Hmm,
I would say that file locking has improved, if you want to test that setup a mail server on the NFS mount and generate a lot of emails, or database of some type to test it.
Where I would be concerned would be in the middle of the back to have a network problem and end up trashing the backup database. I would really be hard pressed to use NFS to store the backup database. If you plan on doing it make sure you are forcing sync on your NFS mount also as NFS v2 usually defaults to async writes. Which could cause a consistency problem if you suffer a network outage. Also another concern would be that your backup would probably fail if you hang the NFS mount as most *NIX boxes hate when you lose network connectivity across an active NFS mount.
- John
-----Original Message----- From: Manny Kaiser [mailto:mkaiser@mmcnet.com] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 3:28 AM To: Jon Walton Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: RE: Veritas Netbackup Database
I was under the distinct impression that file locking in NFS in today's operating systems is considerably more reliable then it was years ago. I have never encountered a problem with any application running on an NFS mounted file system. I am under the impression that the quote below is something that was copied out of earlier versions of the manual and never reviewed again.
When using NFS you might suffer a performance penalty if your systems are not correctly configured.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com]On Behalf Of Jon Walton Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 11:31 PM To: Jeff Kennedy Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: RE: Veritas Netbackup Database
Now that I look, the 3.4 DataCenter install guide states:
"Because the product uses file locking, VERITAS recommends that you not install NetBackup in an NFS mounted directory. File locking in NFS mounted files systems can be unreliable"
I mentally took this to mean "not supported". Sorry if my previous email was misleading.
Regards,
Jon
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kennedy [mailto:jlkennedy@amcc.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 6:18 AM To: Jon Walton Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: Re: Veritas Netbackup Database
OK, I did some checking again. Veritas does officially support putting /usr/openv onto an NFS file system. However, they say that performance does suffer due to the large write streams.
So, if performance is not an issue then it is a very nice solution. Also, db backups do not yet support disk storage unit backups. Supposedly in 4.5 they will for just this reason.
~JK
Jon Walton wrote:
I believe they do not support this due the fact that operations on the database files involve file locking. That is what is remember
reading
in the Unix Admin Guide.
Regards,
Jon
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kennedy [mailto:jlkennedy@amcc.com] Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 10:39 AM To: Manny Kaiser Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: Re: Veritas Netbackup Database
Got word from Vertias that putting the /usr/openv filesystem itself on NFS was NOT supported. However, you could backup the database to a
NFS
disk without issue....
~JK
Manny Kaiser wrote:
Has anyone placed the Veritas Netbackup database on an NFS mounted file system? More specifically on a netapp? I was just told by Veritas that they do not recommend doing this because NFS is unreliable. Any feedback would be helpful.
--
Jeff Kennedy Unix Administrator AMCC jlkennedy@amcc.com
-- ===================== Jeff Kennedy Unix Administrator AMCC jlkennedy@amcc.com
Locking may have improved, but it still isn't reliable. At least under Solaris I can get locking to fail on demand. If you run the attached program for a few minutes, all programs will eventually block waiting for a lock on a file which isn't locked by anybody.
Under Solaris, the problem will manifest itself after 2-30 minutes of execution. Under other operating systems (FreeBSD, Linux) it may take several *days* of continuous execution.
Feel free to email me if you need any details on how to use the locktest3 program.
--Tim Bosserman EarthLink, Inc.
On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, Strange, John wrote:
Hmm,
I would say that file locking has improved, if you want to test that setup a mail server on the NFS mount and generate a lot of emails, or database of some type to test it.
Where I would be concerned would be in the middle of the back to have a network problem and end up trashing the backup database. I would really be hard pressed to use NFS to store the backup database. If you plan on doing it make sure you are forcing sync on your NFS mount also as NFS v2 usually defaults to async writes. Which could cause a consistency problem if you suffer a network outage. Also another concern would be that your backup would probably fail if you hang the NFS mount as most *NIX boxes hate when you lose network connectivity across an active NFS mount.
- John
-----Original Message----- From: Manny Kaiser [mailto:mkaiser@mmcnet.com] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 3:28 AM To: Jon Walton Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: RE: Veritas Netbackup Database
I was under the distinct impression that file locking in NFS in today's operating systems is considerably more reliable then it was years ago. I have never encountered a problem with any application running on an NFS mounted file system. I am under the impression that the quote below is something that was copied out of earlier versions of the manual and never reviewed again.
When using NFS you might suffer a performance penalty if your systems are not correctly configured.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com]On Behalf Of Jon Walton Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 11:31 PM To: Jeff Kennedy Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: RE: Veritas Netbackup Database
Now that I look, the 3.4 DataCenter install guide states:
"Because the product uses file locking, VERITAS recommends that you not install NetBackup in an NFS mounted directory. File locking in NFS mounted files systems can be unreliable"
I mentally took this to mean "not supported". Sorry if my previous email was misleading.
Regards,
Jon
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kennedy [mailto:jlkennedy@amcc.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 6:18 AM To: Jon Walton Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: Re: Veritas Netbackup Database
OK, I did some checking again. Veritas does officially support putting /usr/openv onto an NFS file system. However, they say that performance does suffer due to the large write streams.
So, if performance is not an issue then it is a very nice solution. Also, db backups do not yet support disk storage unit backups. Supposedly in 4.5 they will for just this reason.
~JK
Jon Walton wrote:
I believe they do not support this due the fact that operations on the database files involve file locking. That is what is remember
reading
in the Unix Admin Guide.
Regards,
Jon
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kennedy [mailto:jlkennedy@amcc.com] Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 10:39 AM To: Manny Kaiser Cc: toasters@mathworks. com Subject: Re: Veritas Netbackup Database
Got word from Vertias that putting the /usr/openv filesystem itself on NFS was NOT supported. However, you could backup the database to a
NFS
disk without issue....
~JK
Manny Kaiser wrote:
Has anyone placed the Veritas Netbackup database on an NFS mounted file system? More specifically on a netapp? I was just told by Veritas that they do not recommend doing this because NFS is unreliable. Any feedback would be helpful.
--
Jeff Kennedy Unix Administrator AMCC jlkennedy@amcc.com
--
Jeff Kennedy Unix Administrator AMCC jlkennedy@amcc.com
-
Strange, John -
Tim Bosserman