NetBackup™ Installation Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.4)
  1. Preparing for installation
    1. General installation information
      1.  
        Available NetBackup installation methods
      2.  
        About compatibility between NetBackup versions
      3.  
        About NetBackup software availability
      4.  
        Required libraries missing from some Linux distributions
      5. How to install NetBackup
        1.  
          About the NetBackup preinstall checker
        2.  
          About the NetBackup Product Improvement Program
      6.  
        Creating the user account to support the NetBackup web server
      7. About storage device configuration
        1.  
          Locating supported robot types
      8.  
        About security certificates for NetBackup hosts
      9.  
        Environment variable for certificate key size
      10.  
        Restrictions on the NetBackup installation directory
      11.  
        NetBackup database is not supported on the btrfs file system
    2. Installation operational notes and limitations
      1.  
        Windows compiler and security requirements for NetBackup 10.4 and later installation
      2.  
        Java GUI and JRE installation optional for some computers
      3.  
        Enable 8dot3 name file setting for the NetBackup primary servers
      4.  
        NetBackup servers must use a host name that is compliant with RFC 1123 and RFC 952
      5.  
        Host ID-based certificate is not deployed during installation on 8.1 media server or client host with dual stack configuration
      6.  
        External certificate authority certificates supported in NetBackup 8.2 and later
      7.  
        SCCM and Chef deployment tools and documentation now available
      8.  
        Known SUSE Linux primary server install issue
    3.  
      Performance and tuning considerations
    4. SORT information
      1.  
        About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools
      2.  
        Recommended SORT procedures for new installations
    5. Veritas NetInsights Console information
      1.  
        About Veritas Usage Insights
      2.  
        Best practices for Veritas Usage Insights
  2. NetBackup licenses
    1.  
      About NetBackup license requirements
    2.  
      About license entry
    3.  
      Frequently asked questions about licenses
  3. Installing server software on UNIX systems
    1. Installation requirements for UNIX and Linux
      1.  
        Do not mix non-English versions of Windows and UNIX platforms unless primary and media servers are NetBackup appliances
      2.  
        NetBackup installations on environments that run different versions of UNIX-based operating systems
      3.  
        Special installation guidelines for Solaris systems
      4.  
        Special installation guidelines for Linux clustered environments
    2.  
      How the installation script works
    3. Installing NetBackup primary server software on Linux
      1.  
        Silently installing NetBackup primary server software on Linux
      2.  
        Continuing with NetBackup software installation
    4. Installing NetBackup media server software on Linux
      1.  
        Silently installing NetBackup media server software on Linux
    5. About pushing client software from a primary server to clients
      1.  
        Installing client type software on a primary server
  4. Installing server software on Windows systems
    1.  
      Installation requirements for Windows and Windows clusters
    2.  
      Requirements for Windows cluster installations
    3.  
      Performing local, remote, or clustered server installation on Windows systems
    4.  
      Post-installation tasks for NetBackup cluster environments
    5.  
      Verifying Windows cluster installations or upgrades
    6.  
      Installing NetBackup servers silently on Windows systems
  5. About the administrative interfaces
    1.  
      About the NetBackup web user interface
    2.  
      About the NetBackup Administration Console
    3.  
      Installing the NetBackup Administration Console
    4.  
      Installing multiple versions of the NetBackup Administration Console on Windows
    5.  
      Removing earlier versions of the NetBackup Administration Console on Windows
    6.  
      About the NetBackup Remote Administration Console
    7.  
      Installing the NetBackup Remote Administration Console
  6. Installing NetBackup client software
    1.  
      About NetBackup client installation
    2. About NetBackup client installation on Windows
      1.  
        About Windows client installation methods and requirements
      2.  
        Installing NetBackup Windows clients locally or remotely
      3.  
        Installing NetBackup Windows clients silently
      4.  
        How to configure NetBackup clients
    3. About NetBackup client installation on UNIX and Linux
      1.  
        About UNIX and Linux client installation methods
      2.  
        Installing UNIX clients locally
      3.  
        Install of the UNIX and Linux client binaries with native installers
      4. About remote installation methods for UNIX and Linux clients
        1.  
          Installing client software with the ssh method
        2.  
          Installing client software with the sftp method
      5.  
        Adding a UNIX/Linux client after initial server installation
  7. Configuring NetBackup
    1.  
      About NetBackup startup and shutdown scripts
    2. About NetBackup server configuration
      1.  
        Starting the NetBackup Administration Console
      2.  
        About the Device Configuration Wizard
      3.  
        About the Volume Configuration Wizard
      4.  
        About the Catalog Backup Wizard
      5.  
        About the Backup Policy Configuration Wizard
  8. Removing NetBackup server and client software
    1.  
      About NetBackup server software removal on Linux systems
    2.  
      About NetBackup client software removal on UNIX and Linux systems
    3.  
      Removing NetBackup from UNIX and Linux servers and clients
    4.  
      About NetBackup server software removal on Windows systems
    5.  
      Removing NetBackup server and client software from Windows servers, clusters, and clients
    6.  
      About removal of the Java Console state data from Windows servers and Windows clients
    7.  
      Removing a clustered media server by migrating all data to a new media server
  9. Reference
    1.  
      Generate a certificate on the inactive nodes of a clustered primary server
    2.  
      NetBackup database user
    3.  
      About the NetBackup answer file
    4.  
      About the NetBackup IT Analytics Data Collector
    5.  
      Manually install or uninstall NetBackup IT Analytics Data Collector binaries
    6.  
      Manually configure the NetBackup IT Analytics Data Collector
    7.  
      Persistent Java Virtual Machine options
    8.  
      About RBAC bootstrapping
    9.  
      NetBackup primary server web server user and group creation
    10.  
      About the NetBackup Java Runtime Environment
    11.  
      Add or Remove Java GUI and JRE after install
    12.  
      Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    13.  
      Security updates to the NetBackup database
    14.  
      Size guidance for the NetBackup primary server and domain

Size guidance for the NetBackup primary server and domain

NetBackup primary server sizing is an important activity as part of an overall NetBackup solution design. Veritas always recommends a comprehensive data protection assessment to determine the optimal configuration for a NetBackup primary and NetBackup domain.

The following information is meant as guidelines:

  • NetBackup has no hard limit on catalog size. However, Veritas recommends as a best practice that you keep the catalog size under 4 TB to ensure good catalog backup and recovery performance.

    The size of the NetBackup catalog and the performance that is related to reading data from the NetBackup catalog is driven by the I/O performance and more specifically the disk speed. Veritas recommends the use of solid-state drives (SSDs) where possible for the catalog. The disks require good read and write performance, which is even more critical in large environments.

    Managing the size of the catalog through compression and catalog archiving is recommended for images with a long-term retention (LTR).

    For additional information about managing the catalog size through compression and catalog archiving, see the NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide.

  • The number of devices in the EMM database should not exceed 1500.

    Examples of devices are a tape drive, a tape library, a disk pool, and so on.

  • The number of media servers should not exceed 50.

    It is important to maintain a manageable number of media servers and storage targets within each NetBackup domain. Every media server and storage target that is deployed must be managed, maintained, and eventually patched and upgraded. Each of those media servers has a configuration that has to also be maintained. Therefore, it is important to consider the manageability, usability, and the administrative implications. Veritas recommends deploying media servers and storage targets that are properly sized with the necessary CPU, memory, network bandwidth, and disk I/O to support the backup workloads. It is also important to consider whether the same workloads require duplication or replication to a DR location. Sizing the media servers and storage targets to accommodate those secondary options is crucial. In summary, Veritas recommends that you deploy properly sized media servers and storage targets, while keeping the number less than 50 per domain.

  • The number of jobs must not exceed one job per second per client, but it is possible to submit multiple jobs per second, each sent from a different client. Each backup client has the "one job per second per client" limit, so multiple clients may run in parallel.

  • Computing resources such as CPU and memory affect how well the primary server scales.

To accommodate the processing of the metadata streams from media servers, it is critical that the primary server has the requisite amount of system resources. A media server sends metadata about the files it has backed up to the primary server. This metadata is batched and sent periodically. The batch size, which is determined by the tuning parameter MAX_ENTRIES_PER_ADD, has significant effect on primary server performance, especially for backup images that contain many small files.

For additional information about batch size for sending metadata to the NetBackup catalog, see the NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide.

The primary server must then process each of these metadata message payloads. Each payload requires an operating system process, each of which consumes system resources. The consumed system resources are disk capacity, CPU cycles, memory capacity, network bandwidth, and disk I/O.

Table: Sizing guidelines provides additional information.

Table: Sizing guidelines

Number of processors

Recommended memory requirement

Maximum number of media servers per primary server *

8

128 GB

20

16

256 GB

100

*Veritas recommends that you limit the number of media servers to less than 50 media servers per domain.

Additional recommendations about processor and memory requirements are available.

See Installation requirements for UNIX and Linux.

See Installation requirements for Windows and Windows clusters.