Sun Storage 7110 Backup Options

[RobFuller]

Another thread to pick people’s brains and see what others are doing, basically what are people doing to backup their current SUN boxes?

Are you mounting shares on a backup box and backing up that way or are you using NDMP with a local tape unit or even a remote tape unit perhaps attached to your backup server?

The reason I'm asking is because I would like to setup NDMP backups using Backup Exec to snapshot the various LUNS some NTFS some Xen folders etc, then run that all onto tape attached to the backup server (the one running Backup Exec). As far as I can tell this should be more than possible however having some trouble getting Backup Exec to connect to the SUN, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Any details of what others are doing would be good to, give people some other ideas!

TIA!!

[john]

If I get mine ordered (just awaiting some funding) I will be mapping the unit to a server and just backing up the share over the LAN to a FreeNAS box (or my terrastores if they live that long). Not that elligent but its all on a needs must, so thats this years, in the future, as Phil from Sun knows, I've said that I would look to invest in a second one (who knows 2 years down the line there maybe a 7110 with more storage options at that same price point) so have a pair and use the replication in the SAN to replicate it over once a day to my other building or something along them lines.

[RobFuller]

I get the feeling mounting a XEN file system onto windows would be interesting! Shall do some more investigation and see what I come up with!

[pete]

I'm using OpenFiler to backup the nfs shares atm.

Poke Phil or Andy (hebdenlad/linescanner) about this. I can't remember if the cool alternative option thing I'm thinking of is under nda or not.

[Ric_]

I need to get time to sort this... I'm currently just pulling the data off the CIFS shares using retrospect.

What I intend to do is use the 'Workflows' feature to script the following:

• Take a snapshot of the projects (NFS targets for VMs and CIFS shares)
• Mount the snapshot(s) as new CIFS share(s)
• Use Retrospect to pull the data off in the normal manner
• Unmount the snapshot

[Duke]

We're going to be hit by this too. I assumed that as Windows can see and access a S7000 CIFS share then Backup Exec would be able to get data from it too. The fact it can't (from what I understand) is stupid. If NTBackup can do it, why can't Backup Exec?

My current (untested) thinking is map the CIFS share as a drive on the Backup Exec server, and add the selection that way. Any idea if this will work?

Chris

[Ric_]

We're going to be hit by this too. I assumed that as Windows can see and access a S7000 CIFS share then Backup Exec would be able to get data from it too. The fact it can't (from what I understand) is stupid. If NTBackup can do it, why can't Backup Exec?

My current (untested) thinking is map the CIFS share as a drive on the Backup Exec server, and add the selection that way. Any idea if this will work?

Why shouldn't a Windows box running Backup Exec be able to see a CIFS share?

As long as the permissions are set up OK, your Windows backup server should treat it like any a Windows server.

[Duke]

Why shouldn't a Windows box running Backup Exec be able to see a CIFS share?

As long as the permissions are set up OK, your Windows backup server should treat it like any a Windows server.

In which case maybe it will work fine and it's just me. I've only had one very brief play with it yesterday and when I tried to connect to the CIFS share it gave me an error. I assumed this was due to the S7000 not having the Backup Exec agent, but I thought you could get away without having the agent, you just didn't get the advanced backup features. Oddly, it can see the correct size of the CIFS share (it has a quota) and how much is used.

'An error occured while attempting to browse the contents of \\sun\path$. Access to the device is not authorised with this edition of Backup Exec.'

Because I can't select it I can't specify the credentials to use, but the account which runs backup Exec should have access to the share. I'm on a slightly old version of BE if it makes any difference.

Any suggestions?

Chris

[teejay]

I don't use Backup Exec, but Arcserve and that does work by backing up the CIFS shares. One thing I had to do, and this might work for Backup Exec, is specify the username for the backup software to access the CIFS share as user@domain and not 'user' or 'domain\user'.

[Butuz]

Following this thread closely!

I was planning on mirroring my 7110 onto a second 7110, and then backing up all of the data off the second 7110 to D2D2T. Still investigating exactly how to go about it!

Butuz

[Duke]

I don't use Backup Exec, but Arcserve and that does work by backing up the CIFS shares. One thing I had to do, and this might work for Backup Exec, is speficify the username for the backup software to access the CIFS share as user@domain and not 'user' or 'domain\user'.

Thanks, I'll give that a go on Monday and let everyone know!

[Ric_]

Following this thread closely!

I was planning on mirroring my 7110 onto a second 7110, and then backing up all of the data off the second 7110 to D2D2T. Still investigating exactly how to go about it!

Butuz

Workspaces

[RobFuller]

That’s the setup I will be going for but was hoping someone might be using NDMP but doesn’t look promising...

Symantec keeps giving me “The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.” error when selecting the SUN as a NDMP in the selection list. Did a Google search and found some information about changing to port 9000 which didn't help. Phil any advice greatly appreciated.

Following this thread closely!

I was planning on mirroring my 7110 onto a second 7110, and then backing up all of the data off the second 7110 to D2D2T. Still investigating exactly how to go about it!

Butuz

[Duke]

Well the Backup Exec issue doesn't appear to be related to permissions and is more to do with licensing. I tried to specify the account as user@domain and that made no difference, but I also tried accessing a random windows PC share with \\hostname\c$ and got the same error. Does anyone happen to know what licensing is required to access a CIFS share, presumably without the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows being installed? If not I'll give Symantec a call tomorrow and see what they say...

Cheers,
Chris

[sjl]

This is exactly how i was planning on backing up our CIFS shares on our 7110 when it comes. I just assumed you would be ok to do so - im sure i have done it in the past, i'm sure i just added the shares in as user defined locations and away it went. I decided to minge on buying the NDMP option for backup exec because its so expensive for what it does.