Testing Your Setup by Using Veritas NetBackup - AWS Storage Gateway

Testing Your Setup by Using Veritas NetBackup

You can back up your data to virtual tapes, archive the tapes, and manage your virtual tape library (VTL) devices by using Veritas NetBackup. In this topic, you can find basic documentation on how to configure the NetBackup application for a Tape Gateway and perform a backup and restore operation. To do so, you can use the following versions of NetBackup:

  • Veritas NetBackup 7.x

  • Veritas NetBackup 8.x

The procedure for using these versions of Backup Exec with a Tape Gateway is similar. For detailed information about how to use NetBackup, see the Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT) on the Veritas website. For Veritas support information on hardware compatibility, see the NetBackup 7.0 - 7.6.x Hardware Compatibility List, NetBackup 8.0 - 8.1.x Hardware Compatibility List, or NetBackup 8.2 - 8.x.x Hardware Compatibility List on the Veritas website.

For more information about compatible backup applications, see Supported third-party backup applications for a Tape Gateway.

Configuring NetBackup Storage Devices

After you have connected the virtual tape library (VTL) devices to the Windows client, you configure Veritas NetBackup storage to recognize your devices. For information about how to connect VTL devices to the Windows client, see Connecting your VTL devices.

To configure NetBackup to use storage devices on your Tape Gateway
  1. Open the NetBackup Administration Console as an administrator.

  2. Choose Configure Storage Devices to open the Device Configuration wizard.

  3. Choose Next. The NetBackup application detects your computer as a device host.

  4. In the Device Hosts column, select your computer, and then choose Next. The NetBackup application scans your computer for devices and discovers all devices.

  5. In the Scanning Hosts page, choose Next, and then choose Next. The NetBackup application finds all 10 tape drives and the medium changer on your computer.

  6. In the Backup Devices window, choose Next.

  7. In the Drag and Drop Configuration window, verify that your medium changer is selected, and then choose Next.

  8. In the dialog box that appears, choose Yes to save the configuration on your computer. The NetBackup application updates the device configuration.

  9. When the update is completed, choose Next to make the devices available to the NetBackup application.

  10. In the Finished! window, choose Finish.

To verify your devices in the NetBackup application
  1. In the NetBackup Administration Console, expand the Media and Device Management node, and then expand the Devices node. Choose Drives to display all the tape drives.

  2. In the Devices node, choose Robots to display all your medium changers. In the NetBackup application, the medium changer is called a robot.

  3. In the All Robots pane, open the context (right-click) menu for TLD(0) (that is, your robot), and then choose Inventory Robot.

  4. In the Robot Inventory window, verify that your host is selected from the Device-Host list located in the Select robot category.

  5. Verify that your robot is selected from the Robot list.

  6. In the Robot Inventory window, select Update volume configuration, select Preview changes, select Empty media access port prior to update, and then choose Start.

    The process then inventories your medium changer and virtual tapes in the NetBackup Enterprise Media Management (EMM) database. NetBackup stores media information, device configuration, and tape status in the EMM.

  7. In the Robot Inventory window, choose Yes once the inventory is complete. Choosing Yes here updates the configuration and moves virtual tapes found in import/export slots to the virtual tape library.

  8. Close the Robot Inventory window.

  9. In the Media node, expand the Robots node and choose TLD(0) to show all virtual tapes that are available to your robot (medium changer).

    Note

    If you have previously connected other devices to the NetBackup application, you might have multiple robots. Make sure that you select the right robot.

Now that you have connected your devices and made them available to your backup application, you are ready to test your gateway. To test your gateway, you back up data onto the virtual tapes you created and archive the tapes.

Backing Up Data to a Tape

You test the Tape Gateway setup by backing up data onto your virtual tapes.

Note
  • You should back up only a small amount of data for this Getting Started exercise, because there are costs associated with storing, archiving, and retrieving data. For pricing information, see Pricing on the Storage Gateway detail page.

  • If your Tape Gateway restarts for any reason during an ongoing backup job, the backup job will be suspended. The suspended backup job will resume automatically when your gateway finishes restarting.

To create a volume pool

A volume pool is a collection of virtual tapes to use for a backup.

  1. Start the NetBackup Administration Console.

  2. Expand the Media node, open the context (right-click) menu for Volume Pool, and then choose New. The New Volume Pool dialog box appears.

  3. For Name, type a name for your volume pool.

  4. For Description, type a description for the volume pool, and then choose OK. The volume pool you just created is added to the volume pool list.

    The following screenshot shows a list of volume pools.

To add virtual tapes to a volume pool
  1. Expand the Robots node, and select the TLD(0) robot to display the virtual tapes this robot is aware of.

    If you have previously connected a robot, your Tape Gateway robot might have a different name.

  2. From the list of virtual tapes, open the context (right-click) menu for the tape you want to add to the volume pool, and choose Change to open the Change Volumes dialog box.

  3. For Volume Pool, choose New pool.

  4. For New pool, select the pool you just created, and then choose OK.

    You can verify that your volume pool contains the virtual tape that you just added by expanding the Media node and choosing your volume pool.

To create a backup policy

The backup policy specifies what data to back up, when to back it up, and which volume pool to use.

  1. Choose your Master Server to return to the Veritas NetBackup console.

  2. Choose Create a Policy to open the Policy Configuration Wizard window.

  3. Select File systems, databases, applications, and choose Next.

  4. For Policy Name, type a name for your policy and verify that MS-Windows is selected from the Select the policy type list, and then choose Next.

  5. In the Client List window, choose Add, type the host name of your computer in the Name column, and then choose Next. This step applies the policy you are defining to localhost (your client computer).

  6. In the Files window, choose Add, and then choose the folder icon.

  7. In the Browse window, browse to the folder or files you want to back up, choose OK, and then choose Next.

  8. In the Backup Types window, accept the defaults, and then choose Next.

    Note

    If you want to initiate the backup yourself, select User Backup.

  9. In the Frequency and Retention window, select the frequency and retention policy you want to apply to the backup. For this exercise, you can accept all of the defaults and choose Next.

  10. In the Start window, select Off hours, and then choose Next. This selection specifies that your folder should be backed up during off hours only.

  11. In the Policy Configuration wizard, choose Finish.

The policy runs the backups according to the schedule. You can also perform a manual backup at any time, which we do in the next step.

To perform a manual backup
  1. On the navigation pane of the NetBackup console, expand the NetBackup Management node.

  2. Expand the Policies node.

  3. Open the context (right-click) menu for your policy, and choose Manual Backup.

  4. In the Manual Backup window, select a schedule, select a client, and then choose OK.

  5. In the Manual Backup Started dialog box that appears, choose OK.

  6. On the navigation pane, choose Activity Monitor to view the status of your backup in the Job ID column.

To find the barcode of the virtual tape where NetBackup wrote the file data during the backup, look in the Job Details window as described in the following procedure. You need this barcode in the procedure in the next section, where you archive the tape.

To find the barcode of a tape
  1. In Activity Monitor, open the context (right-click) menu for the identifier of your backup job in the Job ID column, and then choose Details.

  2. In the Job Details window, choose the Detailed Status tab.

  3. In the Status box, locate the media ID. For example, an entry in the status report might read media id 87A222. This ID helps you determine which tape you have written data to.

You have now successfully deployed a Tape Gateway, created virtual tapes, and backed up your data. Next, you can archive the virtual tapes and retrieve them from the archive.

Archiving the Tape

When you archive a tape, Tape Gateway moves the tape from your gateway’s virtual tape library (VTL) to the archive, which provides offline storage. You initiate tape archival by ejecting the tape using your backup application.  

To archive a virtual tape
  1. In the NetBackup Administration console, expand the Media and Device Management node, and expand the Media node.

  2. Expand Robots and choose TLD(0).

  3. Open the context (right-click) menu for the virtual tape you want to archive, and choose Eject Volume From Robot.

  4. In the Eject Volumes window, make sure the Media ID matches the virtual tape you want to eject, and then choose Eject.

  5. In the dialog box, choose Yes.

    When the eject process is completed, the status of the tape in the Eject Volumes dialog box indicates that the eject succeeded.

  6. Choose Close to close the Eject Volumes window.

  7. In the Storage Gateway console, verify the status of the tape you are archiving in the gateway's VTL. It can take some time to finish uploading data to AWS. During this time, the ejected tape is listed in the gateway's VTL with the status IN TRANSIT TO VTS. When archiving starts, the status is ARCHIVING. Once data upload has completed, the ejected tape is no longer listed in the VTL but is archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

  8. To verify that the virtual tape is no longer listed in your gateway, choose your gateway, and then choose VTL Tape Cartridges.

  9. In the navigation pane of the Storage Gateway console, choose Tapes. Verify that your archived tape's status is ARCHIVED.

Restoring Data from the Tape

Restoring your archived data is a two-step process.

To restore data from an archived tape
  1. Retrieve the archived tape to a Tape Gateway. For instructions, see Retrieving Archived Tapes.

  2. Use the Backup, Archive, and Restore software installed with the Veritas NetBackup application. This process is the same as restoring data from physical tapes. For instructions, see Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT) on the Veritas website.

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