zmanda_sfx4540

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

1/19

Sun Fire

TM

X4540 Server asBackup Server for Zmanda'sAmanda Enterprise 2.6 Software

Thomas Hanvey (SunMicrosystems) and Dmitri Joukovski and KenCrandall (Zmanda)

September 2008

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

2/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

3/19

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1

Configuration ..................................................................................................................................................2

Overview...............................................................................................................................................................2

Solaris OS Configuration.........................................................................................................................................3

Zpool Configuration...............................................................................................................................................3

ZFS Configuration...................................................................................................................................................5

Amanda Enterprise Edition Configuration.................................................................................................................5

Amanda Enterprise Edition Monitoring and Reporting.............................................................................................11

Recovery Using the Zmanda Management Console.................................................................................................12

Summary.......................................................................................................................................................14

For More Information .....................................................................................................................................14

Sun Fire X4540 Server as Backup Server for Zmanda's Amanda Enterprise 2.6 Software

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

4/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

5/19

1 Introduction Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Introduction

Explosive data growth, combined with demanding requirements for data availability, has placed a tremendous burden

on IT operations staff at businesses of all sizes. Yet, many organizations do not have the staff or budget to purchase

and manage complex and expensive backup and recovery software products.

The Sun FireTMX4540 server can deliver massive storage capacity and remarkable throughput so it is well-suited as a

nearline storage platform for backup and restore applications. Combining the power of the SolarisTM10 Operating

System with the data integrity and simplified administration of ZFS, the Sun Fire X4540 server can be an ideal

candidate for streamlining and improving backup and restore operations.

Amanda Enterprise Edition from Zmanda was designed to address these challenges, providing a backup and recovery

solution that combines fast installation, simplified management, enterprise-class functionality, and low-cost

subscription fees. As an open source product, Amanda Enterprise Edition uses only standard formats and tools,effectively freeing you from being locked into a vendor to recover your archived data.

This guide discusses how to quickly configure the Sun Fire X4540 server as a backup server for Amanda Enterprise

Edition software.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

6/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

7/19

3 Configuration Sun Microsystems, Inc.

The complete Amanda Enterprise Edition deployment consists of the following:

Backup Server and Zmanda Management Console (ZMC) centralize all backup operations and control backup

media. You need at least one backup server for your environment.

Zmanda clients are installed on Solaris OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS X servers, workstations, and

desktops.

Zmanda agents are installed in addition to Zmanda clients for hot backup of Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, and

Microsoft SQL Server.

Zmanda Internet Backup is an option for backup over the Internet to Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service).

Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) for MySQLTM is an option for comprehensive backup and recovery of MySQL

servers.

Note: Amanda Enterprise Edition also supports backup over NFS and CIFS. If you can remotely mount your file systemto an Amanda backup server, you can protect that system without installing the Zmanda client on that host. In fact,

this is the recommended method for backup and recovery of NetApp filers and other appliances that require agentless

backup.

Solaris OS Configuration

The Sun Fire X4540 server used for Amanda Enterprise Edition testing was running the Solaris 10 8/07 OS. This is the

minimum recommended version to use because various ZFS improvements were introduced in this build.

The Sun Fire X4540 server is powered by up to 8 CPUs operating at 2300 MHz and provides 48 SATA drives with total

capacity close to 50 Tbyte in a 4U enclosure. The two boot drives are mirrored using Solaris Volume Manager with

UFS. The rest of the drives are available for backup data.

Zpool Configuration

The decision about how to configure zpools needs to be based on a number of factors:

What is the required performance needed (IOPS/throughput)?

What is the required data protection level needed (RAIDZ, RAIDZ2, mirror)?

What is the required capacity?

After gathering and analyzing the requirements, a configuration that balances the needs of those requirements can be

chosen.

When configuring the system for network backups, the ability of the Sun Fire X4540 server to receive data over the

network is also a factor. For example, a 500-Mbyte/sec backup speed requirement cannot be met solely by using the

four pre-installed Gigabit Ethernet network ports. Additional network cards would be required to accommodate such

throughput.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

8/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

9/19


c1t7d0 AVAIL

errors: No known data errors

First, we created the RAIDZ2 pool zmanda with six drives. Then we added six more drives and verified that we had a

pool with 10.9 Tbyte of physical space. Depending on which RAIDZ configuration you choose, the actual available

capacity might be different. See the zpool(1M) man page for more details.

The next step was adding two spare drives. Lastly, we checked the pool status and verified the availability of the

zmanda pool for configuring ZFS.

RAIDZ2 is a natural choice for a backup server, which contains information vital to business operations. RAIDZ2 can

survive up to two drive failures, regardless of whether they are due to corrupt data coming off the drives, a physical

failure of the drives, or drives that are missing. With a suitably large number of disks, RAIDZ2 should not impose a

greater penalty in capacity or performance than RAIDZ.

ZFS Configuration

The Sun Fire X4540 backup server is configured to write to virtual tapes on disks called vTapes in Amanda

terminology. For this sample installation, we chose to put all the Amanda vTapes on a single ZFS file system. On a

system where multiple backup sets might be running simultaneously, it would be advantageous to have separate ZFS

file systems and pools for each backup set, in order to spread reads and writes around the available disks.

For Amanda Enterprise Edition, you do not gain any advantage by having each individual vTape volume in a backup set

on its own file system or pool, because Amanda Enterprise Edition writes to or reads from only one vTape volume at a

time in each backup set.

Example of ZFS file system creation:

bash-3.00# zfs create -o mountpoint=/var/lib/amanda/vtapes zmanda/vtapes

bash-3.00# zfs list

NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT

zmanda 203K 7.13T 49.0K /zmanda

zmanda/vtapes 49.0K 7.13T 49.0K /var/lib/amanda/vtapes

Amanda Enterprise Edition Configuration

The Sun Fire X4540 server is configured as a backup server. To install the Amanda Enterprise Backup Server with

Zmanda Management Console (ZMC), follow these overall steps, which are explained in more detail in subsequent

sections.

1. From the Blastwave web site, download the required dependency packages for running the Amanda Enterprise

Backup Server and ZMC on the Solaris 10 OS for systems with Intel or AMD OpteronTM processors, and then

install the packages.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

10/19


2. From Zmanda Network, download the binary for Amanda Enterprise Edition for the Solaris 10 OS on Intel and

AMD Opteron processors, e.g.: http://network.zmanda.com/shop/home.php?cat=1 .

3. Extract the binary package and run the Zmanda Rapid Installer to install Backup Server and ZMC Edition.

4. After the installation is complete, the ZMC welcome page is displayed, and you can begin configuring backup

sets.

Installing the Required Dependencies

The required dependency packages can be obtained from the Blastwave web site at

http://blastwave.network.com/csw/stable/i386/5.10/ .

Once the packages have been downloaded, use the pkgadd(1M) utility to install the packages in the following order:

1. CSWcommon

2. CSWzlib

3. CSWiconv

4. CSWexpat

5. CSWggettext

6. CSWreadline

7. CSWgtar

8. CSWlibidn

9. CSWosslrt

10.CSWoldaprt

11.CSWzlib

12.CSWcurlrt

13.CSWlibnet

14.CSWsasl

15.CSWcurl

16.CSWsunmath

17.CSWmtx

(OPTIONAL: Install MTX [magnetic tape driver] if you are going to back up to a tape changer, library, or VTL)

18.CSWfindutils

19.CSWgfile

Installing the Amanda Enterprise Backup Server

The installation program for the Amanda Enterprise Backup Server is called the Rapid Installer.

The Rapid Installer contains both the Amanda Enterprise Backup Server and client, as well as the Zmanda

Management Console web user interface.

Note:The following tasks must be performed as super user (the root user).

http://network.zmanda.com/shop/home.php?cat=1http://blastwave.network.com/csw/stable/i386/5.10/http://blastwave.network.com/csw/stable/i386/5.10/http://network.zmanda.com/shop/home.php?cat=1

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

11/19


To run the Rapid Installer, first make sure that the binary file is executable:

# chmod +x amanda-enterprise-2.6.3-installer-S10-intel.bin

If you are installing from within a graphical environment, simply run the installer by

double-clicking it or executing it directly from the command line:

# ./amanda-enterprise-2.6.3-installer-S10-intel.bin

If you are installing from a text console or remotely (for example, using SSH) you can run the Rapid

Installer in text mode:

# ./amanda-enterprise-2.6.3-installer-S10-intel.bin -mode text

The Rapid Installer then starts. Follow the on-screen instructions. The installer performs several tasks after creating

and populating the Zmanda directories. These tasks are completed after the progress bar (which tracks only the

archive extraction) shows 100% completion. These tasks take time. Please wait until they are completed.

The following packages are installed:

Amanda Enterprise 2.6.3 Backup Server

Amanda Enterprise 2.6.3 client for the server

Zmanda Management Console with MySQL, PHP, Apache, PHPmyadmin, Perl, and various Perl modules and

their dependencies. These items are installed under the /opt/zmanda/amanda directory.

Note: After installing Amanda Enterprise Backup Server, make sure that the amandabackup user has permissions to

read and write in the /vtapes directory. Amanda Enterprise Backup Server on the Solaris 10 OS requires theamandabackup user to modify crontab entries on the server. Please add the amandabackup user to the

cron.allow configuration file.

Zmanda Management Console

In addition to a powerful command line interface (CLI), Amanda Enterprise Edition also provides ZMC.ZMC is a browser-based user interface for setting up and managing all backup and recovery activities. It is integrated

with the Zmanda Network, which provides certified Amanda Enterprise binaries, white papers, demos, technical

support, and a knowledge base to help you to deploy your backup solution.

ZMC provides context-sensitive help and the most current information about Amanda Enterprise Edition from theZmanda Network. After registering with the Zmanda Network, you will be notified of new software releases through

RSS feed.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

12/19


ZMC provides you with an easy-to-use tool for managing all backup and recovery operations for multiple clients and

various databases. Using ZMC, a backup administrator can accomplish all day-to-day backup activities, such as:

Configure backup policies, schedules, and clients

Verify configuration and client-server communications

Start immediate backups

Monitor Amanda Enterprise Edition activities and access reports about backups and media

Create, edit, and delete backup users and backup sets

Restore files

Configuring Backup Sets

To get started with Amanda Enterprise Edition, you need to configure backup sets first. A backup setis a key policy

concept of Amanda Enterprise Edition that simplifies and optimizes the enterprise-wide backup system with multiple

clients protected in a similar way.The backup set defines the following:

List of hosts, applications, directories, excluded files, and other details of what to back up

Tape of media (disk, tape, VTL, Amazon S3) used to back up a given backup set

Backup time and parameters for backup-level scheduling

Each backup client belongs to at least one backup set. Backup sets are easy to copy, add, and modify. There are several

templates for common backup policies to help you get started with Amanda Enterprise Edition, such as:

Back up to disk

Back up to a single tape drive

Back up to a tape changer

Back up to Amazon S3

All backup, reporting, monitoring, and restore actions are performed on the backup sets. This enables the backup

administrator to abstract the backup policies and apply the same policy for multiple clients.

For this certification, we configured a backup set called test with five clients. You configure backup sets on the

Backup What page, shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows adding a Solaris backup client to a backup set. On this page, you

can also select encryption and compression for a client and specify what types of files to exclude from a backup.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

13/19

9 Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Figure 2. Backup What Page

Figure 3 shows the Backup What page configured with five clients.

Figure 3. Backup What Page With Five Clients

The next step is to configure vTapes on the Backup Where page.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

14/19


Configuring vTapes

When the Media Type of the backup set template is Disk, the vTape options shown in Figure 4 are presented.

Figure 4. Backup Where Page for Configuring vTapesDestination DirectoryThis field is the directory where the backup images will be stored, specified as a URI (in other words, the specification

must begin with file://).

By default, ZMC fills in the field with file://var/lib/amanda/vtapes/ . The

/var/lib/amanda/vtapes directory was created and verified as a part of the Amanda Enterprise Edition

installation and must exist. The subdirectory is created when you set up the backup set.

Different backup sets can use the same disk as a target as long as they are provided with separate directories.

The amount of free space available to hold backup images is an important consideration for fast retrieval of data. To

ensure effective restore capabilities, set aside sufficient disk space to hold more than one full backup set worth of

data. How many full backup sets you should keep on disk depends on the data and your site's requirements for quick

restores of accidentally deleted data. The more full backup images stored, the longer the retention of accidentally

deleted files. Start with enough space to hold three full backup set images and adjust this number as experience

dictates.

Number of SlotsThis field corresponds to the number of vTapes of the size specified previously that will be used to hold the backup

images.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

15/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

16/19


Figure 6. Calendar View of Recent Backup Reports

Each backup run (successful or not) results in a report with details about all clients scheduled for that run, including:

List of all clients and applications in that backup run

Backup levels for each backup set

How much data for each client was backed up

Compression ratio achieved

Backup anomalies, such as errors and other unexpected events (for example, missing client)

This Summary Report is stored in ZMC and is sent by email to selected users. In case of a warning or an error, the

report provides a link to a relevant article in Amanda Enterprise documentation. You can configure Amanda Enterprise

to receive backup reports by email.

Media reports provide a visual overview of media utilization and performance, which helps you understand your data

growth, identify backup performance bottlenecks, and plan for when to add more media.

You can customize the reports to slice and dice your data. Specifically, you can monitor success and failures, backup

performance, compression, amount of data written, and many other parameters. The reports can be saved, for

example for compliance purposes, or exported into your dashboard monitoring application and analyzed for time

trends.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

17/19


Recovery Using the Zmanda Management Console

As with backups, recovery using ZMC is based on a simple workflow:

Determine what data should be restored (restore what)

Determine where the data should be restored (restore where)

Run the restore process (restore)

Using the Restore What screen (shown in Figure 7), you select what to restore. This selection can be as simple as a

single file, database, or directory or more complex, such as all directories and files under a single directory.

Alternatively, you can start the restore process by clicking a time-stamp link included in any backup report. Cross-

platform recovery allows you to recover, for example, backups from a Solaris client on a Linux host.

Figure 7. Restore What Page

In the example in Figure 7, one of the five clients used for our certification is selected for recovery.

The Restore Where page is used to select where the data is to be restored. One of the key features of Restore Where is

to prevent potential conflicts in restoring data. If the existing files match the files to be restored, Restore Where can

be configured for the following options:

Keep existing files

Overwrite existing files Rename existing files

Rename restored files

Finally, the Restore page is for initiating the restore process. This is where the settings can be checked, and where

prompting for media is done (if required). Once ready, you start the restore process and monitor the progress until

successful completion.


8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

18/19

8/14/2019 zmanda_sfx4540

19/19

15 For More Information Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Other resources:

Sun Fire X4540 server web site: http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4540/

BigAdmin Storage Resource Collection:http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/storage.html

Sun Storage web site: http://www.sun.com/storagetek/index.jsp

Storage Stop Blog:http://blogs.sun.com/storage

Events of interest to users of Sun products:

Worldwide developer events and Sun Tech Days: http://developers.sun.com/events/

Current events: http://www.sun.com/events/index.jsp

Licensing InformationUnless otherwise specified, the use of this software is authorized pursuant to the terms of the license found at

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/common/berkeley_license.html.

http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4540/http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/storage.htmlhttp://www.sun.com/storagetek/index.jsphttp://blogs.sun.com/storagehttp://developers.sun.com/events/http://www.sun.com/events/index.jsphttp://www.sun.com/bigadmin/common/berkeley_license.htmlhttp://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4540/http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/storage.htmlhttp://www.sun.com/storagetek/index.jsphttp://blogs.sun.com/storagehttp://developers.sun.com/events/http://www.sun.com/events/index.jsphttp://www.sun.com/bigadmin/common/berkeley_license.html

Documents

zmanda_sfx4540