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

Managing the appliance Fibre Channel ports

If your appliance has Fibre Channel ports, you can view and manage them from the Fibre Channel interfaces page on the Flex Appliance Console. To access the page, click the Fibre Channel interfaces icon in the left-side navigation bar.

On this page, you can view all of the Fibre Channel ports on the appliance. Click on any port to see additional information, such as the WWPN, the remote port, and the devices that are connected to it. See Viewing the devices that are connected to the Fibre Channel ports.

Note:

The number of Fibre Channel ports on the appliance depends on your hardware configuration. For more information, see the Product Description for your specific hardware model.

This release supports VMware and Tape out backups over Fibre Channel.

If you want to perform backups over Fibre Channel, you must assign ports to your application instances. To assign or unassign ports, navigate to the System topology page and click on the instance name, then navigate to the Fibre Channel tab.

See Assigning Fibre Channel ports to an instance.

See Unassigning Fibre Channel ports from an instance.

Fibre Channel best practices

Veritas recommends the following best practices for connecting Fibre Channel devices:

  • Flex Appliance 2.0.1 has been tested for up to 6,000 storage devices or paths in the case of multipathing. If you zone more than the tested number of devices or paths, you may have to take additional steps to perform the following operations and avoid the associated issues:

    • Initial configuration, adding a node, and Flex Appliance upgrades

      These operations may take a long time or fail.

    • Factory reset

      During a factory reset, the Veritas Remote Management Interface may go blank and may not accept input.

    You should consult with Veritas Technical Support before you implement a Fibre Channel configuration of that size.

  • VMware SAN transport mode only works with VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) datastores version 6.0 or later. Other devices such as the raw device-mapping (RDM) format are not supported. Make sure that only VMFS devices are zoned to the appliance to avoid backup failures.

    Refer to the NetBackup Software Compatibility List to confirm the supported VDDK versions.

  • Veritas recommends that you do not allocate more than four ports to the same device unless the storage array requires it.

  • If you run VMware SAN backups to LSI storage, the LSI storage should be configured in Asymmetric Logical Access Unit (ALUA) mode by following the procedure from the storage vendor. The procedure may involve upgrading the storage array firmware to a version that supports ALUA mode. If the storage was connected before it was configured in ALUA mode, you also need to unmap and remap the LSI storage LUNs to the appliance. After the LSI storage LUNs have been remapped, rescan the associated Fibre Channel ports from the Fibre Channel interfaces page on the Flex Appliance Console.