info. 

My suggestion is to contact EMC for 'Best Practice with NBU' documentation.

Both the HCL and NAS appliance docs say 'see the device vendor's documentation'.