Well, since that our Data Domain appliance in house is, I thought why not using it in our backup environment!
Then came to to my mind, why not connecting the Data Domain Appliance through it’s FC to our Celerra NS20 Server and make NDMP Backups directly from the NS20 server to the Data Domain VTL library in what is called a two-way backup configuration!
Basically, I have connected the DD with the Celerra by a Fiber Channel cable. One end was connected to “Port 1” on the FC HBA of the Data Domain, the other end was connected to the auxiliary port “Aux 0” on first Data Mover “server_2” of the Celerra Server.
In case you have configured your “Data Movers” in a “Primary/Standby” configuration and you want to be able to make backups in case of DM failover, then don’t forget to connect “Port 2” on the FC HBA of the Data Domain to the “Aux 0” on the second DM “server_3”.
Now, It is time to configure the components. It is a three parts configurations:
- Part 1: Data Domain VTL Configuration.
Here I’ve used DD610 model with OS 5.0.1.0-240411.
- Part 2: Configuring NDMP on the Celerra with the attached VTL.
Here I’ve used NS20 with DART 6.0.41-4.
- Part 3: Configuring the NDMP VTL on NetWorker.
Here I’ve used NetWorker version 7.6.2.3.
Okay then, lets begin!
Part 1: Data Domain VTL Configuration.
This part consist of two actions:
1.) Creating the VTL.
The DD Appliance is already initially installed, configured and connected to the network. DD system installation will not be discussed here.
1- Connect to the DD Management Console by a supported browser. Then logon using Username: “sysadmin” and Password: “YOUR PASSWORD”.
2- From the left Navigation Pane expand the “DD Network” and choose your DD appliance. In my case it was “dd610.source.be”
3- In the Information Pane click on “Data Management” tab, then click on “VTL” sub tab. make sure that the VTL service is enabled and licensed.
4- In the “tree view” on the left click on “Virtual Tape Libraries” stack menu, then on the top right on the information pane click the “More Tasks” menu to create a new Library and fill in the required information, then click on next and the library will be created.
5- At this step I have create an empty library. The next step is to create tapes in the “Default” pool under the “Vault”. After that export them to the new created library.
From the tree view expand the “Vault” and click on “Default”, on the top right click on “More Tasks” and then Create tapes. Fill in the necessary information and click on next to create the tapes.Here I’ve created 8 LTO3 tapes. please pay attention to the last two letters in the Barcode setting (L1=100GB, L2=200GB, L3=400GB).
6- Then from the “tree view” click on “Tapes”, and from the “Information pane”, select Location “Vault” and Pool “Default”, then click on “Search”. The new created tapes will show up, select them all or as many as necessary then click on the button “Import from Vault” and you will get a screen like below. by clicking on “Next” the pates will be exported to the Library.
By this I have finished creating the Library.
2.) Configuring the Access Groups.
1- In the “tree view” on the left click on “Access Groups” stack menu, expand the “ Groups” then on the top right on the information pane click the “More Tasks” menu to create a new Group.
I have created a Group with the name “DD610”, link it to the only initiator that there is, then click next, in the next screen I’ve select all the devices “ changer, driver 1 and drive 2”. For the LUN Start Address I give it “100”. For the Primary and Secondary Ports I’ve select “all” so that the checked devices is visible on both ports.
By this the Library is now visible on both ports for the Data Movers!
End of Part 1…. to be continued on Part 2.