Veritas Flex Appliance Getting Started and Administration Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (2.0.1)
Platform: Flex Appliance OS
  1. Product overview
    1.  
      Introduction to Veritas Flex Appliance
    2.  
      Flex Appliance terminology
    3.  
      About the Flex Appliance documentation
  2. Release notes
    1.  
      Flex Appliance 2.0.1 new features, enhancements, and changes
    2.  
      Supported update paths to this release
    3.  
      Operational notes
    4.  
      Flex Appliance 2.0.1 release content
  3. Getting started
    1.  
      Initial configuration guidelines and checklist
    2.  
      Performing the initial configuration
    3.  
      Adding a node
    4.  
      Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Shell
    5.  
      Accessing and using the Flex Appliance Console
    6.  
      Setting the date and time for appliance nodes
    7.  
      Common tasks in Flex Appliance
  4. Managing network settings
    1.  
      Creating a network bond
    2.  
      Deleting a network bond
    3.  
      Configuring a network interface
    4. Managing the appliance Fibre Channel ports
      1.  
        Viewing the devices that are connected to the Fibre Channel ports
    5.  
      Changing DNS or Hosts file settings
  5. Managing users
    1.  
      Overview of the Flex Appliance default users
    2.  
      Changing the password policy
    3. Managing Flex Appliance Console users and tenants
      1.  
        Adding a tenant
      2.  
        Editing a tenant
      3.  
        Removing a tenant
      4.  
        Adding a local user to the Flex Appliance Console
      5.  
        Connecting an Active Directory domain to the Flex Appliance Console
      6.  
        Importing an Active Directory user or user group to the Flex Appliance Console
      7.  
        Editing an Active Directory domain in the Flex Appliance Console
      8.  
        Changing a user password in the Flex Appliance Console
      9.  
        Expiring a user password in the Flex Appliance Console
      10.  
        Removing a user from the Flex Appliance Console
    4.  
      Changing the hostadmin user password in the Flex Appliance Shell
    5.  
      Changing the sysadmin user password in the Veritas Remote Management Interface
  6. Using Flex Appliance
    1. Managing the repository
      1.  
        Adding files to the repository
      2.  
        Removing the current appliance upgrade or update package from the repository
    2.  
      Creating application instances
    3.  
      Managing application instances from Flex Appliance and NetBackup
    4. Managing application instances from Flex Appliance
      1.  
        Resizing instance storage
      2.  
        Editing instance network settings
      3.  
        Assigning Fibre Channel ports to an instance
      4.  
        Unassigning Fibre Channel ports from an instance
      5. Managing application add-ons on instances
        1.  
          Installing application add-ons
        2.  
          Uninstalling application add-ons
        3.  
          Changing the application add-on installation order
      6.  
        Viewing instance performance metrics
      7.  
        Clearing a configuration error status on an application instance
    5. Upgrading application instances
      1.  
        Warnings and considerations for instance rollbacks
    6. About Flex Appliance upgrades and updates
      1.  
        Upgrading Flex Appliance
      2.  
        Updating Flex Appliance
  7. Appliance security
    1.  
      Security overview
    2. About lockdown mode
      1.  
        Changing the lockdown mode
  8. Monitoring the appliance
    1. About AutoSupport and Call Home
      1.  
        Registering an appliance
      2.  
        Viewing Call Home information
      3.  
        Configuring Call Home settings
      4.  
        Deleting and disabling Call Home settings
    2. Monitoring the hardware from the Flex Appliance Shell
      1.  
        Viewing node information
      2.  
        Viewing Primary Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 53xx Appliance
      3.  
        Viewing Expansion Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 53xx Appliance
      4.  
        Viewing Storage Shelf information on a Veritas 5250 Appliance
    3.  
      Viewing hardware faults
    4.  
      Viewing system data
  9. Reconfiguring the appliance
    1.  
      Performing a factory reset
    2.  
      Performing a reimage
    3.  
      Recovering storage data after a factory reset or a reimage
    4.  
      Performing a storage reset
    5.  
      Removing a node
    6.  
      Viewing or resetting the storage shelf order on a Veritas 5250 Appliance
  10. Troubleshooting guidelines
    1.  
      General troubleshooting steps
    2.  
      Generating a One-Time Password and unlocking access in lockdown mode
    3.  
      Gathering logs

Flex Appliance 2.0.1 new features, enhancements, and changes

The following list describes the new features, enhancements, and changes in the Flex Appliance 2.0.1 release:

  • This release introduces support of the Veritas 5350 Appliance and the Veritas 5250 Appliance.

    The Veritas 5350 Appliance is a hardware and software storage system that scales up to a total of 1,920TiB (2,111TB) of usable backup capacity. It consists of one 2U 5350 Appliance compute node and one required externally attached 5U84 Primary Storage Shelf, which is used for data storage purposes. By itself, the 5350 appliance does not provide internal disk space for data storage. You can add up to three optional 5U84 Expansion Storage Shelves if you require additional data storage space. For complete details, see the Veritas 5350 Appliance Product Description Guide.

    The Veritas 5250 Appliance is a hardware and software storage system that can scale to 429.4 TiB of available backup capacity. By itself, the 2U Veritas 5250 Appliance offers internal storage from 9.1TiB/10TB or 36.4TiB/40TB, depending on the appliance configuration purchased. Attaching a Veritas 2U12 65.5TiB/72TB storage shelf adds 65.5TiB/72TB of storage. Attaching six storage shelves offers 429.4TiB/472TB of storage. For complete details, see the Veritas 5250 Appliance Product Description Guide.

  • The MyAppliance portal is no longer supported with the release of the Veritas NetInsights Console. Appliance registration should be done by signing in to the NetInsights portal (https://netInsights.veritas.com) with your Veritas Account Manager credentials. For more information, see the Veritas Appliance AutoSupport Reference Guide and the Veritas Usage Insights for NetBackup Getting Started Guide.

  • This release introduces support of static routes. You can add network routing information for any of your application instances from the instance details page.

    See Editing instance network settings.

  • This release introduces support of the NetBackup features Universal Shares and Instant Access. These features are available on NetBackup application instances version 9.1 and later.

    For more information about Universal Shares, see the NetBackup Deduplication Guide. Various workloads on NetBackup support Instant Access. For example, see the NetBackup Web UI VMware Administrator's Guide or the NetBackup Web UI Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Guide.

  • You no longer need to stop an application instance to edit many of the network settings. You still need to stop it if you want to edit the IP address and interface pairs or the default gateway.

  • You can no longer perform more than one of the following operations at a time:

    • Create an application instance

    • Upgrade an application instance

    • Increase storage allocations to an application instance

  • The following commands have removed certain command parameters and replaced them with prompts:

    • The setup configure-network command no longer allows any command parameters. You must follow the prompts to enter the necessary information.

      See Performing the initial configuration.

    • The setup add-node command no longer uses the with response new_node=<hostname> parameter.

      See Adding a node.

    • The setup remove-node command no longer uses the with response remove_node=<hostname> parameter.

      See Removing a node.

    • The set date ntp command no longer uses the ntp_servers=<IP address or hostname> parameter. In addition, the set date timezone command no longer allows the timezone=<timezone> parameter.

      See Setting the date and time for appliance nodes.

    • The set alerts email-smtp command no longer uses the smtp_password=<password> parameter.

      See Configuring Call Home settings.

    • The set sysctl param command no longer uses the key=<parameter name> parameter or the value=<value> parameter. This command is primarily intended to be used with guidance from Veritas Technical Support.