Veritas CloudPoint Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): CloudPoint (2.2.2)
Platform: Linux
  1. Getting started with CloudPoint
    1.  
      About CloudPoint
    2.  
      What kinds of assets can you protect?
    3.  
      Understanding your CloudPoint license
  2. Section I. Installing and configuring CloudPoint
    1. Preparing for installation
      1.  
        About the deployment approach
      2.  
        Deciding where to run CloudPoint
      3.  
        Meeting system requirements
      4.  
        CloudPoint host sizing recommendations
      5.  
        Creating an instance or preparing the physical host to install CloudPoint
      6.  
        Installing Docker
      7.  
        Creating and mounting a volume to store CloudPoint data
      8.  
        Verifying that specific ports are open on the instance or physical host
    2. Deploying CloudPoint
      1.  
        About deploying CloudPoint in a non-interactive mode
      2.  
        Installing CloudPoint
      3.  
        Configuring CloudPoint from your browser and signing in
      4.  
        Verifying that CloudPoint installed successfully
      5.  
        Configuring AWS KMS in CloudPoint
    3. Deploying CloudPoint in the AWS cloud
      1.  
        About CloudPoint deployment in the AWS cloud
      2.  
        About CloudPoint integration with AWS KMS
      3. About CloudPoint support for AWS IAM roles
        1.  
          About source account and cross-account configurations
        2.  
          How to configure CloudPoint to use IAM roles
        3.  
          CloudPoint IAM role configuration limitations
      4. About the CloudPoint AWS CloudFormation template
        1.  
          Resources created by the CloudPoint template
        2.  
          CloudPoint EC2 instance configuration details
        3.  
          Instance failures and Auto Scaling Group behavior
      5.  
        Prerequisites for using the CloudPoint template
      6.  
        Launching a CloudPoint CloudFormation stack
    4. Using plug-ins to discover assets
      1.  
        About plug-ins
      2.  
        Determining the types of plug-ins and agents to install
    5. Configuring off-host plug-ins
      1. AWS plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Prerequisites for configuring the AWS plug-in
        2.  
          Configuring AWS permissions for CloudPoint
        3.  
          AWS permissions required by CloudPoint
        4.  
          Before you create a cross account configuration
      2. Google Cloud Platform plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Google Cloud Platform permissions required by CloudPoint
        2.  
          Configuring a GCP service account for CloudPoint
        3.  
          Preparing the GCP service account for plug-in configuration
      3. Microsoft Azure plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Configuring permissions on Microsoft Azure
      4.  
        Dell EMC Unity array plug-in configuration notes
      5.  
        Pure Storage FlashArray plug-in configuration notes
      6. HPE RMC plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          RMC plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported HPE storage systems
        3.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on HPE storage arrays
      7. NetApp plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          NetApp plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported NetApp arrays
        3.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on NetApp storage
      8. Hitachi plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Hitachi plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported Hitachi storage arrays
        3.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on Hitachi arrays
      9. InfiniBox plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          InifiniBox plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on InfiniBox arrays
      10.  
        Configuring an off-host plug-in
      11. About CloudPoint plug-ins and assets discovery
        1.  
          Plug-in discovery interval requirements and limitations
        2.  
          Viewing the assets discovery interval setting
    6. Configuring the on-host agents and plug-ins
      1.  
        About agents
      2. Oracle plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Optimizing your Oracle database data and metadata files
      3.  
        MongoDB plug-in configuration notes
      4.  
        Microsoft SQL plug-in configuration notes
      5.  
        About the installation and configuration process
      6.  
        Preparing to install the Linux-based on-host agent
      7.  
        Preparing to install the Windows-based on-host agent
      8.  
        Downloading and installing the on-host agent
      9.  
        Configuring the Linux-based on-host agent
      10.  
        Configuring the Windows-based on-host agent
      11.  
        Configuring the on-host plug-in
      12.  
        Configuring VSS to store shadow copies on the originating drive
    7. Protecting assets with CloudPoint's agentless feature
      1.  
        About the agentless feature
      2. Prerequisites for the agentless configuration
        1.  
          Granting password-less sudo access to host user account
      3.  
        Configuring the agentless feature
  3. Section II. Configuring users
    1. Setting up email and adding users
      1.  
        Configuring the CloudPoint sender email address
      2.  
        About adding users to CloudPoint
      3.  
        Adding AD users to CloudPoint using LDAP
      4.  
        Adding users to CloudPoint manually
      5.  
        Deleting a user from CloudPoint
    2. Assigning roles to users for greater efficiency
      1.  
        About role-based access control
      2.  
        Displaying role information
      3.  
        Creating a role
      4.  
        Editing a role
      5.  
        Deleting a role
  4. Section III. Protecting and managing data
    1. User interface basics
      1.  
        Signing in to CloudPoint
      2.  
        Focusing on an asset type
      3.  
        Navigating to your assets
      4.  
        Using the action icons
    2. Indexing and classifying your assets
      1.  
        About indexing and classifying snapshots
      2.  
        Configuring classification settings using VIC
      3.  
        Indexing and classifying snapshots
      4.  
        Indexing and classification statuses
    3. Protecting your assets with policies
      1.  
        About policies
      2.  
        How a CloudPoint protection policy works
      3.  
        Creating a policy
      4.  
        Assigning a policy to an asset
      5.  
        Listing policies and displaying policy details
      6.  
        Editing a policy
      7.  
        Deleting a policy
    4. Tag-based asset protection
      1.  
        About tag-based asset protection
      2.  
        How to use tag-based asset protection feature
      3.  
        Tag-based asset protection support
      4.  
        Tag-based asset protection considerations and limitations
    5. Replicating snapshots for added protection
      1.  
        About snapshot replication
      2.  
        About cross-account snapshot replication in the AWS cloud
      3.  
        Requirements for replicating snapshots
      4.  
        Cross-account snapshot replication support matrix
      5.  
        Cross-account snapshot replication limitations
      6.  
        Configuring replication rules
      7.  
        Editing a replication rule
      8.  
        Deleting a replication rule
    6. Managing your assets
      1.  
        Creating a snapshot manually
      2.  
        Displaying asset snapshots
      3.  
        Replicating a snapshot manually
      4. About snapshot restore
        1.  
          Restore requirements and limitations for Microsoft SQL Server
        2.  
          Restore requirements and limitations for Oracle
        3.  
          Restore requirements and limitations for MongoDB
      5.  
        About single file restore (granular restore)
      6. Single file restore requirements and limitations
        1.  
          Single file restore support on Linux
        2.  
          Single file restore limitations on Linux
        3.  
          Single file restore support on Windows
        4.  
          Single file restore limitations on Windows
      7.  
        Restoring a snapshot
      8.  
        Additional steps required after restoring disk-level snapshots
      9. Additional steps required after a SQL Server snapshot restore
        1.  
          Steps required after a SQL Server host-level restore
        2.  
          Steps required after a SQL Server disk-level snapshot restore to new location
      10.  
        Additional steps required after an Oracle snapshot restore
      11.  
        Additional steps required after a MongoDB snapshot restore
      12.  
        Additional steps required after restoring an AWS RDS database instance
      13.  
        Restoring individual files within a snapshot
      14.  
        Deleting a snapshot
    7. Monitoring activities with notifications and the job log
      1.  
        About CloudPoint notifications
      2.  
        Viewing notifications in the CloudPoint UI
      3.  
        CloudPoint notification methods
      4.  
        CloudPoint notification limitations
      5.  
        Configuring email-based CloudPoint notifications
      6.  
        Configuring AWS SNS-based CloudPoint notifications
      7.  
        Using the Job Log
    8. Protection and disaster recovery
      1.  
        About protection and disaster recovery
      2.  
        Backing up CloudPoint
      3.  
        Restoring CloudPoint
  5. Section IV. Maintaining CloudPoint
    1. CloudPoint logging
      1.  
        About CloudPoint logging mechanism
      2. How fluentd-based CloudPoint logging works
        1.  
          About the CloudPoint fluentd configuration file
        2.  
          Modifying the fluentd configuration file
        3.  
          Fluentd-based logging requirements and considerations
      3.  
        Viewing CloudPoint logs
    2. Troubleshooting CloudPoint
      1.  
        Restarting CloudPoint
      2.  
        Docker may fail to start due to a lack of space
      3.  
        CloudPoint installation fails if rootfs is not mounted in a shared mode
      4.  
        Some CloudPoint features do not appear in the user interface
      5.  
        Off-host plug-in deletion does not automatically remove file system and application assets
      6.  
        Disk-level snapshot restore fails if the original disk is detached from the instance
      7.  
        Snapshot restore for encrypted AWS assets may fail
      8.  
        Error while adding users to CloudPoint
      9.  
        CloudPoint fails to revert restored snapshots if indexing, classification, or restore operations fail
      10.  
        SQL snapshot or restore and SFR operations fail if the Windows instance loses connectivity with the CloudPoint host
      11.  
        Troubleshooting CloudPoint logging
      12.  
        Swagger UI-based authorization for CloudPoint REST API calls may fail
      13.  
        Policy retention count is not honored for file system and application assets if there is an issue with the CloudPoint plug-in
    3. Working with your CloudPoint license
      1.  
        Displaying CloudPoint license and protection information
      2.  
        Upgrading your CloudPoint license
    4. Managing CloudPoint agents and plug-ins
      1.  
        Unconfiguring CloudPoint plug-ins
      2.  
        Unconfiguring the CloudPoint agent
      3.  
        Uninstalling CloudPoint on-host agents
    5. Upgrading CloudPoint
      1. About CloudPoint upgrades
        1.  
          Supported upgrade path
      2. Preparing to upgrade CloudPoint
        1.  
          Removing CloudPoint plug-in configuration
      3.  
        Upgrading CloudPoint
      4.  
        Upgrading a CloudPoint CloudFormation stack
    6. Uninstalling CloudPoint
      1.  
        Preparing to uninstall CloudPoint
      2.  
        Removing the CloudPoint on-host agents
      3.  
        Removing CloudPoint from a standalone Docker host environment
  6. Section V. Reference
    1. Storage array support
      1. Dell EMC Unity arrays
        1.  
          Dell EMC Unity array plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported Dell EMC Unity arrays
        3.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on Dell EMC Unity arrays
      2. Pure Storage FlashArray
        1.  
          Pure Storage FlashArray plug-in configuration parameters
        2.  
          Supported Pure Storage FlashArray models
        3.  
          Supported CloudPoint operations on Pure Storage FlashArray models
    2. Working with CloudPoint using APIs
      1.  
        Accessing the Swagger-based API documentation

Meeting system requirements

CloudPoint host requirements

The host on which you install CloudPoint must meet the following requirements.

Table: Operating system and processor requirements for CloudPoint host

Category

Requirement

Operating system

  • Ubuntu 16.04 Server LTS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.x

The mount state for the root file system (rootfs or / shared subtree) on the host must be set to "shared" mode.

Processor architecture

x86_64 / AMD64 / 64-bit processors

Table: System requirements for the CloudPoint host

Host on which CloudPoint is installed

Requirements

Amazon Web Services (AWS) instance

  • Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance type: t3.large

  • vCPUs: 2

  • RAM: 8 GB

  • Root disk: 64 GB with a solid-state drive (GP2)

  • Data volume: 50 GB Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume of type GP2 with encryption for the snapshot asset database; use this as a starting value and expand your storage as needed.

Microsoft Azure VM

  • Virtual machine type: D2s_V3 Standard

  • CPU cores: 2

  • RAM: 8 GB

  • Root disk: 64 GB SSD

  • Data volume: 50 GB Premium SSD for the snapshot asset database; storage account type Premium_LRS; set Host Caching to Read/Write.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) VM

  • Virtual machine type: n1-standard-2

  • vCPUs: 2

  • RAM: 8 GB

  • Boot disk: 64 GB standard persistent disk, Ubuntu 16.04 Server LTS

  • Data volume: 50 GB SSD persistent disk for the snapshot asset database with automatic encryption

VMware VM

  • Virtual machine type: 64-bit with a CloudPoint supported operating system

  • vCPUs: 8

  • RAM: 8 GB or more

  • Root disk: 64 GB with a standard persistent disk

  • Data volume: 50 GB for the snapshot asset database

Physical host

(x86_64 / AMD64)

  • Operating system: A 64-bit CloudPoint supported operating system

  • CPUs: x86_64 (64-bit), single-socket, multi-core, with at least 8 CPU count

  • RAM: 8 GB or more

  • Boot disk: 64 GB

  • Data volume: 50 GB for the snapshot asset database

Disk space requirements

CloudPoint uses the following file systems on the host to store all the container images and files during installation:

  • / (root file system)

  • /var

The /var file system is further used for container runtimes. Ensure that the host on which you install CloudPoint has sufficient space for the following components.

Table: Space considerations for CloudPoint components

Component

Space requirements

CloudPoint Docker containers

5 GB

CloudPoint on-host agent and plug-ins

350 MB

Additionally, CloudPoint also requires a separate volume for storing CloudPoint data. Ensure that you create and mount this volume to /cloudpoint on the CloudPoint host.

Table: Space consideration for CloudPoint data volume

Volume mount path

Size

/cloudpoint

50 GB or more

Applications, operating systems, cloud, and storage platforms supported by CloudPoint agents and plug-ins

CloudPoint supports the following applications, operating systems, cloud, and storage platforms.

These assets are supported irrespective of how you configure CloudPoint, whether using the CloudPoint cloud or storage agents and plugins (earlier known as off-host plug-ins), or using the CloudPoint application configuration plugins (earlier known as on-host plug-ins), or using the CloudPoint agentless feature.

Table: Supported applications, operating systems, cloud, and storage platforms

Category

Support

Applications

Notes:

  • Oracle database applications are not supported in a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) cloud environment.

    This is a limitation imposed by the companies owning these products and services, and is currently outside the scope of CloudPoint.

  • CloudPoint does not support application-consistent snapshots on ext2 file systems.

  • CloudPoint does not support Microsoft SQL Server workloads in a GCP cloud environment.

Operating systems on supported assets

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.x

  • Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016

Note:

CloudPoint agents are not supported on non-English operating systems.

Cloud platforms

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a t2.large or a higher specification AWS instance type. CloudPoint currently does not support applications that are running on t2.medium or a lower instance type.

    For protecting Microsoft Windows-based applications, use t2.xlarge or t3.xlarge or a higher specification instance type.

  • Microsoft Azure

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a D2s_V3 Standard or a higher specification Azure virtual machine type.

    For protecting Microsoft Windows-based applications, use B4ms or D4s_V3 or a higher specification virtual machine.

  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a n1-standard-2 or a higher specification GCP virtual machine type.

Storage platforms

Note:

Starting with CloudPoint 2.2 release, the CloudPoint plug-in for HPE 3PAR has been deprecated. Support for this plug-in configuration is no longer available.

Note:

To allow CloudPoint to discover and protect AWS Nitro-based Windows instances that use NVMe EBS volumes, ensure that the AWS NVMe tool executable file, ebsnvme-id.exe, is present in any of the following locations on the AWS Windows instance:

  • %PROGRAMDATA%\Amazon\Tools

    This is the default location for most AWS instances.

  • %PROGRAMFILES%\Veritas\Cloudpoint

    Manually download and copy the executable file to this location.

  • System PATH environment variable

    Add or update the executable file path in the system's PATH environment variable.

    If the NVMe tool is not present in one of the mentioned locations, CloudPoint may fail to discover the file systems on such instances.

    You may see the following error in the logs:

    "ebsnvme-id.exe" not found in expected paths!"

For the latest information on features, software, and hardware support, refer to the compatibility lists:

Table: CloudPoint compatibility lists

Compatibility list

Document link

Cloud Application Compatibility List (ACL)

https://sort.veritas.com/DocPortal/pdf/CP_221_APP_CL

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)

https://sort.veritas.com/DocPortal/pdf/CP_221_HCL

Supported browsers

CloudPoint supports the following browsers for accessing the CloudPoint user interface.

Table: Supported browsers

Browser

Versions

Google Chrome

75.0.3770.100 or later

Mozilla Firefox

52.0.0 or later

Note:

CloudPoint only runs on desktop devices. Mobile devices are not supported.

CloudPoint time zone

Ensure that the time zone settings on the host where you wish to deploy CloudPoint are as per your requirement and synchronized with a public NTP server.

By default, CloudPoint uses the time zone that is set on the host where you install CloudPoint. The timestamp for all the entries in the logs are as per the clock settings of the host machine.

However, the date and time for the operations and tasks in the CloudPoint user interface (UI) might reflect the browser time that corresponds to the local system from where the browser is launched.

Proxy server requirements

If the instance on which you are deploying CloudPoint is behind a proxy server, that is, if the CloudPoint instance connects to the internet using a proxy server, you must specify the proxy server details during the CloudPoint installation. The CloudPoint installer stores the proxy server information in a set of environment variables that are specific for the CloudPoint containers.

Table: Proxy server details required by CloudPoint describes the environment variables and the proxy server information that you must provide to the CloudPoint installer. Make sure you keep this information ready; you are required to provide these details during CloudPoint installation.

Table: Proxy server details required by CloudPoint

Environment variables created by CloudPoint installer

Description

VX_HTTP_PROXY

Contains the HTTP proxy value to be used for all connections. For example, "http://proxy.mycompany.com:8080/".

VX_HTTPS_PROXY

Contains the HTTPS proxy value to be used for all connections. For example, "https://proxy.mycompany.com:8080/".

VX_NO_PROXY

Contains the hosts that are allowed to bypass the proxy server. For example, "localhost,mycompany.com,192.168.0.10:80".

CloudPoint services that need to communicate externally via a proxy server use these predefined environment variables that are set during the CloudPoint installation. For example, the CloudPoint email service, the CloudPoint notifications service, and the CloudPoint plug-in agent containers.

Proxy server limitations

The following restrictions are applicable:

  • If CloudPoint is deployed using proxy server settings, email configuration using SendGrid and SMTP are not supported.

    However, email configuration using Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is supported.

  • CloudPoint deployment using AWS CloudFormation Template (CFT) does not support proxy server configuration.