NAS file servers: backups to a single Tivoli Storage Manager server

If you have several NAS file servers in different locations, you might prefer to send the backup data to a single Tivoli® Storage Manager server rather than attaching a tape library to each NAS device.

When you store NAS backup data in the Tivoli Storage Manager server's storage hierarchy, you can apply Tivoli Storage Manager back-end data management functions. In this way, you can take advantage of migration, reclamation, disaster recovery, and other features.

To back up a NAS device to a Tivoli Storage Manager native storage pool, set the destination storage pool in the copy group to point to the wanted native storage pool. The destination storage pool provides the information about the library and drives that are used for backup and restore. You must ensure that there is sufficient space in your target storage pool to contain the NAS data, which can be backed up to sequential, disk, or file type devices. Defining a separate device class is not necessary.

If you are creating a table of contents, a management class must be specified with the TOCDESTINATION parameter in the DEFINE and UPDATE COPYGROUP commands. When you back up a NAS file server to Tivoli Storage Manager native pools, the TOCDESTINATION can be the same as the destination of the data that is backed up by using NDMP.

Firewall considerations are more stringent than they are for filer-to-attached-library because communications can be initiated by either the Tivoli Storage Manager server or the NAS file server. NDMP tape servers run as threads within the Tivoli Storage Manager server and the tape server accepts connections on port of 10001. This port number can be changed through the following option in the Tivoli Storage Manager server options file: NDMPPORTRANGE port-number-low, port-number-high.

During NDMP filer-to-server backup operations, you can use the NDMPPREFDATAINTERFACE option to specify which network interface the Tivoli Storage Manager server uses to receive backup data. The value for this option is a host name or IPV4 address that is associated with one of the active network interfaces of the system on which the Tivoli Storage Manager server is running. This interface must be IPV4 enabled.

Before you use this option, verify that your NAS device supports NDMP operations that use a different network interface for NDMP control and NDMP data connections. NDMP control connections are used by Tivoli Storage Manager to authenticate with an NDMP server and monitor an NDMP operation while NDMP data connections are used to transmit and receive back up data during NDMP operations. You must still configure your NAS device to route backup and restore data to the appropriate network interface.

When enabled, the NDMPPREFDATAINTERFACE option affects all subsequent NDMP filer-to-server operations. It does not affect NDMP control connections because they use the system's default network interface. You can update this server option without stopping and restarting the server by using the SETOPT command.

NetApp file servers provide an NDMP option (ndmpd.preferred_interface) to change the interface that is used for NDMP data connections. For more information, see the documentation for your NAS device.

For instructions about completing NDMP filer-to-server backup operations, see Backing up NDMP file servers to a Tivoli Storage Manager server.

For information about server options, see Server options.