NetBackup Flex Scale configuration requirements
A NetBackup Flex Scale appliance configuration consists of a minimum of 4 nodes and a maximum of up to 16 nodes that can host the following components:
a single instance of a highly-available NetBackup primary server across the cluster
a single instance of the NetBackup media server per node
a single instance of the NetBackup MSDP engine per node
For the best possible configuration experience, ensure that you have the following information available with you, depending on the number of nodes in your appliance.
The following details are required for configuring NetBackup services and components if you deploy a cluster with both NetBackup primary server and media servers:
1 public IP address and either 1 resolvable short host name or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for the NetBackup primary server
1 public IP address and either 1 resolvable short host name or FQDN for the NetBackup media server per node
1 IP address and either1 resolvable short host name or FQDN for the MSDP engine per node
Note:
If you don't plan to configure a DNS server for the cluster, the IP addresses, short host names, and FQDNs are not required to be resolvable.
The following details are required if you deploy a cluster with only media servers:
Resolvable short host name or FQDN of the NetBackup primary server that is external to the cluster
1 public IP address and either 1 resolvable short host name or FQDN for the NetBackup media server per node
1 IP address and either1 resolvable short host name or FQDN for the MSDP engine per node
An API key, which is a pre-authenticated token used to identify a user
A generic name that the NetBackup primary server uses to identifies all the media servers
Note:
If you don't plan to configure a DNS server for the cluster, the IP addresses, short host names, and FQDNs are not required to be resolvable.
The following details are required for configuring the NetBackup Flex Scale cluster services and components:
1 public IP address or the FQDN for the NetBackup Flex Scale cluster
If you deploy a cluster with both NetBackup primary server and media servers, 1 public IP address and either 1 resolvable short host name or FQDN for the NetBackup Flex Scale management server. The IP address, name, or FQDN assigned to the management server is used to access the NetBackup Flex Scale web UI and the infrastructure management UI.
If you deploy a cluster with only media servers, the public IP address for the NetBackup Flex Scale cluster is used to access the NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure management UI.
IP address details for the dedicated management network and IPMI (optional)
Private subnet for internal communication between the cluster nodes. Specify the starting private IP address for the subnet.
If you use IPv4 addresses, the default supported private network subnet mask is 255.255.224.0. You must use a subnet that is equal or larger than 255.255.224.0. If you use IPv6 addresses, specify the IPv6 prefix length. The prefix length must be greater than or equal to 115.
For example:
private_network: ipv4: ip: 172.16.0.1 subnet: 255.255.224.0 ipv6: ip: 'fd00::2' prefix_length: '115'
Note:
If you don't plan to configure a DNS server for the cluster, the IP addresses, short host names, and FQDNs are not required to be resolvable.
The following example shows how to calculate the IP addresses that you need to specify for a cluster with N nodes:
Table:
Network | Per node | For cluster | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Private | Not required | 1 IP address and subnet mask | You can use the default private IP range and subnet mask or specify a custom IP address range and subnet mask. If you use the default private IP address range and subnet mask, you don't need to specify any details. |
Management | 1 IP address for the management network | 1 IP address for the management server 1 IP address for the NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure management UI | N+2 |
Data | 1 IP address for the media server 1 IP address for the MSDP engine | 1 IP address for the NetBackup primary server | 2N+1 |
IPMI (optional) | 1 IP address for the IPMI interface | Not required | N |
The following cabling diagram shows how to connect four NetBackup Flex Scale nodes. Ensure that you follow the same steps when connecting additional nodes. Make sure that the power cables are long enough to install and service the server nodes.
Note:
Connection of cables to the nodes is included as part of the installation service, however you are responsible for providing pre-labeled network cabling that has already been connected the network switches.
IPMI network
IPMI network is optional and can be used for out-of-band mechanism for hardware management of Flex Scale nodes.
IPMI network can be on the same subnet as the management or data network.
When Enterprise or Compliance modes are enabled on Flex Scale, you can enable limitations on IPMI functionality (such as disk configuration). These limitations can optionally be disabled later.
IPMI addresses can be configured at the time of cluster configuration and each node must have a unique IPMI address.
DHCP is supported for IPMI addressing.
The HPE iLO offers a range of security options:
Basic Mode: Provides a fundamental level of security for accessing the IPMI interface.
High Security Mode: Enhances security with stricter authentication methods.
FIPS Mode: Implements the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) for the most robust security level.
The following figure shows the IPMI network connectivity for the 5551 model:
Management network (eth1/bonded eth1 and eth2/VLAN on eth1/VLAN on bonded eth1 and eth2)
The management network is used for administrative access to the node. The management network needs to be manually configured on one of the nodes to start the initial cluster configuration.
The management network leverages eth1 on each node. You can also enable bonding for eth1 and eth2 interfaces.
You can configure the management network on an eth1 interface, a bond of eth1 and eth2 interfaces, a VLAN on eth1, or a VLAN on bonded eth1 and eth2 interfaces.
The management network can reside on its own subnet.
The management network must be able to access the NTP server.
The following services and containers use the management network:
Node management
Cluster console/API
Cluster management
The following figure shows the management network connectivity for the 5551 model:
Private network (eth4 and eth6)
The private network is used only for inter-node communication. This network is very sensitive to network performance and therefore it is highly recommended to use a dedicated private pair of switches. Bonding is not supported for private network interfaces.
Veritas recommends using two separate Ethernet switches, which are capable of supporting 25 Gb link to isolate the eth4 and eth6 interfaces. If you use a single Ethernet switch, connect the eth4 and eth6 interfaces of each node to switch ports in separate VLANs. The private network needs to be segregated from the other networks (data, management, and ipmi) and also internally, such that eth4 is separated physically or logically using VLANs from eth6.
Each node will have two connections to the private network on separate NICs. The private network uses eth4 and eth6 on each node. This provides redundancy in the event one NIC fails.
The private network runs on 25 GBps or 10 GBps Ethernet. If the private network is on 10 GBps, the public network (eth5 and eth7) can be only on 10 GBps. If private network is on 25 GBps, the public network can be either on 10 GBps or 25 GBps. A dedicated line speed per switch port is also required.
VLAN tagging is not supported for private the network.
The node discovery process utilizes the AVAHI network and multicast traffic. Ensure that the (broadcast, unknown-unicast, and multicast traffic within the network segments or bridging domains associated with the private networks are set to flood to ensure node discovery completes without incident. Also, allow the use of AVAHI addresses within the VLAN during the node discovery process.
The private switch must support jumbo frames and must be a managed switch such that it allows for us to set jumbo frames.. This must be done before cluster configuration.
The following figure shows the private network connectivity for the 5551 model:
Data network (eth5 and eth7)
The data network is used for client to NetBackup backup data movement. Bonding between eth5 and eth7 is optional and can be enabled during cluster configuration or later if required. The following bonding modes are supported: balance-alb, balance-tlb, balance-rr, balance-xor, active-backup, broadcast, 802.3ad. If bonding is configured on the switch side, the same bonding method must to be specified when enabling bonding in the cluster.
For details about bonding, see the About bonding Ethernet interfaces section of the Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Administrator's Guide.
You can keep eth7 network adapter disconnected at the time of initial configuration if you do not want to create a bond on the public data network. You must keep eth7 connected if you want to configure bonding for eth5 and eth7 during the initial configuration. After the initial configuration is complete, if you want to configure a bond on the public data network or want to create secondary data network on eth7, ensure that it is in connected state post initial configuration.
Each node has two connections to the data network on separate NICs. This provides redundancy in the event one NIC fails.
The data network runs on 25 GBps or 10 GBps Ethernet. If private network is on 10 GBps, the public network (eth5 and eth7) can be only on 10 GBps. If private network is on 25 GBps, the public network can be either on 10 GBps or 25 GBps.
Services and containers that utilize the data network:
Primary container
Media container (one per node in the cluster)
MSDP engine container (one per node in the cluster)
If DNS is utilized, ensure that the data network has connectivity to the DNS server.
The following figure shows the data network connectivity for the 5551 model:
Note the following requirements:
Private network NICs of all appliance nodes must connect to separate dedicated switches or VLANs and should be separate from other networks, such as data network and management network.
Ensure that the private network is different from the data and the management network and is not reachable from an external network.
The network switch or switches need to be configured prior to configuring the appliance network interfaces.
NetBackup Flex Scale uses IP address 172.16.0.0/19 for private network NICs by default. If IP from 172.16.0.0/19 are reserved by the company, change private IP addresses to other local network addresses, such as 192.168.x.x or other subnets such as 172.20.x.x.
It is recommended to use 25 Gb for both data (north-south) network and private (east-west ) network, however 10 Gb may be used with the following caveats:
If using 25 Gb network for data ( north-south) network, you must use 25 Gb for the private (east-west) network as well. Using 10Gb for the east-west network is not supported in this case.
If using 10 Gb network for data ( north-south) network, you can use 25 Gb or 10 Gb for the private (east-west) network.
You can choose to have an IPv4 or an IPv6 address for the public network. Mixed mode with an IPv4 and IPv6 is not supported. For example, an IPv6 address for the management network and an IPv4 address for the data network (or vice versa) is not supported.
The following network configuration is supported:
Both the management and the data network in a single subnet, with or without any VLAN.
Management and data networks in separate subnet with or without any VLAN, which are reachable from each other.
Management and data networks in an isolated subnet with or without any VLAN, which are not reachable from each other.
If you add an additional data network, it must be in a separate subnet.
The following details are required for configuring the network settings:
IP address and subnet mask of the network gateway IP from your existing network
Gateway details
Specifying the gateway is optional for the management network if all the components in the management network, such as the API gateway, management console, management DNS, and NTP, AD, and LDAP servers use IP addresses from the same network subnet. As all the components are in the same network subnet, they do not require a gateway IP address to communicate with each other. Similarly, if all the components in the data network, such as the media servers, dedupe engines, primary servers, external primary server, and data DNS use IP addresses from the same network subnet, they do not require the gateway for communication.
Provide the gateway IP address for the management and the data network only if it is needed for communication with any of the respective network's components. If both the management and the data network are the same and if all components are part of the same subnet, you can skip providing the gateway IP for both management and data network.
NTP server details
The IP address or the FQDN of the NTP server that you want to use to set and synchronize the system clocks on the cluster nodes.
DNS details
Configuring a DNS server for the cluster is optional. If you configure a DNS server, you need to specify only the IP addresses during the cluster configuration. You do not have to specify the short host names or FQDNs during the cluster configuration. If you don't configure a DNS server for the cluster, ensure that you have the IP addresses and the corresponding short host names or FQDNs for all the nodes and NetBackup services.
Note:
If you configure a DNS, all the IP addresses/FQDNs need not be present in the DNS. The IP addresses and the FQDNs are not required to be resolvable in the DNS. However, if these are present, there should not be a conflict.
If a DNS server is specified and you are using short host names instead of FQDNs, you must also specify the search domain as part of the DNS settings.
The following options are supported for DNS configuration:
Configure a different DNS server for the management network and the data network. As a DNS server is configured for the cluster, you need to specify only the IP addresses for the cluster configuration; you do not have to specify the short host names or the FQDNs.
Configure the same DNS server for the management network and the data network. As DNS server is configured for the cluster, you need to specify only the IP addresses for the cluster configuration; you do not have to specify the short host names or FQDNs.
Configure a DNS server only for the management network. Here, you need to specify only the IP addresses for the management network during the cluster configuration, but you must specify both the IP addresses and the corresponding short host names or FQDNs for the data network.
Configure DNS server only for the data network. Here, you need to specify only the IP addresses for the data network during the cluster configuration, but you must specify both the IP addresses and the corresponding short host names or FQDNs for the management network.
Do not configure a DNS server for the management network and the data network. As no DNS server is configured for the cluster, the host names and domains are resolved to IP addresses using the
/etc/hostsfile. You need to specify the IP addresses and the corresponding short host names or FQDNs during the cluster configuration.You can either use FQDNs or short host names when you specify the data and management network host names. In the network settings, if a DNS server is specified and short host names are used for configuration, you must also specify the search domain so that the short host names can be resolved.
This is applicable if you are configuring the cluster using a yml file.
If you have configured your network to use Virtual LANs then ensure that you provide the VLAN IDs in the yml file. Use the parameter
vlan_idin the yml configuration template to specify the VLAN ID.For example, if network adapter eth1 is already tagged with a VLAN ID, you must specify that VLAN ID in the yml file. Here's a snippet from a sample yml configuration file that shows how to specify the VLAN ID:
common_network_setting: management: ipv4: gateway_ip: 10.xx.xx.10 subnet_mask: 255.255.248.0 ipv6: prefix_length: '' router_ip: '' dns: dns_server: 172.16.8.12 search_domain: - engba.veritas.com vlan_id: '1200'Note:
NetBackup Flex Scale does not block the cluster configuration if you do not specify the VLAN IDs. However, you may not be able to access the cluster nodes from the public network even after the cluster is configured successfully.
Set the maximum transmission unit (MTU) property, which controls the maximum transmission unit size for an Ethernet frame to 9000 bytes. Range is 1500 to 9000 bytes. By default the MTU is set to 1500 bytes. For optimal performance, you must set a larger frame size to enable jumbo frames for the private network (eth4 and eth6 network interfaces) and the public network (eth5 and eth7 network interfaces). To take advantage of jumbo frames, the Ethernet cards, drivers, and switching must all support jumbo frames.
Note:
Veritas strongly recommends configuring jumbo frames on private switch interfaces before the cluster configuration and these settings are verified by Veritas manually. For the public network, Veritas cannot verify the settings on the public switch interfaces before the cluster configuration and you must ensure that you verify the settings.
Synchronize the system clock on all the nodes before you begin the cluster configuration.
Warning:
The cluster configuration may fail if the system clocks are not synchronized across the cluster.
If you plan to deploy a cluster with only media servers, verify the host names in the NetBackup web service's Tomcat SSL certificate. If you attempt to connect to the primary server by using a host name that is not included in the Tomcat web server SSL certificate, the web service connection to the primary server fails.
For version 3.1 and later, ensure that the host name of the primary server is included in the SSL certificate of the NetBackupweb service.
To check the host names in the NetBackup web service's SSL certificate, click the Warning icon in next to the NetBackup web UI URI and click . Click and note the host names for the DNS entry as shown in the following figure. In the following example, both the host name and FQDN are present in the SSL certificate.
You need at least one user name and password to configure a user account.
If you deploy a cluster with both NetBackup primary server and media servers, use a single user account and assign both Appliance and NetBackup administrator roles to the same account. You can also provide role-based access and create two separate user accounts with an Appliance administrator role and a NetBackup administrator role. You can configure multiple user accounts and assign them the desired roles. But a minimum of one user is required.
For a scale-out media only deployment, you can assign only the Appliance administrator role to the user account.