Prerequisites for creating a VADP proxy

In IBM Storage Protect Plus, running VM backup jobs through VADP requires significant system resources. By creating VADP backup job proxies, you enable load sharing and load balancing for IBM Storage Protect Plus backup jobs. If proxies exist, the entire processing load is shifted from the IBM Storage Protect Plus server onto the proxies. All system requirements and prerequisites must be met before you start creating a VADP proxy for Open Snap Store Manager (OSSM).

For the information about system requirements of a OSSM server and the VADP proxy, see technote 7184478.

The following are the prerequisites for creating the VADP proxies when using Open Snap Store Manager (OSSM) as a storage server on a Linux system:

Install the fuse package for your environment by issuing one of the following commands:
- For Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9
```
dnf install fuse
```
- For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15
```
zypper install fuse
```
Make sure that user_allow_other is uncommented in the /etc/fuse.conf file.
You must have passwordless sudo privileges to create a VADP proxy on an OSSM storage server. To create a new user or a new user group with passwordless sudo privileges, complete the following steps:
1. Create a new user or a new user group by issuing the following command:
```
groupadd <NEWGROUP>
useradd -g <NEWGROUP> -m -d /home/<NEWUSER> -s /bin/bash <NEWUSER>
```
  where <NEWUSER> is the username, and <NEWGROUP> is the user group.
2. Set a password for the new user by issuing the following command:
```
passwd <NEWUSER>
```
3. Open sudoers file by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo visudo
```
4. Add the following line at the end of the sudoers file and save.
```
<NEWUSER>  ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL
```
  where <NEWUSER> is the username.
Ensure that SELinux is disabled. To disable SELinux, complete the following steps:
1. Open the /etc/selinux/config file.
2. Locate the line: SELINUX=enforcing.
3. Change the value to SELINUX=disabled.
4. Reboot the operating system.
Ensure that the date-time is in sync between the VADP proxy system and the system that is hosting the IBM Storage Protect server, and the OSSM primary control agent service.

Enable the Network Time Protocol (NTP) service to synchronize the system time. To start automatic time synchronization with a remote NTP server, issue the following command:
```
timedatectl set-ntp true
```
Tip: Ensure that the time zone is same for both the VADP proxy and the IBM Storage® Protect server.
The following ports must be opened on the firewall:
- Port 3337: OSSM control agent port
- Port 111, 2049, and 20048: NFS mount access for certain VM restore scenarios
Depending on the firewall service that you are using, you might need to open the ports by completing one of the following steps:
- If you have the firewalld service running, all required ports are opened except 3337. You must close port 3338 and manually open port 3337.
  1. Issue the following command to close the port 3338:
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --remove-port=3338/tcp --permanent
  2. Issue the following command to manually open the port 3337:
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=3337/tcp --permanent
  3. Issue the following command to activate the changes:
```
firewall-cmd --reload
```
- If you have another service running than firewalld, you must manually open all the ports.
  Issue the following command to open the ports:
```
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=3337/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=111/tcp
firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=2049/tcp
firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=20048/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload
```
- If you do not have the firewall service running, opening of ports is not required.

What to do next: To add OSSM storage server for backing up VMware data, see Adding the Open Snap Store Manager server as a backup storage provider.