NetBackup for VMware support for SAN multi-pathing

NetBackup for VMware on Windows supports dynamic multi-pathing (DMP) between the vSphere ESXi storage and the NetBackup for VMware agent (Windows backup host). Dynamic multi-pathing can provide SAN I/O high-availability and improved backup throughput.

For NetBackup for VMware on a Linux backup host, the following items describe the support for dynamic multi-pathing in a SAN environment:

NetBackup appliance

The NetBackup appliance (beginning with the 2.6.0.2 release) supports SAN dynamic multi-pathing for VMware backups. I/O is redirected through the volume manager dynamic multi-pathing node.

For more information, see the NetBackup Appliance Administrator's Guide for version 2.6.0.2 and later:

https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100040113

Non-appliance Linux host

NetBackup supports backups and restores for multi-pathing under the following conditions:

The virtual disk SAN transport allowed list specifies the device node paths that you want to use for multipathing. The virtual disk vixDiskLib.transport.san.allowList API function defines the allowed list. For NetBackup purposes, Cohesity recommends that you include the DMP nodes in the allowed list. The following is an example:
```
vixDiskLib.transport.san.allowList = /dev/vx/dmp/
hitachi_usp-v0_00a0,/dev/vx/dmp/hitachi_usp-v0_00
a0s1,/dev/vx/dmp/hitachi_usp-v0_00a0s2,/dev/vx/dm
p/hitachi_usp-v0_00a0s3,/dev/vx/dmp/hitachi_usp-v
0_00a0s4,/dev/vx/dmp/hitachi_usp-v0_00a0s5
```
The virtual disk SAN transport blocked list specifies the device node paths you want to exclude from multipathing. The virtual disk vixDiskLib.transport.san.denyList API function defines the blocked list. For NetBackup purposes, Cohesity recommends that you set the blocked list to all. The following is an example:
vixDiskLib.transport.san.denyList = all

Specify the allowed list and the blocked list in the following file on the backup host:

/usr/openv/lib/shared/vddk/lib64/vixDiskLib.ini

Note:

For more information about the allowed list and the blocked list, see the appropriate VMware documentation. For example, for Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) 6.0, the allowed list and the blocked list function descriptions are in the VMware Virtual Disk Programming Guide. Note that earlier versions of VDDK refer to the allowed list as the whitelist and the blocked list as the blacklist.

Note:

This support or limitation does not affect NetBackup support for VMware's Native Multipathing, which is multi-pathing between the ESXi host and storage.

This support or limitation does not affect NetBackup for VMware on Windows backup hosts. The Windows operating system has integrated multi-pathing support. The following Microsoft guide contains more information:

http://microsoft.com/mpio

NetBackup for VMware support for SAN multi-pathing

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