EMC NetWorker on AIX

EMC NetWorker is the backup solution of EMC. It was known as Legato NetWorker.

This page is about version 8.0.0.1 = Version 8.0 Service Pack 1.

Documentation

NetWorker 8.0 official documentation by EMC

EMC®NetWorker™ Release 8.0 Installation Guide

EMC® NetWorker Release 8.0 Administration Guide

EMC® NetWorker® 8.0 Licensing Guide

EMC® NetWorker® Release 8.0 Error Message Guide

EMC® NetWorker™ Release 8.0 Command Reference Guide

This document describes the EMC NetWorker Release 8.0 Documentation Set

Unofficial sources

General info and howtos by Preston de Guise

EMC NetWorker PDFs from the same site

Downloads

For AIX - An account is required

Installation - AIX filesets

Server

LGTOnmc.rte - NetWorker Management Console

LGTOnw.clnt.rte - NetWorker Client

LGTOnw.licm.rte - NetWorker License Manager

LGTOnw.man.rte - NetWorker Man Pages

LGTOnw.node.rte - NetWorker Storage Node

LGTOnw.serv.rte - NetWorker Server

Client

LGTOnw.clnt.rte - NetWorker Client

Unfortunately, both the server and the agents are running as root.

AIX processes

nsr as in "NetWorker Save and Recover"

# ps -eo ppid,comm | grep "[n]sr"

 9568510 nsrmmd

13500434 nsrjobd

 8585228 nsrlogd

 9568510 nsrmmd

13500434 nsrindexd

 9568510 nsrmmd

 9568510 nsrmmd

       1 nsrexecd

 8585228 nsrsnmd

 9568510 nsrmmd

 9568510 nsrmmd

 9568510 nsrmmd

 9568510 nsrmmd

13500434 nsrmmdbd

       1 nsrd

Processes in detail

nsrd

• "...provides an RPC-based save and recover service."
• server only
• init controlled
• starts the ansrd agent processes on demand

nsrexecd

• " ...is used by NetWorker servers to perform automatic operations on NetWorker clients."
• "...nsrexecd starts nsrmmd(8) daemons..."
• client and server
• "the" client daemon
• init controlled

nsrmmd

• "...is the storage node daemon and is responsible for network save and recover media multiplexing operations."
• client and server
• "Receives backup information from the NetWorker client."
• "Writes data to the devices (volumes)."
• "Sends tracking information to the NetWorker server... "
• "Reads the data from the devices (volumes) at the request of the client..."
• instances forked from nsrexecd
• standard process options: -b <lowest nsrmmd number> -N <nsrsnmd daemon number> -n <number> -s <server> -t <storage node>

nsrjobd

• "It is responsible for spawning and monitoring of 'jobs' of NetWorker client binaries."
• started by init -> nsrd

nsrlogd

• "... is a logging service that logs the NetWorker Security Audit Messages."

nsrsnmd

• "... provides an RPC-based service that manages all device operations nsrmmd processes on behalf of the nsrd NetWorker server."

nsrmmdbd

• "...provides an RPC-based database service to the nsrd(8) and nsrmmd(8) daemons, and query-only access to the NetWorker clients."
• see also: mminfo - information about the save sets
• started by init -> nsrd

msrindexd

• indexing, "... keeping information cached in the nsrindexd process address space."
• "...is started by the server nsrd(8) daemon."
• index is checked by nsrck
• started by init -> nsrd

Queries and administration

NSR server commands

# nsradmin [-s <servername>]

This is an interactive shell.

Short commands are allowed (like 'q' for 'quit').

---

Delete conflicting NSR peer information

Errors in daemon.log:

89879 04/03/2014 02:04:48 PM  nsrexecd GSS critical An authentication request from <blah.blah.tld> was denied. The 'NSR peer information' provided did not match the one stored by <server>. To accept this request, delete the 'NSR peer information' resource with the following attributes from <server>'s NSRLA database: name: <blah>; NW instance ID: <instance id>; peer hostname: <blah.blah.tld>

# grep -w ^89879 /nsr/logs/daemon.log | sed 's/.* name\: \(.*\)\; NW.*/\1/g' | sort -u | while read host; do echo "## deleting peer info for: $host"; echo "delete type: NSR peer information; name: $host;" | nsradmin -p nsrexec -i - ; done

NSR client commands

# save [-c client] /path/to/

# recover [-s <servername>]

# recover -c <client's registered hostname>

This command provides an interactive shell except when the -a option is used. For example:

# recover [-c client] -a -d /tmp/ /etc/hosts

See also: http://www.aixhealthcheck.com/blog.php?id=273

The -c flag is requited when the client accesses the server from a different interface/address than the one registered on the server.

Various information

# nsrlic (-s server) - display license info

# nsr_shutdown -l - shows NetWorker process 'tree'

# nsradmin

...

nsradmin> show networker version

nsradmin> print

Starting and stopping - Server

Server starts by an inittab entry:

# lsitab rcnsr

rcnsr:2:wait:sh /etc/rc.nsr

Console output:

         0 Mon May 13 10:41:20 CET 2013 starting NetWorker daemons:

         0 Mon May 13 10:41:30 CET 2013  nsrexecd

         0 Mon May 13 10:41:39 CET 2013  lgtolmd

         0 Mon May 13 10:41:50 CET 2013  nsrd

Shutdown:

# nsr_shutdown

-f (force)

-l (only list daemons)

-n (dry run)

-q (quiet)

Environment and script variables

Configuration files

/etc/rc.nsr -> above variables

$NETWORKERRC

$NSRRC

$NSR_ENVEXEC

Filesystems, directories and files

The filesystem /nsr is required by a default NetWorker install.

Not listed:

/nsr/debug/

/nsr/dedup/

/nsr/lockbox/

See also:

Logfiles

/nsr/lic/logs/lgtolmd.log

/nsr/logs/

/nsr/logs/daemon.raw

/nsr/logs/nsrtask.raw

/nsr/logs/rap.log

/nsr/logs/sg/<policyname>/

NetWorker Management Console (Java applet)

http://hostname:9000/LGTOnmc/