commvault.com commvault.com
Question

2-way NDMP Isilon NAS backup settings

  • 1 March 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 85 views
W
Rank
Badge +1

We are currently using 3-way NDMP backup for Isilon NAS. However, the first full backup takes forever to complete and the NAS data is like hundreds of TB. Dell then suggest us to use 2-way NDMP backup solution with B100 backup accelerator and a new dedicated tape library added to improve the backup performance. Since the new dedicated tape library will be directly attached to B100 (no need to connect to a physical Media Agent server any more), we are now thinking to use a VM as the dedicated Media Agent.

We don’t have any experience on how to configure 2-way NDMP backups with a Media Agent virtual server on Commvault, and how to configure the control path and data path. It will be really appreciated if anyone can provide any details on configuration steps.

 

Thanks in advance. 

Will

 

 

3 replies

S
Rank
Badge +3

Hello WillNiu,

NDMP topologies are different models for how the source and destination of the backup data can be configured. The NDMP agent supports the following NDMP topologies:

  • NDMP 2-way: The NAS file server with data to be backed up is directly connected to the backup media, such as a tape drive. The file server copies data directly to the media. In this model, backup data is not sent over the network. Only indexing data is sent over the network to the MediaAgent.
  • NDMP 3-way: The NAS file server with the data to be backed up and the backup media are on different servers. In this model, backup data is sent from the source file server over the network to the destination server. Indexing data is also sent over the network to the MediaAgent.
  • NDMP 3-way (NDMP Remote): Backup data and indexing data are both sent over the network to a MediaAgent, which then controls the flow of the data to backup media.

Refer to below document which contains detailed information on backup configuration (from adding the library to a file server, creating the storage policy, assigning it to the client and running jobs): 

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/getting_started_with_ndmp_agent.html


Considerations for Dell EMC Isilon/PowerScale File Servers before attaching the lib and its drive to a NAS Storage Server :

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/considerations_for_dell_emc_isilon_powerscale_file_servers.html

 

Thank you!

C
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hello @WillNiu 

Once the Tape Library and Drives are connected to the Isilon you would need to setup NAS Drive Pools (see the “Device Detection” section of the below documentation). Once the NAS Drive Pools are configured you can either:

      1) Right Click the Copy > All Tasks > Change Data Path

  1. Create a new Copy and use the NAS Drive Pools in the Data Path

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/expert_storage_configuration_advanced.html#device-detection

Depending on the software version you are running you might not have the option to “Change Data Path” and since SAN and NAS Drive Pools cannot be mixed, its a little more complicated than adding the NAS Pool and removing the SAN Pool.

 

Thank you,
​​​​​​​Collin

W
Rank
Badge +1

@Swati Himmatramka , @Collin Harper Hi all, sorry for the late response. Thanks so much for all of the info you provided. Since we don't have new devices (B100 acceleration node, dedicated TL...) in our data center yet, we are not able to apply anything so far. Once we have any issues when all new devices landed, I will update the question. Thanks again for the help. 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings