Before attempting to answer your questions I would like to clarify your configuration a little more.
First, what kind of VTL are you using? It is a NetApp VTL configured on each filer? OR a Data Domain VTL with drives configured on each filer? Or some other VTL?
Are the drives on the VTL configured directly from the NetApps as NDMP devices? Or are they configured as non-NDMP drives from the NetWorker Server or NetWorker Storage Node and you are using NDMPdsa?
Finally, what kind of drives are you planning to clone to? Physical tape in a physical tape library? Will the library be in a SAN?
With NetWorker you can configure two different kinds of NDMP backup:
1) Direct NDMP backups - drives are configured as NDMP Devices directly from the NAS filer (NetApp) and data is sent directly from the NAS to the tape device. The only thing sent over your LAN is the metadata back to the NetWorker server for building the index and requests to load/unload tapes, etc.
2) NDMPdsa - drives are configured as non-NDMP devices from the NetWorker server or a NetWorker Storage node. In this configuration, the NAS generates the backup image and then sends it to the NetWorker server or NetWorker Storage Node to be written to the tape. The data is sent over the LAN. The drives being used for the NDMPdsa backups can also be used for other non-NDMP backups. Additionally, if you have NetWorker Storage Nodes configured and you have lots of backups you can spread the load across the Storage Nodes.
Which of these you choose really depends on your environment. There are advantages to both. Using the first option with NDMP Devices the data does not need to be sent over the LAN. However, you cannot use multiplexing so you can only backup 1 filesystem at a time to a given tape drive. With NDMPdsa, the data is sent over the LAN to the NetWorker server or Storage Node, but you can use NetWorker multiplexing to write multiple backups (not recommended to be more than 4) to a single tape drive in parallel.
You really need to consider:
1) How much load can your network handle?
2) How much data do you need to backup (also think about growth potential)?
3) Do you have lots of very large filesystems? Or lots of small filesystems? With lots of very large...the NDMP devices are best to alleviate the load on your LAN. If you have lots of small ones, then NDMPdsa is a great way to go.
4) If you choose NDMPdsa, we recommend using a minimum GigE connection on both sides (NAS and NetWorker) with full duplex.
From the cloning perspective, if you want to do automatic cloning from the Backup Group you have a one to one correlation. For each clone that you want to run, you will need 2 tape drives regardless of the type of backup you choose. A source drive and a target drive. If you are using NDMP configured devices from the NAS filer, you will need an NDMP drive for the clone. If you want to be able to run 2 clones in parallel, you will need 2 source NDMP and 2 target NDMP drives.
Please let me know if this helps and if I can clarify anything further.
Is there any document which explains how to configure Direct NDMP backups from Isilon to EMC Networker. I read the admin guide but have a few confusions if there are any other documents for the same please guide me.
rmines1
49 Posts
0
March 1st, 2012 13:00
Hi Otto:
Before attempting to answer your questions I would like to clarify your configuration a little more.
First, what kind of VTL are you using? It is a NetApp VTL configured on each filer? OR a Data Domain VTL with drives configured on each filer? Or some other VTL?
Are the drives on the VTL configured directly from the NetApps as NDMP devices? Or are they configured as non-NDMP drives from the NetWorker Server or NetWorker Storage Node and you are using NDMPdsa?
Finally, what kind of drives are you planning to clone to? Physical tape in a physical tape library? Will the library be in a SAN?
Regards,
Rita Mines
ottov
63 Posts
0
March 1st, 2012 23:00
Hi Rita
we are in middle of planning.
We are considering a Quantum DXI 6700 box with VTL.
There we were considering to put a VTL drive to each of the Netapps.
I am not sure if I can attach the drives as NDMP or non-NDMP. I am also not sure if we need a DSA on the Networker.
Teh cloning is planned to a SAN attached library and we are considering if we need a dedicated drive for each of the Netapps.
The more I read about this the more confused I get.
rmines1
49 Posts
2
March 2nd, 2012 15:00
Hi Otto:
Let me try to explain the options.
With NetWorker you can configure two different kinds of NDMP backup:
1) Direct NDMP backups - drives are configured as NDMP Devices directly from the NAS filer (NetApp) and data is sent directly from the NAS to the tape device. The only thing sent over your LAN is the metadata back to the NetWorker server for building the index and requests to load/unload tapes, etc.
2) NDMPdsa - drives are configured as non-NDMP devices from the NetWorker server or a NetWorker Storage node. In this configuration, the NAS generates the backup image and then sends it to the NetWorker server or NetWorker Storage Node to be written to the tape. The data is sent over the LAN. The drives being used for the NDMPdsa backups can also be used for other non-NDMP backups. Additionally, if you have NetWorker Storage Nodes configured and you have lots of backups you can spread the load across the Storage Nodes.
Which of these you choose really depends on your environment. There are advantages to both. Using the first option with NDMP Devices the data does not need to be sent over the LAN. However, you cannot use multiplexing so you can only backup 1 filesystem at a time to a given tape drive. With NDMPdsa, the data is sent over the LAN to the NetWorker server or Storage Node, but you can use NetWorker multiplexing to write multiple backups (not recommended to be more than 4) to a single tape drive in parallel.
You really need to consider:
1) How much load can your network handle?
2) How much data do you need to backup (also think about growth potential)?
3) Do you have lots of very large filesystems? Or lots of small filesystems? With lots of very large...the NDMP devices are best to alleviate the load on your LAN. If you have lots of small ones, then NDMPdsa is a great way to go.
4) If you choose NDMPdsa, we recommend using a minimum GigE connection on both sides (NAS and NetWorker) with full duplex.
From the cloning perspective, if you want to do automatic cloning from the Backup Group you have a one to one correlation. For each clone that you want to run, you will need 2 tape drives regardless of the type of backup you choose. A source drive and a target drive. If you are using NDMP configured devices from the NAS filer, you will need an NDMP drive for the clone. If you want to be able to run 2 clones in parallel, you will need 2 source NDMP and 2 target NDMP drives.
Please let me know if this helps and if I can clarify anything further.
Regards,
Rita Mines
ottov
63 Posts
0
March 5th, 2012 00:00
Hi Rita
this was very helpful. i was getting kinda lost in the reading here.
This info clarified the bits that I did not understand fully.
Best regards Otto
ShubhamMishra
40 Posts
0
June 26th, 2015 06:00
Hi All
Is there any document which explains how to configure Direct NDMP backups from Isilon to EMC Networker. I read the admin guide but have a few confusions if there are any other documents for the same please guide me.
Thanks
Shubham Mishra