topic SSSU with Netware servers in Storage Software

SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:23:35 GMT

Hello,
I must to configure Business Copy Snapshots/SnapClones using SSSU on a Netware servers.

I've seen ADD COPY and ADD SNAPSHOT commands, but have some doubt about this:

1) when I've created a Snapshot/Clone Vdisk and presented to the host, is the hosts able to automatically "mount" the volume, or not ?
If not, how is possible to automate the mount in order to do the unattended backup (with DP 5.5) ?

2) Is possible to automate the launch of SSSU script with DP (pre/post exec option) ?

3) Is there another better method to create snapshots/clones within DP instead of using SSSU ?

thanks in advance
kind regards
Davide

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Sameer_Nirmal — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:21:57 GMT

Netware is not my area of work , but would like to put points here as the logic applies similar across different OS environment.

1. Snapshot/Clone Vdisk are not mounted automatically when presented to the hosts. They are just a LUN to the hosts Hence required OS commands has to be run to make use of them ( filesystem or raw ). You can write a script using SSSU and schedule it which will have commands to make snapshot/clon vdisk and mount them on a backup server ( like we do in hp-ux ).

2. You can launch the SSSU script with DP pre/post exec option from DP cell manager.

3. There is BC server and client software which you can use for creating those snaps/clones , mount them and lunch DP backup of those vdisk. It has in-built schedular to do this job or you can use a command line interface of it to schedule the jobs from BC clients.
It makes your job easy thus avoid SSSU scripting

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 02:02:18 GMT

Hi,
Netware is not compatible with BC host agent, and the only way is to use SSSU scripts.

I've seen in DP 5.5 the EVA SMI-S agent, but I never used it. Is this an alternative to SSSU ?

thanks in advance
kind regards
Davide

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 02:50:50 GMT

Hello,
I've configured SSSU on Netware 6.5 server and it works fine (create snapshots, clones, etc.).
The problem is that I don't know how Netware may automatically mount a snapshot volume in order to make a Data Protector backup.

Anyone has some experience with this operating sistem ?

Thanks in advance
kind regards
Davide

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Sameer_Nirmal — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 23:19:16 GMT

With SSSU , you ask to mount those snaps or snapclones on a supported server. This server should be known to BC server as its client.

Hence you need to have BC client software installed on a supported OS server. If this server has DP client installed , then you can fire backup of those mounted snapshots or snapclones.

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 01:56:52 GMT

Ok, let me see if I've understood:

I have EVA mgmt appliance with DataProtector Cell Manager installed on.

1) run SSSU script on Netware server and create snapshot at storage level (I see the snapshot on command view). this is OK for me.
2) present this volume to the EVA mgmt appliance with a LUN number
3) I must to install BC host agent on my EVA mgmt appliance
4) mount the snapshot volume on EVA mgmt appliance using BC agent
5) run backup of mounted snapshot volume
6) unpresent the snapshot volume
7) umount the volume from server
8) delete snapshot from EVA

Are these steps correct ?
Another question is (caused by my ignorance):
If the snapshot comes from a Netware formatted volume, how is possible to mount it on a windows server ?

thanks in advance
kind regards
Davide

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 03:01:29 GMT

Some points missed in my previous reply:

- The only Windows server in SAN is the EVA mgmt appliance.

- Must to install BC server on EVA mgmt aplliance ?

- if I need to use BC host agent to automatically mount snapshot volume on server, the scenario is:
1) Novell doesn't support it and cannot use it.
2) EVA mgmt appliance already has BC server, and I know that if there is BC server is not possible to install BC host agent in the same box.

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Sameer_Nirmal — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:30:30 GMT

Yes you are right BC server server can't have BC agent installed on it.
I just checked up the EVA software compatibility matix at HP web site. BC-EVA support Netware 6.0 and 6.5 as Basic I/O.
Hence I guess there is no host agent available for Netware.
In this case , you need to use SSSU to make snapshot and present them to the same or another server Netware server depending on your need. Like in HP-UX , BC support LVM and make use of it to mount the BCV. I belive that as BC doesn't support more than just basic I/O with Netware, it won't mount those BVC automatically. Hence your operation
is limited to creating a BCV using CV-BC.
I don't how to mount Vdisks on netware, but I bet you do.

Yes you can use DP pre/post exec to start BC job using SSSU and undo it later.

As we do on hp-ux , one need to stop the application and database before starting vsnaps , mount them , start the application and database and take backup of snaps.
So your pre/post scripts should take care of it all.

I am not Netware person , but trying to help you out.

Re: SSSU with Netware servers

Davide Depaoli_3 — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:35:59 GMT

Hi all,
we have found the solution for this problem.
In a few words, is necessary, after snapshot creation with SSSU, to mount the snapshot volume on another server, not the server that originate the snapshot.
The server with snapshots mounted, must have Data Protector DA and MA in order to use the SAN tape library directly and do backup.

Is possible to so one or more scripts to automatize the entire process.
Attached a little document (sorry, in italian) with description od the solution