NetWorker 8.1 Countdown

Some days ago EMC has announced the release of NetWorker 8.1 beside other products like SourceOne 7.0, Avamar 7.0, Data Domain OS 5.3 & Data Domain new hardware appliances.

So, what is so special about this release? What is changed, optimized or enhanced in this release?

I found this EMC customer presentation on Powerlink, which it will cover what’s new!


EMC NetWorker 8.1


What’s new

Enhancements to NetWorker 8.1 and its Modules can be described at a high level by greater efficiencies in backup, which span from integration for EMC Array snapshot management to further integrations with Data Domain, and new support for Block Based Backup for Windows systems.

We have optimized support for VMware backup and recovery with a new underlying VMware Backup Appliance and also are offering enhancements to our support of Microsoft Hyper-V.

NetWorker management has been enhanced on several fronts and we continue to expand our support for enterprise applications with support for new features that maximize efficiencies.

We will cover all these topics in detail.

1. Backup Efficiencies

1. Integrated snapshot management image

Snapshot management for EMC arrays (VNX/CLARiiON, VMAX/Symmetrix) and RecoverPoint has now been tightly integrated within the framework of NetWorker. It is packaged and delivered with the NetWorker Client, therefore when the Client is loaded, the ability to manage snapshots is readily available. Integration goes beyond packaging, however, and includes the ability to recover snapshots directly from the new wizard-based NetWorker Management Console Recovery UI that will be discussed later in this presentation. The NMC Recovery UI walks the administrator through the recovery process and enables them to schedule recoveries as well as perform multiple recoveries at once. Intelligent pairing is the ability for NetWorker to discover the VMAX source LUNs for a file system and intelligently assign a volume to the mirror LUN that is best suited.

With NetWorker 8.1 Snapshot Management, a separate proxy server is no longer required for moving the snapshots. The administrator now has the ability to use the NetWorker Storage Node to act as a proxy in the workflow. Snapshot Management integration with NetWorker replaces the need to purchase and install the NetWorker PowerSnap Module, thus saving time and money when getting up and running with managing EMC array-based snapshots and replication.

Use of snapshots as part of an overall data protection strategy not only enables fast operational backup and recovery, but also allows backup to disk or tape to happen off line – without impact to the mission critical application server. This process is often referred to as “Live Backup”. Tapes can be created and sent offsite for disaster recovery purposes. At any time, recovery can be accomplished from a snapshot or from disk or tape as needed.
NetWorker Snapshot Management will catalog all snapshot activities which enables quick search and recovery for restore purposes. NetWorker software provides lifecycle policies for snapshot save sets. Snapshot policies specify the following: 

  • The time interval between snapshots.
  • The maximum number of snapshots retained, above which the older snapshots are recycled.
  • Which snapshots will be backed up to traditional storage.
  • Selecting the type of snap that will be created.
  • The expiration policy of the snapshot.
  • The number of active snapshots that will be retained on the storage array.

Snapshots for DB2, Oracle, and SAP are also managed via the NetWorker Snapshot Management feature. Configuration Wizard support for these applications will be added in a later release.

NetWorker Snapshot Management operations for each NetWorker client can be monitored through NMC reporting features. Monitored operations cover snapshots that are successfully created or in progress, as well as snapshots that are mounted, in the process of being rolled over, and deleted. Reports include details of licensed capacities consumed. NMC also provides a detailed log of snapshot operations.

Snapshot Management is included with a NetWorker capacity-based license.

The Client Configuration Wizard for the NetWorker Snapshot Management feature enables automatic discovery of the environment that has been configured for snapshots by the Storage Administrator. The wizard accommodates the common NetWorker Snapshot Management workflows associated with snapshot and rollover configurations.

Snapshot validation will verify whether a backup as configured by the wizard is likely to be successful.

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No scripting is required. The configuration wizard will ensure that the proper commands are executed for the associated snapshot operations, that the LUNs are paired appropriately, and that all NetWorker resources are properly assigned. Basically the wizard will take care of configuring, end-to-end, the client snapshot/rollover policy.

NOTE: There is a Configuration Checker available for NetWorker 8.1 Snapshot Management. This support is provided and available for EMC and Partner use only.

The Snapshot Management Configuration Checker (SMCC) software is a stand-alone, Java-based and cross-platform NetWorker utility that verifies the requirements for snapshot operations. It can be run either directly on the snapshot target host (typically the NetWorker storage node) or from a separate workstation, such as a laptop, over a secure connection to the target host.

 

2. Deeper integration with Data Domain 

  • Data Domain Boost over Fibre Channel
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    Support for the Fibre Channel protocol has now been added to Data Domain Boost and NetWorker 8.1 leverages it for customers who have standardized on Fibre Channel as their backup protocol of choice. This support not only optimizes the customers’ existing investment in their Fibre Channel infrastructure, but with DD Boost client-side deduplication, the customer can now enjoy 50% faster backups over their traditional VTL-based model and 2.5x faster recovery. Use of Data Domain Systems reduces the bandwidth required on the network, as well as the disk capacity required. And, because this support offers both client-side deduplication and support of the Fibre Channel protocol using a backup-to-disk workflow, the old VTL ‘tape-based’ management can be eliminated. This means greater reliability and less complexity. This support also enables for Fibre Channel all the features that Data Domain and DD Boost offer, including virtual synthetic full backups, clone controlled replication, global deduplication, and more.
    DD Boost over Fibre Channel is supported for Windows and Linux environments.
  • Virtual Synthetics
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    Virtual Synthetic Full backups are an out-of-the-box integration with NetWorker, making it ‘self-aware.’ Therefore, if your customer is using a Data Domain System as their backup target NetWorker will use Virtual Synthetic Full backups as the backup workflow by default when a synthetic full backup is scheduled, thus optimizing incremental backups for file systems. 

    Virtual synthetics reduce the processing overhead associated with traditional synthetic full backups by using metadata on the Data Domain system to synthesize a full backup without moving data across the network. Unlike other vendors, no Storage Node/Media server is required, and there is no rehydration during the recovery.
    In this workflow, a full backup is sent to Data Domain, taking complete advantage of Data Domain value-add features, namely DD Boost. Incremental backups are run daily, as usual, after which point, instead of initiating a new full backup, another incremental backup would be run, and then a Virtual Full.
    In a Virtual Synthetic Full, NetWorker sends commands to the Data Domain System of what regions are required to create a full backup, but no data is transferred over the network. Instead, the regions of the full backup are synthesized from the previous full and incrementals already on the system by using pointers. This process eliminates the data that needs to be gathered from the file server, reducing system overhead, time to complete the process, and required network bandwidth.
    This workflow is repeated over the following weeks, with a new traditional full backup recommended only after every 8-10 Virtual Fulls have been completed. Therefore, the use of Virtual Synthetic Full backups also reduces the number of traditional full backups from 52 to 6 per year – a 90% reduction. Up To 90% Reduction In Full Backups Annually.

  • Immediate Cloning

    Immediate clone controlled replication is another new feature that has been added in support of Data Domain. It enables cloning to begin as soon as a saveset as part of a group has finished being backed up. This means that the cloning process can begin almost concurrently with the backup process, speeding up the time to DR readiness by up to 90%. 

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    Previous versions of NetWorker required that the entire group finish its backup before a clone operation could be initiated. And, these groups can be very large. Therefore, immediate cloning helps support Recovery Point Objectives, enabling a faster time to Disaster Recovery readiness, and can more efficiently utilize the network bandwidth used for replication during off-peak hours.

 

3. Block-based backup for Windows

Block-based backup is a new integrated feature in support of Microsoft Windows file systems, and replaces the previous support offered with the separately purchased SnapImage Module. It speeds the backup of workloads such as high density file systems or very large files that incur only very minor and infrequent changes. This feature is tightly integrated with Microsoft’s VSS framework. It takes an image-based backup at the volume level, rather than walking the entire file system, in the backup process.
Configuring a block-based backup is configured within the Client Configuration Wizard, making administration and configuration simple.
Only the changed blocks are backed up, enabling fast backup with minimal impact. Recovery is fast, easy, and granular and is achieved by mounting the resulting Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) to browse and extract the necessary files. There is no index created in this new workflow, as there is with other vendors. Because an index is not required, required disk space is lower and recovery is much faster, since there is no file system walk required.
The incremental backup process only backs up the two changed blocks during the next pass. Therefore, in the process of a recovery, only the two changed blocks have to be accounted for. By using Block Based Backup for Windows, file system backups complete up to 5x faster than a traditional file backup and recovery operations are 2-4x faster.
While block-based backup is optimized for a backup to disk workflow, the backup can be cloned to tape for long term retention and compliance.

 

4. Expanded client direct support 
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Client Direct was announced with NetWorker 8.0 and has been extremely well received by customers and partners. Client Direct enables the storage node to be removed from the data path during backup, therefore eliminating a ‘hop’ in the backup process. Only the metadata is routed to a storage node for cataloging. By eliminating that extra hop, the backup process is faster, and the requirement for storage nodes in the configuration is lessened, therefore enabling cost and management effort to both be cut.
When Client Direct is combined with the power of Data Domain Boost at the client or application host, backups are processed a minimum of 50% faster because deduplicated data is being sent to the Data Domain System.
Client Direct support has been expanded for Advanced File Type Devices and now includes Microsoft applications, databases, and SAP running on Microsoft Windows servers. We have also completed database and SAP support with Data Domain as the target for all operating systems in this latest release of NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications.

Client Direct Target File Systems Microsoft Applications Databases
Data Domain Yes Yes Yes
AFTD Yes Yes Yes*
* MS Windows only

 

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5. Windows Server 2012 Deduplication

Windows Server 2012 has brought many new features to bear. NetWorker 8.1 offers optimized support for the new deduplicated volumes support for NTFS-based file system data volumes (Microsoft does not yet support applications).
This optimization encompasses backup of only the file metadata and the chunk store (container files) for NTFS volumes, eliminating the need to rehydrate the data for backup. Therefore, backup time, bandwidth and storage requirements are decreased.
Options include the optimized approach outlined above, as well as the ability to take advantage of new Data Domain Virtual Synthetics for very fast incremental backups. The customer also maintains the option to rehydrate the data for both full and incremental backups. In a recovery operation, the data is not rehydrated; only the metadata and chunk store are restored.

 

6. Windows Server 2012

Microsoft introduced support for Windows Scale-Out File Servers over Cluster Shared Volumes with proxy node backup. This support enables a System Administrator to choose a single node within the cluster to act as proxy for backup, thus removing any impact of backups from the production servers. The proxy can either be physical or virtual.

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7. Windows Disaster Recovery image
 
NetWorker 8.1 is now supporting bare metal recovery from physical servers to VMware vSphere 5 virtual machines. This capability is integrated into the existing BMR Configuration Wizard and supports Windows Server 2012 and 2008 R2 for both BIOS and the new UEFI-based servers. This means that a customer is not required to have a physical server that meets the exact configuration to restore to in the event of a disaster, enabling more flexibility and faster uptime.
An enhanced feature of NetWorker is the ability to do incremental DR backups of critical volumes (system and boot). With this new feature, only changed files are backed up, speeding the backup process. These types of backups are among the most popular backups and represent a large percentage of the data being protected by NetWorker. Use of these incremental backups with the ‘ALL Saveset’ feature can result in up to 14x less data being backed up during the incremental cycle, resulting in savings of both backup time and storage required.


2.
Optimized Backup and Recovery for Virtualized Environments

1. VMware

a. Optimized VMware Backup and Recovery

The integration of industry-leading Avamar technology for backup of VMware environments is a major feature of this release. VMware has chosen Avamar technology to power it’s recently announced vSphere Data Protection (VDP) and vSphere Data Protection-Advanced (VDP-A) support. Now, that same technology has been leveraged in NetWorker, thus enabling Change Block Tracking technology for both backup and recovery of data, as well as a multi-streaming centralized proxy that will also load-balance jobs between proxy servers for increased VM backup performance, and many other features. Since the backup includes all the changed blocks, every backup is essentially always a full backup.

NetWorker uses a software-based VMware Backup Appliance (VBA). The VBA stores the metadata, sending changed blocks during the backup workflow to a Data Domain System target. This support is specific to, and optimized by, Data Domain. Therefore, the customer enjoys all the features and value from a Data Domain solution including DD Boost support, clone to tape for retention and compliance, and global deduplication, to name a few. Each VBA is capable of protecting hundreds of virtual machines ensuring protection for the largest of virtual environments.

Customers have the option to clone from Data Domain to tape or other external media for extended retention and compliance purposes.

In-guest protection is enabled by NetWorker Modules for application consistency. The new VMware engine is supported to co-exist with support in NetWorker 8.0 and earlier, primarily for customers who continue to have a requirement to backup directly to tape using physical proxies.

This enhanced support for VMware is included with a capacity-based license. Customers using traditional licensing would purchase by CPU.

b. VMware Backup and Recovery Managementimage

Through direct integration with VMware vCenter™ NetWorker offers a collaborative approach to backup management that empowers the VMware Administrator to manage their own backups, while the Backup (NetWorker) Administrator maintains visibility and control of corporate SLAs through policy-setting, monitoring, and reporting.

Both VMware and Backup Administrators are empowered with visibility and control of the environment. Protection is based on policies, as defined by the Backup Administrator, and selected for each virtual machine, or group of virtual machines, by the VMware Administrator. Virtual machines are auto-discovered and automatically protected based on the policies assigned to the group where they are created.

Both image and file level recovery are supported and since this feature support is enabled by integration with VMware vCenter, management is virtual-centric, with information on the VMware environment presented as VM groups and folders. File level recovery is supported for both Windows and Linux.

 

c. VMware Role-Based Management
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The integration via VMware vCenter enables role-based management, with roles defined as the VMware Administrator, Backup Administrator, or System Administrator given privileges for recovery of backed up data. Each user is empowered with the administrative control required based on their unique responsibilities.

Through the vSphere Web Client, the VMware Administrator maintains VMware-centric management of their environment. As described earlier, backup and retention policies are defined by the Backup Administrator and assigned by the VMware Administrator when the virtual machines, or VM containers, are provisioned. The VMware Administrator has the ability to both backup and recover virtual machines as well as run reports via vSphere.

The NetWorker Administrator gets new pages in the NetWorker Management Console that are specific to VMware, enabling them to define protection policies such as schedule, retention, number of copies, etc. They are able to configure, maintain, monitor, and report against the backup infrastructure.

The web-based recovery user interface is a tool designed for self-service recovery to the file level and can be used by anyone who has the proper privileges.

Again, this feature support ensures that those who need visibility and control of data protection have what they need, where, and when they need it.

 

2. Microsoft Hyper-V

Optimized Hyper-V Backup and Recovery / Hyper-V over CSV with Proxy Node Backup

EMC has also amped up support with Microsoft Hyper-V. The NetWorker Module for Microsoft (NMM) 2.4 Service Pack 1 introduced support for Hyper-V 2012 and Hyper-V 2012 over Cluster Shared Volumes.

NetWorker 8.1 and the NetWorker Module for Microsoft 3.0 take support for Hyper-V 2012 further with greater optimization for backup and restore of Hyper-V environments.

There is now wizard-based configuration and management support for Hyper-V, rounding out wizard support for NMM.

Backups are optimized with support for Hyper-V over CSV proxy node backup. This support enables an administrator to select a physical proxy server within the Cluster Shared Volume environment to manage all backups for the Federated Cluster. This enables backup processing overhead to be eliminated for production servers.

In addition, Hyper-V 2012 supports elimination of the redirection of I/O of all servers in the CSV to the server being backed up. With previous versions of Hyper-V, this redirection slowed down write I/O performance for all the servers in the CSV, not just the server being backed up. NetWorker also assumes this support.

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Hyper-V over Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 is a new scenario supported by Hyper-V 2012 and also supported by NetWorker. SMB is also known as CIFS and is an application-layer network services protocol used for shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and other communications between nodes on a network. SMB 3.0 was introduced with Microsoft Server 2012 and in Windows 8.

With earlier versions of Hyper-V, when an in-guest VM was backed up, a VSS full backup was performed. This resulted in application log truncation if other VSS-aware applications were also running in-guest. VSS Copy selection will enable a virtual machine backup to act as a copy backup while an in-guest application-specific backup is occurring. This eliminates the truncation of in-guest application logs.

Finally, Client Direct support for Advanced File Type Devices has been added in addition to the Data Domain support announced with NetWorker 8.0.

3. Enhanced Management and Enterprise Applications Support

a. EMC Backup and Recovery Managerimage

As with NetWorker 8.0, there are a lot of management and usability enhancements in NetWorker 8.1. Before I speak to some of them, I would like to introduce you to the new EMC Backup and Recovery Manager. It is a new intuitive management interface for monitoring and reporting for NetWorker and Avamar through a single pane of glass. While primarily used for NetWorker and Avamar, it will also support monitoring of Data Domain Systems from the backup administrator’s perspective. Operators and Administrators can monitor alerts, activities, and systems. It also monitors events, which are informational messages good for use in troubleshooting and auditing. Reporting features enable customers to confirm that client systems are being properly protected and also track system usage and capacity. It offers a dashboard approach providing all key information on a single screen, including alerts and warnings. Other key usability features include filters, grouping, search, and color-coded tracking for system capacity.

The Backup and Recovery Manager is included with NetWorker and Avamar at no additional cost.

b. Enhanced NetWorker Managementimage

New core NetWorker features focused on management simplicity and usability include an integrated, wizard-based recovery graphical user interface available directly from the NetWorker Management Console. This UI will walk the Administrator through every step of the recovery process, including recovery of snapshots, files systems, and the new Block Based Backups. It enables a recovery operation to be scheduled and can also perform multiple recovery operations at once.

The NetWorker server DR process has been simplified and replaces the current manual multi-step process in the event a NetWorker server goes down. Features include self-awareness such that if the bootstrap server ID is unknown, the system will initiate a scanner process. Now, the Backup Administrator is stepped through the process of recovery, without having to pull out a complicated manual to follow.

The command line wizard program automates the recovery of the NetWorker server’s media database, resource files, and client file indexes. The administrator can choose to recover just the media database, or the resource files, or the client file indexes – or all of the above.

c. Parallel Savestreams for UNIX/Linux
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Parallel Savestreams improves performance and manageability. Manageability is enhanced with the elimination of scripting, which are typically used to break large savesets into multiple savesets to improve backup performance and complete backups within an acceptable time frame.

Scripts cannot effectively take care of the growth in data across directories, as shown in the scenarios above and optimization achieved via scripts will be limited typically to the smallest directory.

Parallel savestreams breaks the single process of identifying file for backup and copy operation into a file walker and data transfer processes. The file walker identifies the files needed to be backed up and adds them to a copy list and a set of data transfer processes (based on the client parallelism value) start and each process picks a file at a time from the copy list and move data to target. This way parallelism is achieved till the very end of the backup, enabling backups to complete much quicker than standard scripted solutions.

Use of the parallel savestreams feature in NetWorker can speed processing by a minimum of 3x for high density file systems *(>1M files) in UNIX/Linux environments.

 

4. New NetWorker Modules

a. NetWorker Modules for Microsoft Applications 3.0

  • Microsoft Exchange Server
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    Microsoft released Exchange 2013 in the fall of 2012 and NetWorker 8.1 offers support for this new version. In addition, support for Exchange Database Availability Groups (DAG) and DAG Federated Backup have been added, allowing Administrators to set a preferred order for servers within the Federated Group for backup. When the backup is scheduled for the federated group, NetWorker will search for the first passive copy based on the server priority set by the Administrator. Options include backing up only active databases, only passive databases, or a ‘preferred passive’ selection which suggests that an active database can be backed up only if a passive replica is not available. This adds resiliency to the changes that happen in these dynamic environments, thus ensuring that backups continue without failure and empowers the Exchange Administrator to choose the best options for their environment.

    The ability to restore a mailbox to an alternate location is a new feature helpful with efforts such as eDiscovery or employment changes.

    With Exchange 2013, Public Folders are now Public Mailboxes. Microsoft does not support GLR for Public Folders. In support of item level recovery for Public Folders we enable a Public Folder to be recovered to a file system, called a redirected recovery. Microsoft offers KB articles discussing how to data mine these files for individual items.

    With other Microsoft features in NMM, Client Direct is now supported to Advanced File Type Devices in addition to Data Domain.
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  • Microsoft SQL Server
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    Continuing with a theme in this release of Visibility and Control, the NetWorker Module for Microsoft 3.0 supports a plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio that empowers the SQL DBA with the ability to run ad hoc backups directly from the SSMS console.

    NetWorker Module for Microsoft 2.4 Service Pack 1 introduced support for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups. NMM 3.0 expands on it with support for Federated Backups. In this case, the SQL Administrator is able to set up policies for the Federated group through SSMS choosing the preferred servers to be used for backup. Options are to backup to any replica in the AlwaysOn Availability Group, a primary replica, a secondary replica, or a primary replica only if the secondary replica is not available.

    Client Direct to Advanced File Type Devices is now supported.
     

  • Microsoft SharePoint Server

    Support for SharePoint 2013 was added in NetWorker Module for Microsoft 2.4 Service Pack 1. New for this release is Client Direct to Advanced File Type Devices.

b. NetWorker Modules for Databases and Applications 1.5

This slide covers the feature support that has been added for all databases and applications supported by the NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications (NMDA) 1.5.

Managing passwords can become very complex due to the high frequency at which they need to be changed for databases as well as all the NetWorker client resources that then have to be updated separately as well. To simplify the task, NMDA has been enhanced with the ability to set a password once, which is stored in a lockbox for all NetWorker Client Resources to use. If one client resource has been updated with a new password via the Configuration Wizard, NMDA will detect it and propagate that password change to the other affected client resources. No longer do you need to log into each NetWorker Client Resource to change password access when necessary.

In previous versions of NMDA, a single NetWorker Client Resource was only capable of backing up a single server, database, or instance of an application. Now, with NMDA 1.5, a single Client Resource is capable of backing up multiple databases, servers, or application instances, as appropriate.

  • Oracle

    Now we will walk through the new features offered for each database and application in NMDA, starting with Oracle.

    It also introduces unique and empowering support for the Oracle DBA using RMAN to manage their backups, which will be covered in upcoming slides.

    There are enhancements to the wizard including the ability to choose an archive log only backup as well as an alternate host for the recovery catalog, which is an Oracle best practice now configurable with the wizard.

    In addition to the new Client Direct to AFTD support, support has been rounded out for Data Domain storage targets to include Client Direct for AIX and Linux.

    Issues are created when administrators managing various applications, databases, virtual environments, and file systems feel they need complete visibility and control over protecting their own data. The corporate IT team becomes disenfranchised and is no longer able to ensure that corporate SLAs are being met.

    With NetWorker 8.1 and the NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications, Oracle DBAs who have the need to manage the protection of their data without interference by, or interaction with, the Backup Administrator can now do so. And, in the process, the Backup Administrator maintains all the control that they need, including setting corporate backup policy, ensuring disaster recovery, central reporting, and, ultimately, SLA assurance.

    With this new feature support, the Oracle DBA does not need to learn another tool and does not need to engage with the Backup Administrator for either backup or recovery, thus enabling a one-step recovery process for the Oracle DBA through Oracle RMAN, no matter where the backup data is ultimately stored.

    At the same time, the Backup Administrator using NetWorker can set the backup, schedule, and retention policies for the Oracle DBA to choose from without ever having to learn or understand Oracle. Through the one-time trade of database credentials, all Oracle RMAN backups are synchronized with NetWorker and cataloged. Reporting gains the benefit of being represented in Oracle-centric terms, rather than unrecognizable dump files. NetWorker policies will kick-in where RMAN policies may fail, providing an extra layer of protection assurance and assistance with keeping the Fast Recovery Area clean for backups. The Backup Administrator may also ensure disaster tolerance through the ability to schedule clones to tape or external off-site media. Because NetWorker is maintaining a central catalog for the Oracle backups, the Backup Administrator has the ability to monitor and report on the environment.

  • My SQL

    New support for MySQL 5.5 Enterprise Editions has been added to NMDA 1.5. NMDA will use MySQL Enterprise Backup, the native MySQL management tool. The customer may immediately enjoy the comprehensive support offered for the other databases in the Module, including hot and cold backups, full and granular backup and restore as well as backup and restore of logs. Also supported is restore to any point-in-time of a backup with no third party tool dependency.

    As with the other databases, deduplication support with both Avamar and Data Domain is available. Ease of management is enabled with the Configuration Wizard.

    MyISAM and InnoDB, the most popular underlying storage engines for MySQL, are supported.

    Complete Client Direct support is available to Data Domain for all operating systems and to Advanced File Type Devices when using Microsoft Windows.

    NetWorker 8.0 is the minimum version required to support MySQL with NMDA 1.5.

    Supported Linux operating systems (32- and 64-bit) for MySQL are:

    – RHEL
    – SUSE
    – Oracle Linux

  • DB2

    DB2 support has been enhanced in this release with support of DB2 10.1 as well as integrated support for optimized deduplicated backup, which is also an optional feature in the DB2 10.1 release for improving deduplication ratios. This feature can be configured from both NMC and the Configuration Wizard.

    Client Direct support to Data Domain has been added for Linux and Windows environments.

  • Sybase

    Enhancements to Sybase include Sybase 15.7 support with all NMDA features as well as support for up-to-the-minute recoveries, known as logtail backups. This means that the customer can recover to any point in time, regardless of whether they backed up the logs that are required to roll forward their database.

  • Informix

    For Informix, full support has been added for Informix 12.10 as well as Client Direct to Data Domain for AIX. As with the other databases and applications in the Module, Client Direct to Advanced File Type Devices for Windows has also been added.

  • Lotus

    Archive logs-only backup has now been added for Lotus without a requirement to backup the Lotus Domino database. Configuration is enabled through both NMC and the Configuration Wizard. Also added was support for files with additional extensions, a feature Lotus supports. Finally, this version of NMDA has gone through rigorous testing with Lotus with the goal of high quality improvements for a much higher level of customer satisfaction.

c. NetWorker Modules for SAP 4.5

SAP has recently announced support for Oracle Exadata and support has now been added to the NetWorker Module for SAP 4.5. Exadata is supported as a RAC in an SAP environment. Therefore, all that NMSAP supports in Oracle RAC environments applies for Oracle Exadata as well, such as DD Boost and Client Direct with DD Boost as well as backup to AFTDs, etc.

Also supported is SAP on Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM).

The Configuration Wizard and NMC have now been enhanced to allow pre- and post-commands to be inserted in the configuration process for scheduled SAP backups.

Log files can build up quickly when backing up SAP environments. To manage backup storage required, it is now possible to delete logs immediately as long as, and after, a backup occurs.

As with NMDA 1.5, Client Direct to Advanced File Type Devices has been added for Windows deployments.

Voila, that was it!

  3 comments for “NetWorker 8.1 Countdown

  1. NetWorker 8.1 docs are up on the support site, and NSR 8.1 Limited Release is available (“Directed Availability” is the term they use, but it is really the LR version)

    Thanks for the incredible summary of the new features!

    -Dave

    • Hi Dave,

      Thank you for passing by.
      Yes “Directed Availability” release of NetWorker 8.1 (Including NMM 3.0, NMDA 1.5, and NMSAP 4.5) is available since week ago.

Comments are closed.