EMC TechNote: Integrating Celerra with

BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

1 Introduction
This technical note describes the results of the integration testing of BakBone NetVault backup and restore
software with the Celerra Network Server. Integration tests are designed to identify the NetVault features that
depend upon the behavior of the Celerra Data Mover and UxFS file system. The tests verified that the NetVault
features function as expected with Celerra. The tests also verified that NetVault is compatible with unique
Celerra features such as TimeFinder/FS and SnapSure.
The audience for this technical note is the installation and configuration specialist familiar with the Celerra and
backup and restore operations.
This document covers only LAN-based testing; however, NDMP testing and qualification work has also been
performed with NetVault.

2 Integration Testing Overview

Celerra integration testing consists of an extensive set of tests using both Windows/CIFS and UNIX/NFS clients,
including:

Celerra-specific installation and configuration options

Basic application functionality (incremental/differential backups and virtual tape)

File system characteristics and limitations (Windows security and attributes, UNIX permissions, large/small
files, high file/directory counts, file system extension)

Celerra high-availability features (Data Mover Failover, Fail-Safe Networks)

Special Celerra features (TimeFinder/FS, SnapSure)

Table 1 shows the Celerra configurations that were tested.

Table 1 Tested Celerra Configurations
Environment Additional Plug-ins
Windows

Backup Media

Office Data Share v2.4

Tape, Disk
(required to access remote
shares)

Comments
Including HighRoad

Open File Manager v1.6

(allows back up of open
files)
Virtual Disk Device
Manager (allows
management of virtual
libraries)
Sun

Virtual Disk Device

Manager (allows
management of virtual
libraries)

Tape, Disk

Including HighRoad

3 Terminology
Full Backup Saves all backup objects.

Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

Incremental backup from last backup Saves all of the directories and files that have changed since the last
(full or incremental) backup.
Incremental backup from last full backup Saves all of the directories or files that have changed since the
last full backup.

4 Test Environment
Table 2 lists the hardware and software used for the integration testing. The EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix
contains the most up-to-date version information. For information on accessing the EMC NAS Interoperability
Matrix, refer to Accessing the EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix.
Table 2 Test Hardware and Software
Component

Platform

Version

Hardware

Data Mover

510 (Sun and Windows)

ATL P1000 Library (SCSI) for Windows

DLT 7000 Tape Drives (4)

ATL P3000 Library (SCSI) for Sun

DLT 7000 Tape Drives (4)

Celerra Network Server

5.1.18.8*

Software

5.1.18.9
BakBone NetVault

Windows clients

Windows 2000 Server, SP3

EMC HighRoad Client V 3.2.00.12

UNIX clients

Solaris 5.8
EMC HighRoad Client V 3.2.0_b003

* Testing was done with 5.1.18.8, which was the GA candidate during initial testing. When 5.1.18.9 became
available, the remaining tests were done using this version.

4.1 Accessing the EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix

Refer to the EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix for definitive information on supported software and hardware,
such as backup software, Fibre Channel switches, and application support for Celerra network-attached storage
(NAS) products.
To view the EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix:
1.

Go to http://powerlink.emc.com/.

2.

Search for NAS Interoperability Matrix.

3.

In the Sort Search Results by box, select Score.

The EMC NAS Interoperability Matrix appears in the list.

5 Integration Considerations
This section presents the test results that were unexpected or required additional clarification or emphasis. It also
contains information on how the application behaves under specific situations, for example, when a disk quota
limit is reached.
Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

5.1 Installation and Configuration

For instructions on installing NetVault 7, refer to the online documentation at
http://www.bakbone.com/support/product_documentation.

There are no special instructions for use with Celerra. Refer to Table 1 for information on required plug-ins.
The NetVault services on a Windows client run under the local machine account. This differs from other backup
applications, which require that application services run under a user account that has sufficient Data Mover
access privileges. When you back up or restore using NetVault, you must specify a user the job will impersonate.
This user must have sufficient privileges to access the data required for that job, and is typically a member of the
domain Backup Operators group. You must also add this user to the Data Movers local Backup Operators or
Administrators group. If you do not add the user account information to the appropriate group on the Data
Mover, files and/or directories for backup might be inaccessible, and restores might cause ownership issues.

5.2 User Authentication

When you run a backup or restore from a Windows client, and you need to access a network resource, NetVault
allows you to impersonate a user with sufficient privileges to access the target data. Tests found that
impersonating an administrator worked as expected.

5.3 Incremental Backups

NetVault offers three types of backups: full, incremental from last full backup, and incremental from backup of
any kind. Refer to Terminology for the NetVault definitions.
File and directory changes in Celerra file systems are detected by a change in the last-modified time stamp, and
the use of the archive bit. By default, NetVault for Windows clients uses both methods to detect changes, and the
archive bit checking can be disabled per backup job. Celerra sets the archive bit to indicate that security
information has changed on a file. Therefore, you should always select to use both the last-modified time stamp
and the archive bit to detect file system changes for incremental and differential backups.
The tests verify the behavior of incremental and differential backups by:
1.

Performing a full backup of a test dataset.

2.

Selectively changing file and directory attributes and security properties.

3.

Performing an incremental or differential backup.

4.

Determining which directories and files have been backed up.

For CIFS, file and directory changes in Celerra file systems are detected by a change in the last-modified time
stamp, and the use of the archive bit. By default, NetVault for Windows clients uses both methods to detect
changes, and the archive bit checking can be disabled per backup job. This works as expected.
For NFS, file and directory changes in Celerra file systems are detected by a change in the last-modified time.
This works as expected.

Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

5.4 File System

Tests were conducted to confirm that Windows ACLs, SACLs, DOS attributes, and Windows groups were
handled properly by the application during the backup and restore operations. During testing with this dataset it
was found that NetVault does not restore SACLs in a Windows environment. At the time of testing, this
functionality was not part of the NetVault product specification. An enhancement request was submitted; refer to
BakBone ID 17771.

5.5 Quota Limit Exceeded

Application behavior varies when a disk usage or inode quota is reached. Therefore, the integration tests
included a characterization of NetVault behavior during restore operations when quota limits were exceeded.
Table 3 and Table 4 show the test results.
If a quota limit is exceeded and files are not restored, you must manually intervene to resolve the storage space
issues. NetVault does not provide an automated mechanism to recover these files. The files not restored during
the quota exceeded test are listed in the NetVault log and recovery can be performed by granting sufficient disk
space to the user exceeding their quota and restoring only the files not restored in the previous job.
Table 3 Windows/CIFS Client Quota Limit Behavior
Behavior

Disk Usage user

Disk Usage group

Inode user

Inode group

Does Job
Succeed?

No

No

No

No

Job Final
Status

Completed with
warnings

Completed with
warnings

Completed with
warnings

Completed with
warnings

Comments

Did not restore files

and directories after
limit reached.

Did not restore files

and directories after
limit reached.

Did not restore

files and directories
after limit reached.

Did not restore files

and directories after
limit reached.

Table 4 UNIX/NFS Client Quota Limit Behavior

Behavior

Disk Usage user

Disk Usage group

Inode user

Inode group

Does Job
Succeed?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Job Final
Status

Completed

Completed

Completed

Completed

Comments

Files and directories

restored after limit
reached had
ownership changed
to root.

Files and directories

restored after limit
reached had
ownership changed to
root.

Files and directories

restored after limit
reached had
ownership changed
to root.

Files and directories

restored after limit
reached had
ownership changed
to root.

5.6 SnapSure and TimeFinder/FS

To investigate how an application responds to the Celerra features SnapSure and TimeFinder/FS, the Celerra
commands were intentionally executed during read and write operations. EMC does not recommend executing
these commands while Windows/CIFS clients are running jobs. CIFS, unlike NFS, is a stateful protocol, and the
interruptions from some Celerra commands cause current CIFS sessions to be lost. A session loss could cause
data loss. EMC recommends issuing these Celerra commands only when there is no I/O activity.

Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

For CIFS, NetVault backup jobs did not fail during fs_timefinder M on/off commands. For MPFS, when
the fs_timefinder M off command was executed, the traffic was redirected permanently to CIFS. To
recover, the MPFS driver had to be disabled, and then re-enabled using the mpfsctl disable/enable
command. This is expected. As of 5.X, you cannot perform the fs_timefinder M refresh command when
the BCV file system is mounted.
For CIFS, when running a backup job on a checkpoint file system and issuing the fs_ckpt refresh
command, the backup job failed. This was recoverable by backing up those files that were missed. You can view
the applications log file, which shows the files that were successfully backed up, but without knowing the
complete list of original files, it might be more convenient to run the entire backup job again.
UNIX/NFS and UNIX/MPFS clients did not experience any problems while performing the above procedures as
expected.

5.7 Data Mover Reboot

A Data Mover can reboot as the result of a failure or as part of a maintenance operation. To characterize how the
application will respond to a Celerra Data Mover reboot, a Data Mover was intentionally rebooted while there
was active I/O. EMC does not recommend rebooting a Data Mover while Windows/CIFS clients have jobs
running. This is because CIFS, unlike NFS, is a stateful protocol and the interruptions caused by the reboot will
cause the current CIFS sessions to be lost and could result in the loss of data. EMC recommends planning a Data
Mover reboot for a period when there is no I/O activity.
When the Data Mover was rebooted during a NetVault backup or restore job on a Windows/CIFS client, the job
completed with a warning listing the files/directories that were not backed up/restored. The failed job had to be
repeated. UNIX/NFS clients did not experience any problems.

5.8 Data Mover Failover

Celerra Data Movers achieve a high level of availability by automatically detecting and recovering from
hardware and software failures. A Data Mover can also be failed over manually as part of maintenance activity.
The response of NetVault to a Data Mover failover was characterized by both manually failing over a Data
Mover and by creating a situation that caused the Data Mover to automatically fail over during active I/O. EMC
does not recommend manually failing over a Data Mover while Windows/CIFS clients have jobs running. This is
because CIFS, unlike NFS, is a stateful protocol and the interruptions caused by the failover will cause the
current CIFS sessions to be lost and could result in the loss of data. EMC recommends planning a Data Mover
failover for a period when there is no I/O activity.
When the Data Mover was failed over during a NetVault restore job on a Windows/CIFS client, the job
completed with a warning that some files were not restored. Each warning entry contained the name of
files/directories that were not restored. While the file system was unavailable, NetVault continued to try to
restore files. If it was unable to restore a file, NetVault proceeded to the next file. As a result, the restore had a
group of missing files and directories. You can recover from this error by restoring the individual files listed in
the job log or by running the entire restore job over again.
When the Data Mover was failed over during a backup job on a Windows/CIFS client, the job completed with
warnings. Each warning entry contained the name of files/directories that were not backed up. You can recover
from this error by backing up the individual files listed in the job log or by running the entire backup job over
again.
UNIX/NFS clients did not experience any problems.

Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

6 Related Information
This section lists places where you can find additional information.

Celerra User Information CD received with your Celerra, or go to http://powerlink.emc.com/ and log
in to Powerlink

BakBone Netvault NetVault 7.0 Configuration Guide Version 1.0 Release Date 9/8/2003 (or higher)

BakBone Netvault NetVault 7.0 Administrators Guide Version 7.0.0 Release Date 04/15/2003 (or higher)

BakBone NetVault 6.5.x Virtual Disk Library Backup Staging Guide (Whitepaper) Rev 2 October 1, 2002

Configuring NDMP Backups with Celerra and BakBone NetVault Rev A01 February 2004

7 Comments and Suggestions about this Technical Note

Your suggestions will help us continue to improve the accuracy, organization, and overall quality of the user
publications. Please send a message to mailto:celerradoc_comments@emc.com with your opinions of this
document.

Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)

Copyright 19982004 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Integrating Celerra with BakBone NetVault 7 (LAN-Based)