• In a SAN environment, you must use persistent binding (also known as SCSI mapping, persistent reservation, or persistent naming). NetVault Backup cannot communicate with a library if its logical address changes as a result of changes in the SAN. Persistent binding assigns a fixed logical address to the device, which does not change as devices are added or removed in the SAN. For the Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), you can map the Fibre Channel device address (World Wide Name (WWN) or World Wide Identifier (WWID)) or Loop ID to the logical SCSI address. This ensures that changes in the SAN have no impact on the NetVault Backup operations.
• You must also use persistent binding when the server and fibre devices are attached to separate switches or when zoning is implemented. NetVault Backup does not support multipathing to a tape library or device, so only one channel should be logically or physically configured for use to ensure consistent communication path.
You should not use the tape libraries or drives on the same switch or in the same zone that has disk devices attached. Problems might be encountered if packets from both device types co-exist in a SAN environment. Therefore, you should use separate HBAs for these devices.
• Apple supports multipathing in FC Host Adapter and XserveRAID, and often this is the default setting after installation. However, multipathing is not supported in NetVault Backup. Therefore, the connections should be logically or physically separated to ensure a consistent communication path.
Dell NetVault SmartDisk
This section includes the following topics: • About NetVault SmartDisk
• Adding a NetVault SmartDisk
About NetVault SmartDisk
Dell NetVault SmartDisk (NetVault SmartDisk) provides disk-based storage with optional data deduplication capability. It uses powerful byte-level, variable block-based software deduplication which packs up to 12 times more protected data into the same storage area for a 92% reduction in storage footprint. NetVault SmartDisk is installed and licensed separately from NetVault Backup.
A NetVault SmartDisk instance consists of one or more Storage Pools and a set of processes that perform disk- based backups and byte-level variable block software deduplication. An instance can be deployed on a dedicated NetVault SmartDisk Server, NetVault Backup Server, or NetVault Backup Client. It can accept data streams from heterogeneous platforms. A Storage Pool consists of one or more file system volumes. It can be easily extended by adding additional file system paths.
For more information about installing and configuring NetVault SmartDisk, refer to the Dell NetVault SmartDisk Installation Guide and Dell NetVault SmartDisk Administrator's Guide.
Adding a NetVault SmartDisk
To use a NetVault SmartDisk for backups and restores, you must first add the device to the NetVault Backup Server. You can use the configuration wizard to add and configure this device.
To add a NetVault SmartDisk to the NetVault Backup Server 1 Start the configuration wizard:
• In the Navigation pane, click Guided Configuration, and then on the NetVault Configuration Wizard page, click Add Storage Devices.
• Alternatively, in the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices, and then click Add Device. 2 Select the NetVault SmartDisk option, and click Next.
4 Click Next to add the device.
5 After the device is successfully added and initialized, a message is displayed.
Disabling WebDAV authentication for NetVault SmartDisk
Currently, NetVault Backup does not provide any method to disable WebDAV authentication once it has been enabled for a NetVault SmartDisk. The only way to do this is to remove the NetVault SmartDisk from the NetVault Backup Server, and re-add the device.Table 1. Add NetVault SmartDisk
Option Description
Network name/IP address Type the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or IP address of the host on which NetVault SmartDisk is installed. Provide this information even if the device is deployed on the NetVault Backup Server.
If the server is unable to resolve the host name, it fails to add the device. Network port The default value for this setting is zero (0). If the device is listening on
the default port, do not change this value.
If the device is listening on a non-default port, type the port number configured as the Network Settings:Remote Listen Port in the
percolator.cfg file. For more information about configuring a non-default port for a NetVault SmartDisk, refer to the Dell NetVault SmartDisk Administrator’s Guide.
Force add If the device is already added to another NetVault Backup Server with the same name, select the Force add check box. This option can be useful if you have performed a disaster recovery to rebuild the NetVault Backup Server.
Configure WebDAV
credentials To prevent unauthorized access to data, you can set up WebDAV authentication for server requests on NetVault SmartDisk. NetVault SmartDisk uses Digest Access Authentication with WebDAV. For more information about setting up authentication on the NetVault SmartDisk Server, refer to Dell NetVault SmartDisk Administrator’s Guide.
If WebDAV authentication is enabled on the NetVault SmartDisk, select this check box, and provide the following information:
• Username – Specify the user account configured on the NetVault SmartDisk Server.
• Password – Type the password for the user account. • Confirm Password – Re-type the password for confirmation.
NOTE: If you enable WebDAV authentication on the NetVault SmartDisk Server, but do not configure the authentication details on the NetVault Backup Server, the backups and restores using that device will fail without reporting any proper error messages. The scan operation will also fail for the device.