NetWorker 9.0 SP1 is released!

This version was released like 2 weeks ago, but it took EMC sometime to release this information to public. It is here now!

It is release 9.0.1.0, Build 614.

New features and changes in NetWorker 9.0 SP1

The NetWorker 9.0 SP1 software contains the following new features and enhancements, such as:

Enhancements to Data Domain support

NetWorker 9.0.1 includes the following Data Domain related enhancements:

Improved performance of NetWorker Clone Controlled Replication (CCR) for Data Domain due to Automated Multi-streaming
The Automated Multi-streaming (AMS) feature improves cloning performance for large save sets when you use high bandwidth networks. Previously when you replicated save sets between two Data Domain devices on different machines, the replication process used to take longer in NetWorker. AMS significantly speeds up replication between DDRs by splitting up large files (files whose sizes are roughly greater than 3.5 GB) into multiple smaller 2 GB slices, replicating the slices individually, and finally re-creating the original large file on the destination DDR using those slices.
NetWorker 8.2.3 and NetWorker 9.0.1 and later feature enhancements to clone controlled replication (CCR), also known as DD to DD Managed File Replication. Also, enhancements to load balancing so that the load (save sets to clone) is spread evenly across the multithreaded nsrclone process were implemented. By default, the AMS feature is disabled.

You can turn on the feature by changing the command to ams_enabled=yes.

Support for DD Boost Fibre Channel on Solaris 10 and 11
DD Boost Fibre Channel now supports Solaris versions 10 and 11 for the File System Client.

DDOS version 5.7.x high availability failover capabilities
NetWorker 9.0.1 allows you to make use of the Data Domain failover capabilities available in DDOS 5.7.x for both DD Boost and non-Boost devices, introducing the following enhancements:

  • View status information and reports from NMC’s Monitoring window.
  • In the result of a failover, perform an unscheduled shutdown of the primary Data Domain device to ensure that NetWorker operations in progress (including backup, recovery and configuration options) are not interrupted.

Note
If you run an inquire during a Data Domain failover, the VTL output does not display.
There is, however, no impact to the backup.


NDMP enhancements

Starting in NetWorker 9.0.1, NDMP now supports:

  • Isilon Multi-Streaming
  • Muting verbose log messages for successfully recovered files
  • Token based backup for Hitachi NAS

Added storage array support for snapshot management

NetWorker Snapshot Management now supports the following storage arrays:

  • EMC ProtectPoint for VMAX3
  • EMC ProtectPoint for RecoverPoint
  • EMC XtremIO
    A detailed description of configuring ProtectPoint on RecoverPoint with XtremIO and configuring Snapshots on XtremIO arrays is available in the EMC NetWorker Snapshot Management Integration Guide.

Support for CloudBoost devices

The NetWorker 9.0.1 release supports the use of a CloudBoost appliance to backup and clone data.

CloudBoost Virtual appliance support on Amazon Web Services
NetWorker 9.0.1 introduces support for ClouldBoost Virtual appliances on Amazon Web Services. By utilizing a virtual machine that is Amazon Machine Image (AMI) compatible, The CloudBoost Virtual appliance supports both long-term retention and backup to cloud, allowing you to benefit from Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) deduplication.


Note
Limit the number of overall NetWorker sessions to the Amazon Web Services S3 bucket to 100 streams. When you use more than 100 streams, intermittent backup failures occur with an error message similar to "503 slow down".


Jobs database changes

Improvements to the jobsdb were made inNetWorker 9.0.1, and the format of the jobsdb changed. Also, the default retention period of jobsdb is now 72 hours. You can modify the retention period by editing the variable Jobsdb retention in hours.
Previous versions of the jobsdb are not compatible with NetWorker 9.0.1 and the update process does not migrate the jobsdb data. When you update from a previous release to NetWorker 9.0.1, the updating process renames the jobsdb and the NetWorker server uses a new database.


Note
After you update the NetWorker server, all policy, workflow, and action resources will report a status of never run. This status also displays after a workflow has expired.


VMware Virtual Volumes (vVol) Support for VMAX3 and UNITY storage systems

Networker 9.0.1 allows backup and restore of virtual machines that are running on vVol datastores.

NetWorker REST API

The NetWorker REST API is an interface that allows you to access the NetWorker data protection service and to build client applications that automate NetWorker operations.
The NetWorker REST API Getting Started Guide describes how to use the NetWorker REST API, and the NetWorker REST API Reference Guide provides a full description of the API resources.

Highly-available NetWorker server support

The NetWorker 9.0.1 release supports a highly-available NetWorker server on supported Windows and RHEL operating systems.

 

Fixed Problems in NetWorker 9.0 SP1

The following lists customer reported defects resolved in NetWorker 9.0 SP1.

261282 NDMP backup fails when attempting to continue onto second tape
259029 Nsrwatch does not display correct save size information
257921 NMC does not display correct information regarding space utilization for Data Domain device
257773 Stale nsrmmd left behind after NetWorker Service stops, needs to be stopped manually
257079 For Virtual Synthetic Full backups, nsrrecopy ignores the server network interface setting
256955 Source Storage node displays as read-only in action policy in NMC
255113 Operating system buffering of tape writes may result in out of order writes with writing filemarks with CDI
254786 Duplicated session info records created for session updates with rm_jobid of 0
254878 No updates from jobd over the message bus when conversion error occurs
252818 Nsrexecd may core dump when shssn_run_process_env() modifies passed in attrlist
252810 Scheduled NDMP cloning loops for 18 hours and hangs the system even though both source/destination clients are available
252745 Nsrexecd mutex hangs in msg_post()
252511 Client Push generates a core file during the inventory operation
252219 Support XtremIO in SMCC tool
251488 Restart workflows should display a confirmation dialog window similar to the Start option
250680 Disable policy auto-restart upon server restart
250654 Provide query filtering for save set attributes
250028 When a tape fills, the message "NetWorker media: (emergency) could not position to file , record" appears
249366 Improve performance for select file recovery from a Windows Deduplication Volume backup
248895 Add option to force IPv4 for index based recovery
248157 Implement iSCSI client code to work on Linux
247671 Implement iSCSI server to work on Linux
247484 NDMP backup fails with special character in save set only on Windows
247366 NMC in French reports successful clone status as Echec (Failed)
247305 Block-based backup recovery from NMC fails with error "unable to connect to Networker server"
246925 NetWorker server hangs after a Storage node does not respond before timeout
246787 Error in man pages for nsrpush
246661 Next button in NMC Recovery wizard should be disabled if there are no backup files in the file system
246578 NMC incorrectly displays group status as successful after Networker server daemons crash
246415 Add RESTAPI in NetWorker
244755 Allow running of policy actions from command line for debugging purposes
244237 In a block-based backup recovery, file attributes and permissions are not recovered if the file content has not changed since backup, impacting overwrite recoveries
235215 Add DDBoost over IP support to MacOS clients
233596 Support Token Based Backup for Hitachi NAS
224144 Implement Automated multi-streaming when cloning from Data Domain device to another Data Domain device
185292 NSM Request Linux support with DM Multipath

NetWorker packages are available at: https://support.emc.com/downloads/1095_NetWorker, under “FULL RELEASE” option

After downloading the necessary binary, make sure it is the good build!