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Adding new mount points

  • July 23, 2026
  • 6 replies
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Just wanted to validate this...I’ve been chatting with Arlie and trying to get a proper “list of steps” to add a new mount point (in an existing library) to media agent “A” and then to share that with Media agent “B”. All Media Agents are Windows. It seems the steps (not all from Arlie) are:

  1. Media Agent A: Add storage and mount drive (say L:\). Format Disk as GPT, and 64KB allocation.
  2. Media Agent A: “Share” L:\… using a service account as “browse/read/write”. The share is now like “\\A\sharename”
  3. Media agent B: Map that Share as UNC (“\\A\sharename”) as drive L:\, using the same service account. I presume also set it to “auto connect at sign-in” so the mount point does not go away on reboot.
  4. In Java console, choose storage library → Add Mount Path. Choose media agent A and drive L:\,
  5. Pick mount path and choose “Share” with Media Agent B and make it read/write. Looks like I need to input the service account/credentials here too. Additionally, I may need to select “Transport type: Regular” and “Read/Write Device Access with Preferred” when sharing with B?
  6. Validate the mount path (path → validate) from both Media Agent A and B’s “mounts”?

Q: Does the above look “ok” and sensible

Q: Since the path is being Shared via windows, I think I have seen people mentioning it was a good idea to make a folder in L:\ (like “CV_DATA”) and make that the shared folder? Arlie did not talk about doing this but apparently its good so you can ...more easily exclude that folder in virus exclusions?

Q: Can I set the mount path up (and also config sharing it) but not have it “online” immediately, then “online it” when configs are checked or needed?  I didn’t want to set this up, miss some setting, and then have it “live” and need to make changes.

6 replies

Gergely (Sydney)
Vaulter
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Almost, create mount path on A (1), then when you are ready, share it (2) then use ‘Share mount path’ and add B (5), see here - https://documentation.commvault.com/11.40/commcell-console/sharing_mount_path.html


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  • Author
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  • July 24, 2026

For second question: For the L:\ example (a new NAS presented disk)...Any input/ideas/recommendations about making a folder in L:\ like CV_DATA and “windows sharing” just that folder?  … or is that not really necessary (or desired) and therefore jsut “windows sharing” L:\ as “sharenameL” and then using that UNC share (\\server\sharenameL) as the new mount point is ok/normal/etc


Gergely (Sydney)
Vaulter
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Yes, create a folder under the drive and share that


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  • July 28, 2026

sorry, lots of questions ;). I have always extended existing mount paths, never had to create any new ones…

I’ve created the paths (path points to L:\CVDATA on the server), and when I added the path it “auto shared” with the correct media agent I was going to share with.  The “auto share” set up access as “read”, and the “transport” is “Data Server - IP”.

I’ve read somewhere “Dataserver - IP” is not good to use/have in production? I’m not sure if having the shared path as “read” is good or want “read/write”

question: so it looks like I need to:

1. go to the server and share the folder via windows using a domain account

  1. edit the existing auto ‘shared”  path ( er… controller? in the java UI) to be “Transport Type” to be “regular”
  2. Should I edit the “Access” to be read/write?  It appears this is just a “choice”, I assume based  on “if you want to share it that way”.   I assume having it shared as read/write will more evenly balance the storage used, and “read only” will be more performance based?

 


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  • July 28, 2026

update: I’ve been reading up, arlie wrangling, etc… it appears the “only real answer one probably wants to aim for” is:

  • Update the auto configured “share” using “read” access and “Dataserver - IP” to use a windows network share (that you have to set up) and then you can choose to leave as “read” or change to “read/write”. meaning:  “Transport Type” to be “regular” and “read/write” is really what one probably wants to use nowadays. “read” being another option

Because: (per Arlie searches)

  • “Configuring DataServer-IP for read/write access is not recommended for production workloads”. .but using “DataServer-IP” for read only is ok...BUT: the “DataServer - IP” config is deprecated as of 11.42 CU Pack 120. So basically; never use it (will be enforced as of 11.42 CU Pack 120) and (probably) try to migrate away from using it if yo have it

Some links: 

Commvault Customer Support Portal - Articles - Article Details

Sharing a Mount Path Using DataServer-IP

Deprecation Notice for DataServer-IP ← only seems to be in the Saas Docs though?

in summary: so one basically “really really should” share the mount point folder/path at the OS level and use that to share at all…I assume “once you go above 11.42 CU Pack 120” in terms of “new mount path setups. 

 


Gergely (Sydney)
Vaulter
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Correct, share local mount paths (like DAS disk, SAN LUNs) only as ‘read only’ as you don’t want MAs write backup data across the network to another MAs ‘local’ disk (it’s technically OK, just not efficient) and switch to CIFS share. If you use local storage it’s not really ‘resilient’, doesn’t matter how many MAs you have. If one of the MAs is down, due to deduplication it’s very unlikely you can restore anything (backups will still work, just cause storage/DDB blow out) that’s why up to date secondary copies are important. 
If you use shared storage, like file shares from a NAS, cloud storage, etc. share it as R/W amongst the MAs.