NDMP backup of NetApp vFiler

Question

Hello all,

We are setting up an NDMP backup of our NetApp storage box to our NetWorker backup environment.

I was able to do ndmp backups of the storage box, by creating a networker client instance and the following backup command:

nsrndmp_save -M -T dump -J storage_node -s backup_server -P backup_server

Now, if we do this for all our data on that NetApp filer, a user who is doing a restore can see all the data of the entire NetApp filer.
Therefor, I would like to create a NetWorker client instance of a vFiler on that NetApp storage box, and take it's data the same way into backup.
This way, a user doing a restore, only see's the data of that vFiler, not of the entire box.

I have used the exact same command, and made sure the remote user and password are correct (the root user of the vFiler).
But I get the following error:

1 retry attempted
42597:nsrndmp_save: connect auth: connection has not been authorized
42610:nsrndmp_save: The NDMP connection is not successfully authorized on host 'vfiler'.
42884:nsrndmp_save: Not able to connect or authorize the client 'vfiler'

Anyone knows what the problem might be?

Some checks I've already done:
- storage_node and backup_server are put in the Filer's and vfilers hosts file
- vfiler is put in the hosts-file of the storage node and the backup server
- ping is possible from vfiler to backup server and storage node and visa versa
- ssh is possible from backup server and storage node to vfiler

What I did see, was when I did a help command on the filer, I saw that there was the 'dump' command. When I did this on the vfiler, there was no 'dump' command.

Kind regards

ble1 · Answer

Ah ok... so I assume this is similar to vdm as in Celerra. Usually, you define vfiler in that case and from master console you define user you would use. That should work. Can you check if you do telnet vfiler_IP 10000 if that works? If that does not work you can't have NW communicating with vfiler for the same reason.

ble1 · Answer

Can you explain what is vFiler?

I'm also confused with point where you claim you put servers file on filer and vfiler - if those are ndmp appliances then you don't have that. Can you explain this a little bit more?

TimTh · Answer

Hi, Thanks for your interest.A vFiler is a virtual Filer.You can create multiple vFiler on a physical NetApp Filer. You use this to separate data into different domains, and to separate data (security) from each other.I have not put a servers file on the Filer and vFiler, because there is no NetWorker installed (which is impossible).I have put the IP-addresses and names into the hosts-files

TimTh · Answer

Yeah, a telnet to port 10000 works both to the physical filer and to the vfiler. So that should be OK.

What I think is wrong, is that the dump command (which is used, by the -T dump in the backup command) only exist on the physical filer, and not on the vFiler.

ble1 · Answer

If that's the case that might indicate you can't do backup of vfiler which I doubt. Can you check if you have tar? I believe you can use either dump or tar (at least with Celerra, but I suspect very much the same to be with NetApp).

TimTh · Answer

OK, I just had a (to my opinion) great idea.

The -I parameter.

From what I understand in the man pages, does the -I parameter let you specify a different host to which the backup should belong, correct?

So I tried the following as a backup command for client instance of the physical filer:

nsrndmp_save -M -T dump -J storage_node -s backup_server -P backup_server -I vfiler

So, why did I do this:
This would let me be able to backup the data through the physical server, which works.
And this would put the backup as a backup for the vFiler.
Therefor the users of the vFiler, who can only see the vfiler in the networker user, only can see their data.

The backup ran successfully, but under the index of the vfiler is still get "No savesets for this client", and the backup is listed in the indexes of the physical filer.

I added *@vfiler in the remote access list of the physical filer
And also added *@vfiler in the operators groups (in the man pages it said they need operate networker privileges)

TimTh · Answer

Well, it seems like the -I options isn't used for this.

But the -c would.

But still, even with the backup command:

nsrndmp_save -M -T dump -c vfiler -J storage_node -s backup_server -P backup_server

The backup still shows under the physical filer, and not the virtual filer.

NetWorker

NDMP backup of NetApp vFiler

Was this post helpful?