netbackup cross host communication

[techiie]

Hi Experts, 

Could you share with me any doc/process flow kinda thing which explains, how nbu makes outbound calls using vnetd & PBX ???

example , all i know bpcompatd making outbound call to media server bpcd ,, 

now what happens in this operation "outbound call" ?

[Marianne]

Process flow and port comms is described in NBU Logging Ref Guide and Ports Reference Guide. 

8.1.2 docs: 

NetBackup Logging Reference Guide

 NetBackup Network Ports Reference Guide

[techiie]

many thanks for your time & response but this guides not exactly explaining my query though. anyway i 'm still looking & shifting thru things .. 

[Marianne]

Are you saying that nothing in the Logging Ref Guide is helping?

Not the diagram on p.63 or the explanation on p.64?

[Mike_Gavrilov]

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>how nbu makes outbound calls using vnetd & PBX

NBU uses its own libraries/functions to perform these calls. Do you want  to get source code here to deep dive into it? 

[techiie]

@Marianne  , correct , only one line statement these guides got , no more details though. 

@Mike_Gavrilov  , not that code level info but kinda step by step flow of that action. 

many thanks anyway .

[Mike_Gavrilov]

Veritas has 3 ways to communicate between different daemons on different servers:

-pbx

The Veritas PBX service (pbx_exchange) is a listener service that transfers inbound connections to local processes that have previously registered with PBX to receive connections.  This allows multiple client and server processes to connect between hosts without needing to have more than one TCP port open through network firewalls. 

-vnetd

vnetd is the NetBackup network communications service (daemon) used to create firewall-friendly socket connections. It allows all socket communication to take place while it connects to a single port. Start vnetd as a continuously running service (daemon).

-bpcd

The bpcd daemon accepts requests from NetBackup servers. Requests include the following:

• Initiate backup and restore jobs

• Get NetBackup configuration parameters

• Set NetBackup configuration parameters

So, "outbound call" is a general term for "connection to a daemon on remote server".  

>step by step flow of that action

All these steps occurs inside pbx/vnetd/bpcd and there's no high level flow. E.g. pbx accepts a connection with a recipient name and passes it to the recipient. That's all you need to know for a happy life with it :)

[Marianne]

@techiie 

There is a detailed process flow diagram, followed by explanation of entire step-by-step backup process (other processes such as restores are described elsewhere in the same doc).

Point 7 say the following : 

Once the job is active, nbjm uses (8) bpcompatd to open a connection to the
(9) client service (bpcd) on the media server. The bpcompatd service creates
the connection through Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and the NetBackup
Legacy Network Service (vnetd).

No idea how else/better the process could be described. 

All I can suggest is that you enable logging as per the same doc, and then follow each step of the comms through the relevant logs.

[techiie]

yes that is exactly the plan is. thank you all for your time. 

Furthermore from logs with highest verbose, some new things came up in this regard, like inbound & Outbound VNETD processes , trying to put all these in a raw pictorial view .. 

many thanks again to both of you @Marianne  @Mike_Gavrilov  for pointing towards the solution.