NetWorker is a software product that reliably protects against loss of files across an entire network of systems. NetWorker saves valuable administrator time by speeding and simplifying routine daily backup operations. An easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) guides you through administering and configuring your network for scheduled backups. As NetWorker backs up your data, it creates a database of the saved data, making it easy to locate a file for recovery. As the network and number of files expand, NetWorker has the capacity and performance to handle the load.
The NetWorker software package consists of three programs:
NetWorker Administrator—for managing and configuring NetWorker.
NetWorker Backup—for backing up data.
NetWorker Recover—for recovering files.
Users displayed on the Administrators list in the Server window have permission to use and maintain NetWorker Administrator configurations. Users not included on the list can start and open the NetWorker Administrator window. However, any attempt to modify settings will result in the display of a message like the one in Figure 1-1.
Use the NetWorker Administrator window to manage, configure, and monitor NetWorker. The window serves a dual purpose: as a starting point for NetWorker tasks and as a monitor for server activity.
If the nwadmin icon already appears on your screen, simply click to open it. The icon (shown in Figure 1-2) includes a graphic and the hostname of the currently selected NetWorker server.
To easily identify unique servers in a multi-server network, NetWorker includes the current server name in the icon. To change the icon to display the nwadmin caption, use X11 resources to change the resource iconServerName, following these steps:
Enter the xrdb -m command at the system prompt.
Change the iconServerName resource setting from True to False.
Refer to the X Window System User's Guide for more detailed instructions.
If the nwadmin icon is not currently displayed on your screen, start the program from the system prompt by entering the nwadmin command:
# nwadmin & |
If you have a multi-server network and do not specify a server name, NetWorker Administrator starts on the currently selected server. To specify a server, enter the following command:
# nwadmin -s server_name & |
The NetWorker Administrator window appears, as shown in Figure 1-3.
The NetWorker Administrator window has a menu bar, speedbar, and five displays.
Menu bar—contains the File, Clients, Server, Media, Save Set, Customize, Options, and Help menus.
Speedbar—provides convenient shortcut buttons for performing common NetWorker tasks. Throughout the manual, where appropriate, speedbar buttons are provided as an alternative to menu commands. Click a speedbar button to open its associated window (see Figure 1-4).
The speedbar buttons and their functions are described below:
Change Server button—opens the Change Server dialog box; use this button instead of choosing Change from the Server menu.
Mount button—mounts a backup volume in a backup device; use this button instead of choosing Mount from the Media menu.
Unmount button—unmounts a backup volume in the backup device; use this button instead of choosing Unmount from the Media menu.
Label button—labels a volume in the backup device; use this button instead of choosing Label from the Media menu.
Indexes button—opens the Indexes window; use this button instead of choosing Indexes from the Clients menu.
Volumes button—opens the Volume Management window; use this button instead of choosing Volumes from the Media menu.
Group Control button—opens the Group Control window; use this button instead of choosing Group Control from the Server menu.
Server status display—shows how long the current server has been online, the number of backups and recovers the server completed since it has been online, and the amount of data the backups contain.
Devices display—shows the devices known to the server, backup volumes currently mounted, and the device status.
Sessions display—provides current information about which clients are backing up, browsing, or recovering files.
Messages display—provides a scrollable history of the server activity during the last 24 hours.
Note: The daily information shown in the Messages display is also added to the NetWorker /nsr/logs/daemon.log file. You can search the contents of this log file for messages no longer viewable in the Messages display. Pending display—displays messages requiring attention.
When an event requiring operator intervention occurs, the program icon changes to alert you that NetWorker Administrator is in a “pending” mode (see Figure 1-5).
Use the NetWorker Backup window to back up client files. This window does not provide the ability to administer or configure NetWorker. The backup program icon includes the “NetWorker knight” graphic and the caption nwbackup.
If the nwbackup icon (see Figure 1-6) is already displayed on your screen, click it to open the window.
If the nwbackup icon is not currently displayed on your screen, start the software program by entering the nwbackup command at the system prompt:
# nwbackup & |
If you have a multi-server network and do not specify a server name, NetWorker Backup starts on the currently-selected server. To specify a server, enter the following command:
# nwbackup -s server_name & |
Refer to the IRIX NetWorker User's Guide for detailed information about Backup.
Use the NetWorker Recover window to recover client files. This window does not provide the ability to administer or configure NetWorker. The recover program icon includes the “NetWorker knight” graphic and the caption nwrecover.
If the nwrecover icon (see Figure 1-7) is already displayed on your screen, click it to open the window.
If the nwrecover icon is not currently displayed on your screen, start the software program by entering the nwrecover command at the system prompt:
# nwrecover & |
If you have a multi-server network and do not specify a server name, NetWorker Backup starts on the currently-selected server. To specify a server, enter the following command:
# nwrecover -s server_name & |
Refer to the IRIX NetWorker User's Guide for detailed information about Recover.
This section includes information about pulldown menus in the NetWorker Administrator window and how to use them. There are two choices for navigating the NetWorker menus: the point and select method with a mouse or keyboard shortcuts.
To pull down a menu using a mouse, move the mouse so the arrow cursos points to your menu choice. Hold down the primary mouse button (usually on the left); the menu appears. With the mouse button still held down, move the mouse arrow to the desired command in the menu, and then release the button to make your choice.
To pull down a menu using the keyboard shortcuts, follow these steps:
Hold down the [Alt] key.
Press the key that corresponds to the underlined letter of the desired menu.
Release both keys, then press the key that corresponds to the underlined letter in the desired command name.
The File menu in the main NetWorker Administrator window contains the Exit command for exiting NetWorker (see Figure 1-8).
Other windows opened through NetWorker menus have different versions of the File menu containing the Save, Print, and Exit commands (see Figure 1-9).
The Save and Print commands are available only when a NetWorker window is in the Tabular view. See “Displaying a Tabular View” for more information.
Use the Print command to print the contents of a NetWorker window displayed in the tabular view.
The ability to print the contents of a window makes it easy to maintain records of NetWorker activities and configurations.
 | Caution: Do not print the contents of a window if you choose Details from the View menu. The printer output will not be readable. |
To print the contents of a NetWorker window, follow these steps:
Choose Tabular from the View menu. The window contents change to a tabular view.
Choose Print from the File menu. The Print Options dialog box appears (Figure 1-10).
The Command field displays the “lp” default, or the NWPRINTER environment variable, if set. You may change the print command.
Click Ok to print.
Use the Save command when you are in the Tabular view of a NetWorker window. The Save command allows you to save the contents of a window for future reference.
To save the contents of a NetWorker window to a file, follow these steps:
Choose Tabular from the View menu. The window contents change to a tabular view.
Choose Save from the File menu. The Save Options dialog box appears (Figure 1-11).
Enter the name of the file in the File field.
The information is saved to a file specified by the environment variable NWREPORT, if set. Otherwise, the information is saved to ./networker.rpt. You can save the data to a different data file by entering its name into the File field.
Specify an option for NetWorker to follow in case the file already exists. To update or append the existing file, click the Append button. To overwrite the existing file, click the Overwrite the existing file button.
Click Ok to save the contents of the window to the specified file.
There are two methods for exiting NetWorker to return to the system prompt or to exit a NetWorker command window to return the main NetWorker program window.
Choose Exit from the File menu.
Press both the [Alt] key and the [F] key at the same time, release them, and then press [X].
The Clients menu (shown in Figure 1-12) contains commands for configuring your NetWorker clients and for monitoring and managing their indexes.
See Chapter 2, “Configuring and Monitoring Clients,” for a description of the commands available in the Clients menu.
The Server menu (shown in Figure 1-13) contains commands for setting up, changing, and configuring the NetWorker server.
See Chapter 3, “Configuring and Monitoring the Server,” for a description of the commands available in the Server menu.
The Media menu (shown in Figure 1-14) contains the commands for using and managing the NetWorker server backup volumes. It also includes the commands for configuring and monitoring the devices used for backup and recovery, whether they are standalone backup devices or jukeboxes.
See Chapter 4, “Managing Media and Backup Devices,” for a description of the commands available in the Media menu.
The Save Set menu (shown in Figure 1-15) contains commands for recovering entire save sets and for cloning, or making identical copies of save sets.
See Chapter 6, “Recovering and Cloning Save Sets,” for a description of the commands available in the Save Set menu.
The Customize menu (shown in Figure 1-16) contains selections for customizing and configuring your NetWorker backups. The menu contains commands for configuring schedules, policies, directives, label templates, groups, and notifications.
See Chapter 7, “Customizing NetWorker Backups,” for a description of the commands available in the Customize menu.
Use the Options menu (shown in Figure 1-17) to make selections for customizing the NetWorker interface. You can set the polling interval, choose whether or not to display the speedbar, and sound a tone when a pending message arrives. The Options menu includes the Polling Interval, Speedbar, and Tone commands.
The Polling Interval menu choice allows you to change how often, in seconds, the data in the NetWorker Administrator window is updated.
To change the polling interval, follow these steps:
Select Polling Interval from the Options menu. The Change Polling dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-18.
Use the mouse to slide the bar to the right or left to select the desired polling interval.
Click Ok to apply the change.
NetWorker provides the convenience of a speedbar (shown in Figure 1-19) for the functions you perform most often. By default, the speedbar is enabled. Use the Speedbar toggle button in the Options menu to display or hide the speedbar.
This manual informs you when a speedbar button is available for accomplishing the same task as one of the commands from a pulldown menu.
All NetWorker windows contain a Help menu (shown in Figure 1-20) that offers you a variety of choices for help on using NetWorker.
The View menus located in many of the NetWorker Administrator windows contain the Tabular, Details, and Search choices (see Figure 1-21). Use these menu items to view the contents of a window in tabular format or to see more details in a current window.
NetWorker has the ability to display information in a tabular view for most of the NetWorker Administrator windows. This feature is useful for administering NetWorker because it enables you to view information or data in a compact format. The tabular view enables large sites to view a lot of data in a single display.
For example, the Clients window offers two ways to view client configuration information:
one client at a time
all of the clients at the same time, in the tabular view
To display the tabular view for the Clients window, follow these steps:
Choose Client Setup from the Clients menu. The Clients window appears, as shown in Figure 1-22.
Choose the Tabular toggle button from the View menu.
The Clients window changes to a tabular view, as shown in Figure 1-23.
Use the scroll bars or resize the window to see all of the client configuration information.
To return to the normal Clients window, again choose the Tabular toggle button from the View menu.
Tabular view is available for most of the administrator windows. The Save Set Clone and Schedules windows are two exceptions.
The Details toggle button in the View menu provides you with more detailed information about the current NetWorker window.
| Caution: Do not print the contents of a window if you are using the Details command to view information. The printer output will not be readable. |
For example, to display the details of the Groups window, follow these steps:
Choose Groups from the Customize menu. The Groups window appears, as shown in Figure 1-24.
Choose the Details toggle button from the View menu.
The Groups window changes to show you more detailed information, as shown in Figure 1-25.
The Groups window displays additional fields with more selections and information. To view the entire contents of the window, use your mouse to drag the scroll bar to the bottom of the window.
The Search command provides you with an alternate method for locating or finding a NetWorker resource. For example, if you back up a large number of clients, this feature saves you from having to search through the entire scrolling list of client names for a single client or alphabetized groups of clients.
The steps below show how to search for a NetWorker client after opening the Clients window:
Choose Search from the View menu. The Search dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-26.
Enter all or part of the client name you want to locate in the Search for resource field.
Note: The search is not case-sensitive. You can enter the search string without having to recall exactly how a NetWorker resource is entered on your system. Click Ok to begin the search.
If the resource is found, it is highlighted in the scrolling list. If the resource is not found, a notice window appears saying the resource could not be found, as in Figure 1-27.
NetWorker uses generic buttons in many of its windows. Most are self-explanatory. A brief description of each one follows:
Cancel button—click to cancel changes or an operation.
Create button—click to add or create a new resource.
Ok button—click to close a window or to apply resource settings.
delete button—click to delete a selected item.
change button—click to change a selected item.
add button—click to add a new item.
Apply button—click to apply your selections to the highlighted resource.
Reset button—click to cancel changes and display the current settings.
Use the Create Multiple button to create multiple items or resources sharing the same characteristics. Using this button eliminates the need to make repeated, identical selections for NetWorker resources.
For example, to create multiple clients with the same configuration choices, follow these steps:
Open the Clients window by choosing Client Setup from the Clients menu.
Click the Create Multiple button, shown in Figure 1-28.
Enter each client name in the Name field, one at a time. Click the add button after entering each name.
Select the common configurations that apply to all the new clients.
Click the Apply button to apply the configurations to all the new clients.
Several NetWorker windows contain Print and Save buttons for printing and saving the contents of the window. The following steps demonstrate how to print and save the contents of the Instances window.
Open the Indexes window by clicking the Indexes speedbar button or by choosing Indexes from the Clients menu.
Select a save set and click the Instances button in the Indexes window to open the Instances dialog box.
Click the Print button in the Instances dialog box. The Print Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-29.
If you want, change the print command (lp) in the Command field.
If you want, enter the number of copies in the Copies field.
Click Ok to print.
To save the contents of the Indexes window, follow these steps:
Open the Indexes window by choosing Indexes from the Clients menu.
Click the Instances button in the Indexes window to open the Instances dialog box.
Click the Save button in the Instances dialog box. The Save Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-30.
The information is saved to a file specified by the environment variable NWREPORT, if set; otherwise, the information is saved to ./networker.rpt. You can save the data to a file of your choice by entering its name in the File field.
Specify an option for NetWorker to follow in case the file already exists. To update or append the existing file, click the Append button. To overwrite the existing file, click the Overwrite the existing file button.
Click Ok to save the information from the Instances dialog box to the specified file.
This chapter introduced you to basic NetWorker concepts, explained three different NetWorker programs, and showed how to navigate the NetWorker GUI.
The second chapter of the IRIX NetWorker Installation Guide describes how to test drive NetWorker. Detailed instructions lead you through the tasks required for a first-time backup of your files using NetWorker.