NetBackup Environment Health Checks - Veritas

NetBackup Environment Health Checks

Ken Ogden

Service ArchitectManaged Services

1 When should you consider running a Health Check?

2 Health Check & Environment Assessment Resources

3 NBAT and NBSU Overview

4 Continuous Monitoring, Alerting, and Reporting

5 Telemetry, Machine Learning and Predictive Insights

2 Copyright © 2020 Veritas Technologies, LLC.

Agenda

When to run a Health Check?


Before and after Major Changes to…o NetBackup Domains

o NBU servers, upgrades, and migrationso Client workloadso Backup Policies, Storage Lifecycle Policies,

Storage Servers, and Storage Unitso Backup-related Infrastructure

o Storage, Network, Virtualization/Cloud

When looking to Optimize the Environmento Server and Client Resource Utilizationo Storage Capacity and Network Utilization

When investigating Performance Issueso Can help to Focus the Investigationo Provides new potential Leads to Follow


2 Health Check and Environment Assessment Resources





Agenda

Health Check Resources


Veritas Toolso NBAT – NetBackup Assessment Tool

o Robust toolset focused on NetBackup Environmental Assessment, including improvement recommendations

o Is not distributed with the NetBackup.o Executed with assistance from BCEs, SEs,

Professional Services or Managed Services consultants.

o NBSU – NetBackup Support Utilityo Primary support tool for gathering NBU environment

details.o Is distributed with NetBackup.o Executed by customers when requested by support

or whenever a configuration snapshots of NBU and the underlying platform are needed.

o API, CLI, admin console output and OpsCenter reports are often used to fill in areas of needed focus.



Veritas Serviceso Managed Backup Services Annual Health Check

o Constant application of NBU best practices plus a yearly in-depth Environmental Assessment using NBAT, NBSU and custom reporting from the team of professionals that also manages your backup environment on a 24/7 basis.

o Consulting Services Health Check Engagemento Depending on the level of need and length of the

engagement, professional services consultants will perform a tailored assessment that provides either high-level presentation with the top recommendations or a detailed report that includes executive summaries and thorough documentation of the environment along with a complete set of recommendations.

o Veritas Professional Services can also provide very focused Assessments o e.g. Dark Data and Ransomware Data Protection

https://www.veritas.com/services/managed-services

https://www.veritas.com/services/consulting-services



Veritas Products

o Aptare Analytics – offers unified insights for all major storage, backup and virtual infrastructures through a single-plane-of-glass in both on-premises and multi-cloud environments.o Includes a wide range of reports capable of

identifying areas of improvement.

https://www.veritas.com/insights/aptare-it-analytics







Agenda

NBAT Overview – Coverage Areas


• NBAT generates comprehensive configuration and environmental reports using information collected from NetBackup Master Servers, Media Servers and Veritas Appliances.

Example of the information included in NBAT reports: Master and Media server configuration Appliance configuration Tape media / robot information Storage Capacities Deduplication rates Job performance and image size information Storage Lifecycle Policy (SLP) details Data distribution Catalog review Backup Image analysis

• NBAT provides information on the relative health of the NetBackup components in the target environment in R/G/Y-formatted tables and pie-chart scorecards.

• NBAT supports NetBackup Version 7.0 through the most current version and fully supports NetBackup Appliances and all Master Server and Media Server operating systems.

NBAT Process Overview


NBAT Phase Process Output

Data Gathering Veritas and customer coordinate to execute the NBAT script (nbat_dg.sh or nbat_dg.bat) on Master, media servers and/or appliances to be analyzed.

On screen output will indicate the path to the “dg” files to be collected for the Analysis phase.

Analysis Collected “dg” files (one for each NBU server) are sent to Veritas for analysis.

Comprehensive analysis covering up to all servers in the NBU domain

Report Building The output of the Analysis phase is then used by Veritas to prepare the final reports. These reports are often tailored to the needs of the end users.

Professionally prepared documentation that highlights environment details, current health status and recommended actions

Common NBAT Findings


Resource Usageo Capacity / Load Balancingo Client Image sizes vs Job Performanceo Client Coverage Gaps

Tuning Recommendationso Performance Improvements

NetBackup Configuration o Stale, deprecated or missing configuration entrieso Recommended changes

Appliance HW/SW Configurationo Disk pool spanning Base and Shelveso HW monitor statuso Recommended changes

NBSU Overview


• This Veritas utility is used to gather diagnostic information about the system on which it is run. By default, NBSU gathers appropriate diagnostic information based on the operating system and NetBackup environment.

Consists of over 100 collectors organized into 5 collector groups.

OS – Operating System NET – Network NBU – NetBackup Configuration, logs, reports MM – Media Manangement DEV – Devices (ie Hardware)

• Discrete text file output, by collector, making it easy to parse & search• Typically, the specific CLI command is included at the top of the file

-------------------- NetBackup Policy information report -------------------------------- nbsu diagnostic name and internal procedure used -------------NBU_bppllist - NBU_get_bppllist_info------------------------------- Command Used -------------------------------> "E:\Program Files\Veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bppllist" -L -allpolicies

How to Run NBSU…o Navigate to <NBU_install_path>/netbackup/bin/support/ and run

“nbsu”.o Output location is printed on screen at the end of the execution.

Configuration Snapshotso Taken over time, they can be used for baseline comparisons to

ensure environmental stability

Universal Support Informationo Ensures all levels of support have a standardized set of essential

configuration information needed to expedite case resolution

EMAP – Evidence Management and Analysis Toolo Exciting new support tool for automatic analysis of NBSU outputo Performs up to 2200 checks, depending on server type o Results also include suggested best practice remediations o Also finds other solutions from our extensive support case

history using an innovative signature-matching algorithm

NBSU Command and Use Cases








Agenda

Continuous Monitoring, Alerting, and Reporting


Augment periodic assessments with automated alert monitorso Be sure to use OpsCenter and Aptare Alerts to keep tabs on the

environment health between check ups

Watch key metrics with weekly or monthly reportso Stay in front of storage growth needs to avoid costly outageso Know what the short and long term backup trends are in the

environment

Consider NetBackup Appliances for a turn-key solutiono Veritas constantly monitors your appliance healtho Proactive support







Agenda

Telemetry, Machine Learning and Predictive Insights


Predictive Insightso Veritas Engineers are continuing to develop incremental product

enhancements that combine telemetry data with machine learning and AI to better highlight platform and application health problems before they become costly outages.

Improved Support Insight, Processes and Toolso Some of these same advancements are also being applied to

support-related tools and combined with other innovations designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our technical support offerings.

Stay tuned for more exciting news that is coming soono Our global teams are working tirelessly to provide you with up to

date health information for your NetBackup environment.

Q & A

Thank you!

Copyright © 2020 Veritas Technologies, LLC. All rights reserved. Veritas and the Veritas Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Veritas Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This document is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as advertising. All warranties relating to the information in this document, either express or implied, are disclaimed to the maximum extent allowed by law. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

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NetBackup Environment Health Checks - Veritas