DSN Licensing

Question

Hi,

I have around 15 clients now on a Fibre SAN and I need to upgrade the setup to SAN based backup.

My backupd evice would be a SATA based disk volume available from the same SAN sotrage.

I think I would need 15 Dedicated Storage Node licenses since I want to backup each client as a dedicated node. Am I right?

Also, I don't think Dynamic Drive Sharing license is required since I am using disk backup option Tier 2 and not using a Physical or a virtual tape library. Am I right here as well?

ble1 · Accepted Answer

Now for each device, I would need to create on NW
server - device1 and others with rd=SN:device1 for
each SN. For SN, I would mark DSN & for Clients, I
would use device1.

Yes, so you would have for example:
/afd_devece_bck
rd=sn1:/afd_devece_1
rd=sn2:/afd_devece_1
rd=sn3:/afd_devece_1

For sn1 client you would mark sn1 as storage node, for sn2 client you would mark sn2 as storage node, etc. You would then go to device properties and mark that device as being dedicated storage node.

ble1 · Answer

I think I would need 15 Dedicated Storage Node
licenses since I want to backup each client as a
dedicated node. Am I right?

Correct. I'm wondering how this setup would work if DSN license would be shared via license manager... perhaps you can get it cheaper that way, but I have never tried that yet and have no idea if it works with LLM.

Also, I don't think Dynamic Drive Sharing license is
required since I am using disk backup option Tier 2
and not using a Physical or a virtual tape library.
Am I right here as well?

If you are not sharing same device DDS is not required. When it comes to disk device sharing I have tested that under eval only so I have no idea if DDS would be required for it. If each DSN will have its own dedicated SAN storage then DDS is not required of course.

amediratta · Answer

I have also normally worked with DDS & DSN together with tape drives.

What I am wondering is that the dedicated storage node option is available on device then how do we configure a storage node(client) as DSN?

ble1 · Answer

When creating storage node you are asked about if that node is DSN and devices on it are marked as dedicated too. There is a field for that in NSR devices resource (decicated storage node [yes | no ]).

amediratta · Answer

Creating a storage node - when?

During jbconfig.

This is disk device - no jbconfig

If we mark DSN in a device, does it becomes
applicable for all clients & SN or how does that
decide which SN to work on?

Client will select data where to go by storage node
field. As DSN will be used obviously they will point
to themselves. In device configuration devices
belonnging to those hosts will be marked as dedicated
storage node (you can change that on fly).

I will update SN filed for clients with their own hostname. Now when device(also marked for DSN) backups up this client, it acts as DSN and when it backs up only a client it acts as just a device.

ble1 · Answer

Creating a storage node - when?

During jbconfig.

This is disk device - no jbconfig

If we mark DSN in a device, does it becomes
applicable for all clients & SN or how does that
decide which SN to work on?

Client will select data where to go by storage node
field. As DSN will be used obviously they will point
to themselves. In device configuration devices
belonnging to those hosts will be marked as dedicated
storage node (you can change that on fly).

I will update SN filed for clients with their own hostname. Now when device(also marked for DSN) backups up this client, it acts as DSN and when it backs up only a client it acts as just a device.

amediratta · Answer

Creating a storage node - when?If we mark DSN in a device, does it becomes applicable for all clients & SN or how does that decide which SN to work on?

ble1 · Answer

Yes, silly me... working with VTL lately, LUNs and metaluns washed my head With disk devices you simply go to device and mark it as dedicated storage node.

amediratta · Answer

And if it finds its own host name in SN field of client, it acts as DSN and if nsrserverhost - it acts as just a backup device.In this case, if I don't want DSN for all clients, how do I check that.

ble1 · Answer

In this case, if I don't want DSN for all clients, how do I check that.

Just uncheck (or do not check in the first place) option that this is dedicated storage node device (and of course adjust storage node field to wherever this will go - it still can be local host of course).

xvan_egmond · Answer

Hi,I have already opened a case with EMC about this very thing.There is NO option to CREATE a dedicated tape unit, neither with jbedit nor creation of client. Perhaps jbconfig will do the job, but when working with libraries with 25 drives and 70 devices you don't want to have to use jbconfig, just jbedit.In this case when using a gui or jbedit, you will need one shared storagenode license to create the device, then change it to dedicated storage node: Yes.When writing this, I just figured out how to do it: use nsradmin to create the device and set 'dedicated storage node: Yes'Only problem is that most people don't use nsradmin, because it has too many possibilities which I actually like Xander

amediratta · Answer

I think I am a bit confused here. Not going through good days these days -

That means I get say 6 TB of disk space. I would preferably create 4 folders out of this to be defined as my backup devices.

Now for each device, I would need to create on NW server - device1 and others with rd=SN:device1 for each SN. For SN, I would mark DSN & for Clients, I would use device1.

Hope this should be the correct configuration.

ble1 · Answer

Perhaps jbconfig will do the job, but when working with
libraries with 25 drives and 70 devices you don't
want to have to use jbconfig, just jbedit.

Actually I use jbconfig script for that. Rest of it can be achieved via nsradmin as you said.

NetWorker

DSN Licensing

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