Manage Hosts

Note: This section is Applicable to migrations which involves NetBackup versions 8.1 and later.

Introduction

NetBackup uses security certificates to authenticate NetBackup hosts. The security certificates conform to the X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) standard.
A master server acts as the Certificate Authority (CA) and issues digital certificates to hosts. NetBackup 8.1 and later hosts can communicate with each other only in a secure mode.
NetBackup 8.1 hosts and later must have a Certificate Authority (CA) certificate and a host ID-based certificate for successful communication.

For more details, please refer the NetBackup Security and Encryption guide.

So, for catalog migrations between NetBackup 8.1 and later, CA Certificate and host ID certificates need to be deployed to all the NBU hosts from the destination master server.
Tranzman has an inbuild feature, Host Management to assist deploy the certificates. The entire process is fully automated and flexible.

Host Management

Host Management is primarily for NetBackup certificate management. It is available under Actions->Host Management.
Tranzman provides a centralised place to test the connectivity, push SERVERs to host properties, and to make hosts to request certificates from the Destination master.

Additionally, it provides options to -

• Update Filesystem accelerator tracklogs
• Add/Remove the origin or destination from server’s Host properties
• Promote destination as master server

Host Management Operations

In order to fully automate the host management process, Tranzman provides different operations.

These can be accessible under Host Management section and allows to -

• Commit and execute the selected actions
• Reset the all pending actions
• Add a new host.
• Download the selected filter list of host management info
• Upload host lists, defining tags usefull for LARGE environments, and splits
• Move selected hosts to/from Not Selected tab.
• Adds additional SERVER entries (list of SERVERS) to all selected hosts when doing an add destination as server action.
• Add destination server token to be used when doing certificate deployment.
• Option to bypass previously completed restore operation.
• To view the Origin and Destination logs for the last commit
• To show/hide the Tag column and use tags

Host Management Actions

Tranzman also provides ability to select specific actions to perform on the selected hosts.
Actions are enabled if at least one host is selected. Some actions are available only for eligible Host.
For ex: Push Destination certificate is only available for servers on or above NBU 8.1

Detailed info on each Actions is available below:

• Performs connectivity tests from origin master <-> hosts
  
• Adds destination master name (and any additional SERVERS added) as SERVER entry on selected servers
  
• Updates the accelerator tracklogs to point to the new Destination master name
  
• Uses the origin master to tell the host to request certificate from Destination
  
• Performs connectivity test from destination master <-> hosts.
  
• Removes the origin SERVER entry from bp.conf/registry of selected servers.
  
• Update the bp.conf/registry of selected servers with destination master as first SERVER entry and EMMSERVER entry (for media server)
  

Host Management status bar

The status bar provides information on the status of ports connectivity between the server and Origin/Destination master.
Helps to verify if the server has an active backup in the last 7 days, if the server is part of any available policy with accelerator enabled.
It also provides the ability to view the Host properties of a server. It shows the Backup software version running on the server.

A icon appears next to the host name, shows Tranzman detected alias for the hostname.
Clicking on the icon reveals the alias table for the host with the connectivity status as below.

Last scan tells the time since the Tranzman scanned the host for connectivity. The above image tells the hosts are scanned 6h ago.

Host props column has icon, clicking the icon provides the host properties of the corresponding server.

Accelerator column, tells if the host has FileSystem Accelerator enabled.

• A shows accelerator feature is not enabled.
  
• A shows accelerator feature is enabled.
  
• A shows accelerator tracklog is updated (by Tranzman) to use Destination master.
  

Lookup column lists the status of name resolution of the host.

• A says lookup failed for the host.
  
• A tells name resolution is successful for the client.
  
• A tells the name resolution is partially successful with multiple alias found.
  

It means that the hosts are returning different results for the same CLIENT_NAME. If this happens check the host management section in NetBackup, ensure all mapping requests are approved.
It may sometimes require to manually add a host mapping in NetBackup to fix the alias errors.

Click on each icon provides the detailed information of name resolution as below.

Port connectivity test

• A set of connectivity tests on Origin and Destination ports provides insight of connectivity status of host with Origin and Destination server.
  
• A against each port shows the host failed to connect to corresponding servers.
  

clicking on the icon provides detailed information for the failure.

• A shows the connection is successful.
  

Initially, all the connectivity tests show failed and so it is required to perform Run origin connectivity test and Run destination connectivity test.
If the Origin cannot connect to a server, it is expected the same for the Destination and so the host can be moved to Not Selected tab using icon.
If the Origin can connect but the destination cannot connect, verify the lookup entry is ticked as this will show whether Destination is able to resolve the server name.
If the Destination can resolve the name but unable to connect, verify the output of the bpcd test by clicking on .
If the output identifies a Certificate issue, and was trying to push a certificate, click on the hostname as it will show the history of actions run for the client, along with output from the Commands run at the HOST end.
This will help to identify if there is an issue with the name resolution, firewalls, or routing.

The Status column provides a means to sort client by common errors, clicking on the status will list the status for the Origin, Destination and the Host along with description.

Host Management Tags

Tags can be Shown / Hidden by clicking on the icon.
Tags are useful to group the hosts with a common name.

• icon helps add a new tag.
  
• If one or more hosts are selected then it allows to Edit, use to assign a tag.
  
• Use icon, to remove a tag from them.
  

Once tags have been added, the servers can be sorted or filtered by Tag.

Refer File:Tutorials for a demonstration on usage of tags.

Host Management process flow

Host Management should be performed 1 or 2 day after starting data transfer. This gives sufficient time for Destination to discover the Origin clients.

• Click on Actions->Host Management while Tranzman is in the data transfer stage and all the NBU hosts are discovered and displayed on the Host Management page under Client Mangement.
  
• Select all the eligible hosts and select Actions->Run origin connectivity test. Confirm the action by clicking on button.
  
• A CheckConn task is created and viewed from Views->Activity Monitor. Upon completion of this task, the respective columns on the Host Management page should get populated with rather than .
  
• After successful connectivity test on origin, Tranzman will identify the media servers and move it to the Media Server Management tab and only clients are left in Client Management.
  

It is expected to return a on all columns for the corresponding clients. Refer Host Management status bar section to understand the column information.

Based on the test results, the other actions can be performed. To understand more about Host Management Actions, refer Host Management Actions