Limitations and considerations
Consider the following when protecting Cloud object store workloads.
NetBackup does not allow a prefix or object query that starts with "/". Examples:
prefix = / prefix = /folder1 prefix = /object1 prefix = folder1// object = /obj1
NetBackup does not back up an object with its name in the format:
<name>/NetBackup does not support backups of blobs or objects that are 0 bytes in size and contain a slash ("/") in their names. For example,
TestObject/.If the name field of an object, blob, or folder contains only slashes (/) and no other characters, the name appears empty in the folder hierarchy in the NetBackup UI's restore view.
Checkpoint restart is not supported for policies having Object change tracking enabled.
Checkpoint restart with dynamic multi‑streaming is supported in NetBackup 11.2 and later. Ensure that the backup host, media server, deduplication backup host, storage unit, and storage unit group are all running NetBackup version 11.2 or later.
You can only protect entire buckets with Dynamic multi-streaming.
You must configure backup hosts with at least the minimum recommended staging space.
For Cloud Object Store backups in a NetBackup Flex Scale environment, the staging location on the media server pod provides approximately 45 GB of available space. If the total size of the cloud objects to be backed up exceeds the available free space in the staging area, the backup job may fail.
Upgrading to NetBackup version 11.2:
It is recommended to update the primary server, media server, and backup hosts to the current version.
Upgrade only the primary server: Backup jobs with Dynamic multi-streaming fails. Your must update the backup host and the media server used in the policy to the current version.
Upgrade only the primary and media servers: Backup jobs with Dynamic multi-streaming fails. Your must update the backup host used in the policy to the current version.
Upgrade only primary server and backup host and media server remains at an older version: NetBackup protection works.
To enable Checkpoint restart in a Dynamic multi-streaming enabled policy, upgrade the primary, media, and the backup host to NetBackup version 11.2 or later.
If you upgrade to the latest NetBackup version from version 10.1 or 10.2, the following limitations occur:
You can create Cloud object store accounts with backup hosts or scale-out servers of version 10.3 or later only. You cannot update an existing Cloud object store account that was created on NetBackup 10.3 or later with backup hosts or scale-out servers older than version 10.3.
You can create policies only with backup hosts or scale-out servers of version 10.3 or later. You cannot update an existing policy that is created on NetBackup 10.3 or later with backup hosts or scale-out servers older than version 10.3.
The following credential types are not supported with backup hosts or scale-out servers older than version 10.3: For Azure: Service principal and Managed identity. For AWS: Assume role (EC2).
Restores with object lock properties are supported for backup hosts or scale-out servers of version 10.3 or later only.
Backup and restore of buckets with default retention enabled are supported with backup hosts or scale-out servers of version 10.3 or later only.
For Azure, if you update a policy created with NetBackup version prior to 10.3, with a backup host or scale-out server of version 10.3 or later, the backups fail. As a workaround, update all the buckets to use the new format of the provided generated ID with the existing queries. Note that you must create the associated Cloud object store account in the policy, using NetBackup 10.3 or later, for this workaround to be successful.
Discovery is supported for NetBackup version 10.3 or later, deployed on RHEL, and NetBackup version 11.0.0.1 or later deployed on RHEL and SUSE. If no supported host is available, then discovery does not start for any of the configured Cloud storage accounts. In this case, discovery status is not available, and you cannot see a bucket list during policy creation. Even if you add the buckets manually after discovery fails, your backups may fail. Upgrade at least one supported backup host or scale-out server and create a new policy.
If you update a policy that is created on a NetBackup version prior to 10.3, consider the following after a backup:
After backup, you may see two versions of the same buckets, for the old and new formats. If you want to restore old data, select the bucket in the old format. For newer backups, select the ones in the newer format.
The subsequent backup after the update is a full backup, irrespective of what is configured in the policy.
When you upgrade to 10.3, the first Azure blob accelerated backup takes a backup of all objects in the selection, even if the configured backup is incremental. This full backup is required for the change in metadata properties for the Azure blobs between NetBackup versions 10.2 and 10.3. The subsequent incremental backups back up only the changed objects.
If you use a Cloud object store account created in a version older than 10.3, NetBackup discovers the buckets with the old format, where: uniqueName=bucketName.