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Veritas NetBackup™ Appliance Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2023-10-10

Product(s): Appliances (5.1.1)

Platform: NetBackup Appliance OS

Manage > Storage

The Manage > Storage menu enables you to manage the storage configuration. Use the Capacity Distribution section to quickly view the storage configuration. From the Partitions and Disks sections, you can manage this storage space.

Figure: Storage Overview example shows an example of the Manage > Storage page for a 52xx appliance.

Figure: Storage Overview example

The Capacity Distribution section provides a graphical representation of the storage partitions within your appliance. The doughnut chart shows the storage partitions that are configured. It also shows how each partition is sized. The legend that adjacent to the doughnut chart displays the color and size of each partition. Only the configured partitions display as links in the legend and can be clicked.

The Capacity Chart section provides an overview of storage capacity usage ranges for specific periods of time. You can select one week to one year from the drop-down list. When you select Trend from the drop-down list, Netbackup Appliance analyzes the past storage capacity usage, and calculates when the available storage is fully used.

Appliance collects the capacity usage data at 1:00 AM (server time) everyday and updates the capacity chart several minutes later. It indicates that the display of the capacity chart is not real time but has one-day delay. For example, to check the capacity usage by 2015-10-10, you need to wait until 1:05 AM on 2015-10-11.

Depending on your appliance platform, the appliance storage is divided using the following storage partitions:

AdvancedDisk	AdvancedDisk enables you to back up and restore data at a faster rate. It does not involve any deduplication.
CDPGateway	A CDPGateway partition lets you rapidly make copies of backups for VMware virtual machines (VMs) ,without stunning the VMs. You can make recent copies of backups and use NetBackup to retain and restore the backups as required. To create a CDPGateway partition, log in to the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu and use the Manage > Storage > Create command. For complete details, see the NetBackup Appliance Commands Reference Guide.
NetBackup Catalog	This partition contains metadata for NetBackup which includes information regarding backups, storage devices, and configuration. The NetBackup Catalog partition can reside only on a Base disk of a NetBackup 52xx appliance primary server. Note: To ensure good backup and recovery performance, Veritas recommends as a best practice that you keep the catalog size under 4 TB. The size of the environment and the length of backup image retention may cause catalogs to grow in excess of 4 TB. A catalog size beyond 4 TB is not an issue for NetBackup. However, operational issues may result for the environment with regard to the time it takes to perform backups and recoveries. In the event of a disaster, the catalog size also directly affects the recovery time of the environment.
Configuration	A storage partition that stores configuration information.
MSDP	The allocated space for Media Server Deduplication (or MSDP) on your appliance. On 52xx appliances, the MSDP partition should reside on an expansion disk for optimum performance. See Moving the MSDP partition from a base disk to an expansion disk for optimum performance.
MSDP Catalog	This partition contains metadata for MSDP which includes information regarding MSDP backups. On the 52xx appliances, the MSDP Catalog partition can either exist on the base or the expansion disk. On a 53xx appliance, the MSDP Catalog partition is located on a dedicated disk that called the Metadisk. The Metadisk contains the MSDP Catalog partition only.
NetBackup VxUpdate Repository	This partition is used to store downloaded VxUpdate formatted packages of NetBackup clients, NetBackup add-on packages, and EEBs or hotfixes for NetBackup clients.
NDMP Log	This partition contains logs that are generated when NDMP is enabled during the backup operation. The NDMP Log partition is only available to a physical appliance media server. The NDMP Log partition size is fixed and cannot be resized.
Standard Share	This partition contains all of the shares that have been allocated for database backups (Copilot).
Optimized Share	This partition contains all of the optimized shares that have been allocated for database backups (Copilot).
Unallocated	The storage space that has not been allocated to the other partitions (includes all partitions that are displayed except Unallocated). When you expand the storage space for partitions like MSDP, AdvancedDisk, it is used from the Unallocated space. When you add a disk, the size of the Unallocated space increases. The size of the MSDP, AdvancedDisk, and any other partition remains the same.

See the NetBackup documentation for more information on partitions.

Table: Appliance storage partitions lists the supported sizes and platforms for each partition.

Table: Appliance storage partitions

Partition Name	Minimum supported size	Maximum supported size	Supported platforms
AdvancedDisk	1 GB	Maximum available capacity	52xx 53xx
CDPGateway	101 GB	Sum of remaining space	5250, 5350
NetBackup Catalog	250 GB (Primary server)	Maximum available Base disk capacity (Primary server)	52xx (primary server only)
NetBackup VxUpdate Repository	100 GB	Maximum available capacity	52xx (primary server only)
NDMP Log	100 GB (Media server)	Maximum available capacity	52xx 53xx
Configuration	100 GB	500 GB	52xx 53xx
MSDP	10 GB	Maximum available capacity	52xx
MSDP	10 GB	960 TB	53xx
MSDP Catalog	5 GB	25 TB	52xx, 53xx
Standard Share (Copilot)	5 GB	Maximum available capacity The limit for each individual share is 250 TB	5240, 5250, 53xx
Optimized Share (Copilot)	5 GB	114 TB or 228 TB	53xx
Universal Share	5 GB	Maximum available capacity	52xx 53xx

Note:

To view the exact numbers for supported sizes, see the NetBackup Appliance Product Description Guide for the appropriate model.

The Partitions section displays details about all the partitions that are configured on the appliance. The following columns are displayed in the Partitions table:

Column Name	Description
Partition	Displays the name of the partition.Example: AdvancedDisk Clicking the partition name opens another page that shows details about the specific partition and also lets you resize and move the partition. Checking partition details lists details about the partition.
Status	Displays the status of the partition. Example: Optimal Table: Partition Type Status describes each partition status.
Used	Displays the used space within a partition. Example: 13.70 GB
Available	Displays the free space within a partition. Example: 1.62 TB
Total	Displays the total space within the partition. Example: 1.63 TB
Used Percentage	Displays the percentage of used space in the partition. Example: 2%

Note:

The sizes that are displayed for the MSDP partition on the Manage > Storage page or by using the Manage > Storage > Show command on the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu may not be the full space that is available or used by the MSDP partition. This is because space is reserved by the file system and also by MSDP. The file system reserves space for it's own use. In addition, MSDP reserves 4 percent of the storage space for the deduplication database and transaction logs. For more information, see the NetBackup Deduplication Guide

Check the MSDP disk pool sizes displayed on the NetBackup Administration Console to know the MSDP statistics.

Table: Partition Type Status describes the various partition status that is displayed next to the partition type.

Table: Partition Type Status

Status	Description
Optimal	The storage partition is accessible and the entire capacity is available for backups.
Degraded	The entire storage capacity of the partition is not available in this state. Only a limited storage capacity of the partition is available.
Not Accessible	The entire storage capacity of the partition is not available so no tasks can be performed.
Not Configured	Storage is not configured or imported for the storage partition.

Click any partition from the Partition section to go to the partition detail page. For more information about partition details page, see Checking partition details

Table: Partition Name Status describes the various partition states.

Table: Partition Name Status

Status	Description
Mounted	The partition is currently mounted.
Not Mounted	The partition is not currently mounted. If the partition is not mounted, the status can either be Degraded or Not Accessible. See Table: Partition Type Status for more information.
I/O Error	There is an I/O error with the partition. If the partition has an I/O error, the status can either be Degraded or Not Accessible. See Table: Partition Type Status for more information.

The Disks section provides a tabular representation of the storage disks that comprise your appliance and the storage shelves that are attached to it.

You must scan for new disks when you connect new storage. You must also scan to refresh the storage information when you disconnect and reconnect storage to the Appliance.

Click Scan to scan for new disks and then click OK to confirm the prompt.

Note:

If you are scanning the 5330 appliance for the first time, disk initialization may take some time. The disk initialization happens in the background and may take up to 56 hours depending on the system load. The estimated time is up to 28 hours for a Primary Storage Shelf and up to 28 hours for an Expansion Storage Shelf. You can continue to use the appliance during this time. However, if one or more of the new disks are used by partitions during the disk initialization process, the performance of backup and restore operations on the specific disks degrades by up to 30%.

If you want to expand storage and attach a storage shelf or an expansion system to an appliance, see the NetBackup Appliance Hardware Installation Guide for the appropriate model. Once these storage shelves or expansion systems are properly connected to the appliance, you must scan for the newly available disks from the Disks section. The new disks have the New Available status. Once the newly available disks are displayed, these disks must be added so the additional space can be used.

See Adding the storage space from a newly available disk.

The following columns are displayed in the table:

Column names	Description
Disk	Displays the ID that is associated with the disk. Example: 50001FAFA000000F5B0519CB4
Type	Displays the type of disk. Example: Base Table: Disk Types describes each disk type.
Status	Displays the status of the disk. Example: In Use Table: Disk Status describes each status.
Allocations	Lists the partitions that exist on each disk. Also lists the size of each partition. Example: AdvancedDisk: 18 TB
Unallocated	Displays the available space within the disks. Example: 1.9172 GB
Total	Displays the total storage space within the disk. Example: 4.5429 TB

Table: Disk Types lists the disk types that can appear depending on your appliance model.

Table: Disk Types

Type	Description	Supported Platforms
System	This category tells you the storage that is occupied by the appliance operating system, logs etc.	52xx 53xx
Base	This category tells you the storage that is available with the appliance base unit.	52xx
Expansion	A storage shelf that is connected to a 52xx appliance.	52xx
Data	All partitions, except MSDP Catalog, exist on the Data disk. Examples of partitions that exist on the data disks are MSDP, AdvancedDisk, Configuration, etc. There can be six data disks for a Primary Storage Shelf and six for an Expansion Storage Shelf.	53xx
Meta	The MSDP Catalog partition exists only on the Meta disk. There can be one Meta disk for a Primary Storage Shelf and one for an Expansion Storage Shelf.	53xx
Unknown	This category appears when appliance cannot determine the disk type like when the disk is not accessible.	Not Applicable

Table: Disk Status describes the various status that is displayed in the Status field.

Table: Disk Status

Status	Description
Foreign	Denotes that the disk has storage configuration information, and may contain data. The Remove link is displayed next to all Foreign disks. You can remove any pre-existing data from a Foreign disk. After you remove a Foreign disk, the status of the disk is New Available. Disk status is displayed as Foreign, when: A disk that was In Use was physically disconnected, later reconnected. In this case, restarting the appliance would bring the disk status back to its previous state. A disk that was In Use was physically disconnected. The Appliance was reimaged and reconfigured and the disk is connected back. Or A disk that was connected to another system still has configuration information of the old system
In Use	Denotes that the disk is currently in use. The Remove link is displayed if the disk does not have any partition.
n/a	Denotes that no commands or operations can be performed on disks with this status. An example of a disk that has an n/a status is System. An example of a disk that has an n/a status is Operating System.
New Available	Denotes that the disk is available to be added to the storage space. The Add link is displayed to add the storage disk to the storage space.
Not Accessible	Storage disk that was In Use is not accessible any more.

Note:

You can use the Datacollect command from the Main > Support shell menu to gather storage disk logs. You can share these disk logs with the Support team to resolve disk-related issues. More information about the Main > Support > Datacollect menu is available.