NetWorker: How to Decommission A VBA appliance after all save sets expire

Assumptions before proceeding:

• The primary backup and clone save sets have expired for the VBA.
• The remaining primary and clone save sets have been removed from the NetWorker Data Zone using the nsrmm command-line utility.

Prerequisites:

Before proceeding with this KB, ensure that a copy or backup is completed of the NetWorker resource configurations:

1. Ensure the NetWorker server has a recent bootstrap backup by performing a Server Protection backup. Bootstrap save set details can be collected from a root or Administrator prompt on the NetWorker server using: mminfo -B
2. Manually copy the NetWorker resource database directory.
   • Windows: [INSTALL_DIR]\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\res\nsrdb
   • Linux: /nsr/res/nsrdb
3. Manually copy the backup media directory:

• Windows: [INSTALL_DIR]\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\mm
• Linux: /nsr/mm

Process:

1. Validate all remaining save sets for the VBA. This can be done using one of the following options:

NetWorker Management Console (NMC)

a. Log in to NetWorker Management Console (NMC)
b. Go to the Media tab and select Save Sets, then select VMware Backup Appliance Online as shown below:

 

mminfo command

a. Open a root session or Administrator command prompt on the NetWorker server and run the following mminfo command.
Syntax: mminfo -c vba-name -kot
For Example: To find all backups for VBA named 'vbalabnode2x.vba.lab', run query:

mminfo -c vbalabnode2x.vba.lab  -kot
..
 volume        type   vm_name         date     time         size ssid      fl backup_size
dd2x15.001  Data Domain VM2      6/22/2015 7:49:57 AM   41 GB xxxxx cr  41 GB
dd2x15.001  Data Domain VM1      6/22/2015 7:53:52 AM   41 GB xxxxxx cr  41 GB
dd2x15.001  Data Domain VM2      6/22/2015 7:54:02 AM   41 GB xxxxxx cr  41 GB

2. Remove the VBA save sets identified in step 1.

• Option 1: If the VBA is online and if there is a unique volume where all the SSIDs are stored, that is there is no other data on this volume- you can delete this volume
• Option 2: If the VBA is online and if there is no unique volume that contains all the SSID, then you can use nsrmm command to delete the individual Save sets. Syntax:  nsrmm -d -S SSID

nsrmm -d -S 4253582084
Delete file and media index entries for save set `4253582084'? y
98999:nsrmm: Save set 4253582084 has been successfully deleted from VBA server 'vbalabnode2x.vba.lab'

• Option 3: If the VBA is NOT online, then use the -X option to delete the Save set:

Extra details on save set deletion can be found in: How to delete Multiple or Individual SSIDs?

3. Remove all workflows associated with the VBA:

nsradmin> p type: nsr hypervisor; name: VC4.vba.lab 
type: NSR hypervisor
name: VC4.vba.lab;
comment: ;
service: VMware VirtualCenter;
endpoint: "https://VC4.vba.lab/sdk";
username: administrator@vba.lab;
password: *******;
command: nsrvim;
proxy: nw4;
nsradmin> d
Delete ? yes

4. Delete VBA MTree:

a. On the NetWorker server, run the below nsradmin commands to find the VBA DPN ID:

nsradmin> show name
nsradmin> show DPN ID
nsradmin> p type: nsr vba server; name: <VBA-FQDN>

Example output:

nsradmin
NetWorker administration program.
Use the "help" command for help, "visual" for full-screen mode.
nsradmin> show name
nsradmin> show DPN ID
nsradmin> p type: nsr vba server; name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab
                        name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab;
                      DPN ID: xxxxxxxxxxx;

Make note of the DPN ID. This helps us determine the storage unit, for example, for the above DPNID, the storage unit is 'avamar-1435099427'.

b. Log in to a Data domain system using PuTTY(or similar SSH utility) as a user with an 'admin' role. Then run below command to delete:

ddboost storage-unit delete <storage-unit>
Example: ddboost storage-unit delete avamar-1435099427

c. [Optional] Start a file system clean on data domain to reclaim space:

filesys clean start

4. Remove VBA server resources using nsradmin:

Note: This step is to be performed ONLY for the VBA you want to delete. Take caution and make a copy of the nsrdb, if this has not been done already.

Syntax: nsradmin> d type: NSR VBA Server;  name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab
For Example: The below example shows a command to delete a VBA called vbalabnode2x.vba.lab 

nsradmin> d type: NSR VBA Server;  name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab
type: NSR VBA Server;
name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab;
comment: ;
vCenter Host: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab;
 vCenter Web Client Host: ;
 Total Capacity: ;
 Total Capacity in bytes: ;
 Used Capacity: ;
Last Validated Checkpoint: ;
 Last Validated Checkpoint Tag: ;
Online: ;
VBA Version: ;
Policy List: ;
Policy Client Mapping: ;
External Proxy Hosts: ;
VBA recover checkpoint tag: ;
configuration error: ;
VBA Internal Proxies: Enabled;
VBA Adhoc Backups: Enabled;
VBA Restrict Transport Mode to Hotadd Only: Disabled;
Staging DDR pool for Disaster recovery from non-DDR devices: ;
Delete? Y
deleted resource id 156.x.xxx.x.x.x.x.x.xxx.xxx.xxx.xx.xx.xxx.x.x(7)

5. Remove client resource for that VBA from NMC.

Syntax:  nsradmin> d type: nsr client; name : vbalabnode2x.vba.lab
For Example: The below example shows how to delete client for vbalabnode2x.vba.lab 

nsradmin> d type: nsr client; name : vbalabnode2x.vba.lab
type: NSR client;
name: vbalabnode2x.vba.lab;
server: nw4.vba.lab;
client id: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-0xxxxx-xxxxx;
Delete? Y
deleted resource id 153.x.xxx.x.x.x.x.x.xxx.xx.xxx.xx.xx.xxx.x.x3)

6. Delete the VBA Appliance VM:

You can now delete the relevant VBA VM and external proxies from the vCenter server.