NetApp NAS Cluster Protection

The NetApp cluster is a configuration of nodes, each running the Data ONTAP operating system. This section describes the CA ARCserve Backup NDMP NAS Option support for NetApp Cluster running the Data ONTAP 8.2.

NDMP Version 4 Cluster Aware Backup Extension Interface

The NDMP Cluster Aware Backup Extension (CAB) interface leverages the extensibility of NDMP v4 to define the mechanism and protocol for enabling efficient backups of the file systems on a NetApp cluster. Refer to the NDMP specification for further details.

CA ARCserve Backup r16.5 SP1 update RO72520 supports the CAB extension.

NetApp Cluster Backup and Restore and Supported Modes

The following diagram describes the local backup and the three way backup of the NetApp NAS Cluster.

There are two NDMP modes available with NetApp Cluster running Data ONTAP 8.2:

NDMP node-scope-mode:

A cluster is in a mixed version state where Data ONTAP 8.2 and earlier versions in the Data ONTAP 8.x release family are running on nodes, NDMP follows the node-scoped behavior. This NDMP behavior continues even after upgrading to Data ONTAP 8.2.

In the node-scoped NDMP mode, you can perform tape backup and restore operations at a node level.

You can manage NDMP at a node level by using NDMP options and commands. It is required that you use NDMP specific credentials to access a storage system to perform tape backup and restore operations.

Refer to the following link to view the NetApp documentation on commands for managing node-scoped NDMP mode.

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMP1196817

Vserver aware NDMP mode:

In a newly installed cluster where all nodes are running Data ONTAP 8.2, NDMP is in the Vserver aware mode by default.

If you want to perform tape backup and restore operations in the Vserver aware mode, it is recommended that you disable the node-scoped NDMP mode. From the NetApp documentation, use the command to disable node-scoped NDMP mode.

Administrators can back up and restore all volumes hosted across different nodes in a cluster of a Vserver.

Configuring CA ARCserve Backup

You can configure CA ARCserve Backup to establish an NDMP control connection on any of the LIF (Logical Interface) types in a cluster. In Vserver aware NDMP mode, you can determine the availability of volumes and tape devices for backup and restore operations depending upon these LIF types and the status of the Cluster Aware Backup (CAB) extension.

The following tables show the availability of volumes and tape devices for NDMP control Connection LIF types in both Node-scoped mode and Vserver mode when configured from the CA ARCserve Backup Manager.

As a backup administrator, you can select any of the following LIFs, which CA ARCserve Backup supports, to back up a NetApp NAS cluster. Administrators can configure these LIFs to submit backup and restores.

Node-scoped mode
NDMP Control Connection Type	Volumes available for backup or restore	Tape devices available for backup or restore
Node-management LIF	All volumes hosted by a node.	Tape devices connected to the node hosting the node management LIF.
Vserver Mode with CAB extension supported
NDMP Control Connection Type	Volumes available for backup or restore	Tape devices available for backup or restore
Node-management LIF	All volumes hosted by a node.	Tape devices connected to the node hosting the node management LIF.
Data LIF	All volumes that belong to the Vserver that hosts the data LIF.	None
Cluster-management LIF	All volumes in the cluster.	All tape devices in the cluster.

Limitations

The NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP® 8.2 introduces the scalability limit for NDMP sessions that are based on the system memory size of the storage system. For more information, click on the following link for the Clustered Data ONTAP® 8.2 documentation.

https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1196874/html/GUID-479784EB-7101-4F16-9580-37FFF7C6D040.html

CA ARCserve Backup can support only the maximum of 7 NAS devices per NAS node when the device is backed up from using the Node management LIF. A NAS device can be a changer or a tape drive.

In the Vserver aware NDMP mode, CA ARCserve Backup can support only the maximum of 7 NAS devices per cluster when the device is backed up from using the Cluster management LIF. A NAS device can be a changer or a tape drive.

For more details, you can refer to the following NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP® 8.2 Commands: Manual Page Reference documentation for increasing the NDMP session count: https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMP1196817