I didn't try yet - plan to start testing in Q2/Q3.  I don't see how guest OS would be related to backup server platform support (I could see this related to media server if it would be proxy node which is fine by me, but not backup server).  Well, let's wait a bit more to see if anyone will come up with answer

Good question , would be nice to hear an answer from EMC  I don't see why it should not work to run NetWorker server on AIX with the VBA appliance ,  I guess it works but is unsupported? (Have you tried? or did you give up after reading the manual? )

Maybe has something to do with VMware guest OS support since VMware don't support AIX / HPUX as guest os... far-fetched but just a guess.

our Networker server has always been on AIX back to Networker 6. We are currently at NW v8.1.1.4.

I tried setting up a new VBA/EBR appliance, it registers with Vcenter successfully but during the registration fails with the networker server. Between reviewing the forums here along with a case with EMC, the issue seems to be that if the Networker server was running on Windows platform, within Networker if you went to the server properties and chose the Misc tab, there is an option to configure a VBBR userid. But since our Networker server is on AIX that option doesn't exist on the Misc tab of the server properties

What gets me is, VADP works fine to backup VMs currently, but that support is getting phased out (which is why this config shows up as Legacy within Networker 8.1 GUI. IF the new EBR/VBA appliance won't work with NW on AIX, and EMC stops supporting VADP VM backups, I guess we're going to be screwed for support

here's the properties window with networker in diag mode

I tried finding anything with the VMWS in the /nsr/res/nsrdb/*/* folders but nothing came up

OK, apparently this account and data are used by VBA when communicating with backup server.  So, running NW 8.1.1.x on AIX you claim you do not see it?  If you go to CLI, and do grep VMWS /nsr/res/nsrdb/*/*  - do you see it then?  If not, then it seems as if VBA support might not have been fully implemented in current release for AIX.

I checked your picture and it looks kind of small in terms of tabs when you go to properties - are you sure you have selected to show hidden entries as well?

Are you referring to following:

I have no idea what it is, but I see in Misc tab and it seems to be related somehow to VMs

the nw8.1.1 vmware integration guide lists the VBA only supported with NW server on Windows, Linux and Solaris, which probably explains why I don't see this on the Misc tab. Hopefully AIX and HP-UX support are added in an upcoming SP before VADP support goes EOL

I currently have an SR open on this. If they come back with the same info then I'll inform our VM admins that they can delete the VM used for VBA. I'll have them rebuild it in the future if AIX server support is (ever) added

thanks for your help

that's what I'm referring to. This is all I see on our server's MISC tab

Then it is missing for sure and if this is used as elsewhere is pointed out for communication between server and VBA, then it might explain why it failed to register.  My 8.1.x stuff is on Linux only, while AIX and HP is on 8.0.x so I can't say how it is on HP (and you gave pretty nice picture about AIX).  Well, the only thing left is to open ticket and say this is missing.  Most likely there are two potential answers:

- it is coming in SP2 or later

- it is not coming

Later one would mean you must deploy Linux (or Windows) box and use it as server for VBA backups (or even migrate your AIX server to new one).  First kind of response would mean waiting for let's say 2 months (8.1.1.5 is current patch, I suspect there might be 8.1.1.6 and after that it is SP2 time).