Your NetWorker server is the source for creating clients, monitoring the progress of your backups, managing backed up data, and controlling your media and backup devices.
This chapter describes how to use the commands in the Server menu for configuring and controlling some of these NetWorker server operations.
In this chapter you will learn how to do the following tasks:
Change server parallelism.
Use devices concurrently.
Add or change a NetWorker administrator.
Change to another NetWorker server.
Monitor backups in the Group Control window.
Immediately start, stop, and restart a backup.
Register NetWorker.
The options available for configuring your NetWorker server depend upon which add-on modules you purchased for accomplishing your network-wide backups.
Setting up your server requires a minimal amount of configuring after you first install and run NetWorker. NetWorker provides preconfigured settings that enable you to immediately back up your server and clients to a backup device connected to the server.
You also have a high degree of control over the performance and security of your backups with the configuration choices available in the Server window.
Use the Server window to accomplish the following tasks:
Change server parallelism.
Use devices concurrently.
Add or change NetWorker administrators.
Provide important company and product information.
To open the Server window, choose Server Setup from the Server menu. The Server window appears, as shown in Figure 3-1.
Use the scroll bar on the right side of the window, if necessary, to view the entire contents of the Server window.
The Server window contains the following items.
Name field—displays the name of the current NetWorker server.
If you have more than one NetWorker server on your network, you can use the Change Server speedbar button or command to change to a different server.
Version field—displays the version of the NetWorker software currently installed on the NetWorker server.
Parallelism field—displays the number of clients backing up in parallel. Use the mouse to slide the bar to the left or right to set the parallelism, or enter the number in the Parallelism field. The maximum value for parallelism varies, depending upon which NetWorker product you purchased.
Active devices field—contains the maximum number of media devices NetWorker can use concurrently. An active device is one that the NetWorker server uses for backups and recovers. Use the slide bar to set the value, or enter the number in the Active devices field.
The Active devices and Sessions per device fields are not available with some versions of NetWorker. See the section “Using Multiple Devices Concurrently” for more information.
Sessions per device field—displays the target number of save sessions accepted by an active device. Use the slide bar to set the value, or enter the number in the Sessions per device field.
Manual saves choices—allow you to enable and disable manual saves performed by clients on the network. When the Disabled toggle button is selected, you prevent all NetWorker clients from performing manual backups. This provides more control over the backup devices and location of the backed-up data. When the Enabled toggle button is selected, any NetWorker client on the selected server can perform a manual backup.
Administrator scrolling list—displays the names of users or user groups who have permission to change the configuration of the NetWorker server. To add a user name, enter the name in the Administrator field, then click the add button.
The remainder of the window contains fields for entering customer information required for registering NetWorker. Refer to Chapter 5 in the Installation and Maintenance Guide for more information about registering NetWorker.
A NetWorker server can back up files from several clients in parallel and multiplex the files onto the same backup volume. This feature enables the backup devices to operate efficiently by keeping a steady stream of files supplied to the server. Use the Parallelism field to optimize the efficiency of your server by controlling the number of clients that back up their files at any one time. The maximum value for parallelism varies with the version of NetWorker.
You may want to adjust parallelism (the number of clients backing up simultaneously) under the following conditions:
If the server takes too long to back up all of its clients, increase the parallelism.
If the server is so busy backing up clients that it is unavailable for other tasks, decrease the parallelism.
If the server runs out of swap space or memory, decrease parallelism.
To change the number of clients that can simultaneously back up their files to the NetWorker server, follow these steps:
Open the Server window by choosing Server Setup from the Server menu.
Select the Parallelism sliding bar and move it to the right or left to display the value you want, or enter the value in the field.
Click the Apply button.
The number of clients allowed to back up at one time cannot exceed the parallelism setting. For example, if you have eight NetWorker clients and set Parallelism to 4, four clients back up at once. The fifth client will begin its backup after completion of the first client backup.
 | Tip: To “turn off” the parallelism so that only one client can back up to the server at a time, set the Parallelism value to one. |
In addition to setting the number of clients backing up in parallel to a NetWorker server, you can configure the server to back up to several devices concurrently. The devices operate simultaneously to back up data, thus speeding backups and recovers.
Enter the maximum number of active devices and the number of sessions per device in the Parallelism field (see Figure 3-2). A save session is generated when a client starts a backup. A single client can generate several save sessions simultaneously.
The Active devices value sets the maximum number of backup devices NetWorker uses for concurrent backups. An active device is used for backups or recovers.
The Sessions per device value is the target number of save sessions accepted by an active device. If a device is receiving the maximum number of save sessions, then the server sends the next session to the under-utilized backup device next in line. If all devices are receiving the target number of sessions, NetWorker overrides the Sessions per device value and forces the backup onto the device with the least activity.
| Tip: The Parallelism, Active devices, and Sessions per device values control the backup traffic from the NetWorker server to the media devices. |
To configure NetWorker to back up to multiple devices concurrently, follow these steps:
Open the Server window by choosing Server Setup from the Server menu.
Set the Parallelism value by moving the slider bar to to display the value you want.
Set the Active devices by moving the slider bar to display the value you want.
Set the Sessions per device by moving the slider bar to display the value you want.
Click the Apply button.
NetWorker is shipped with preconfigured settings that give only [email protected]_name on the server permission to change system configurations. You can add, delete, or change permissions to give system administration privileges to other users or user groups. When using NetWorker for the first time, run it as root to add user group or NIS (network information service) netgroup names to the Administrator list.
To make additions or changes to the Administrator list, follow these steps:
Open the Server window by choosing Server Setup from the Server menu.
Highlight the current entry in the Administrator field, as shown in Figure 3-3.
Enter a new user group or netgroup name or make changes to the existing one. Netgroup names must be preceded by an ampersand (&) in the Administrator field.
You can restrict administrator access to a particular machine by listing it as shown in the following example:
[email protected]server_name
Click the add button to add a new name, or click the change button to change the currently selected name.
Click the Apply button to apply the changes or click the Reset button to cancel changes to the Administrator list.
To delete a name from the Administrator list, follow these steps:
Select the name in the scrolling list.
Click the delete button.
Click the Apply button (or click Reset to cancel the delete operation).
Every user or user group listed in the Administrator scrolling list has permission to modify the NetWorker server configuration.
 | Note: If you get the error message “user user_name needs to be on administrator list,” it means you do not have permission to make configuration changes. |
This section describes how to change to another NetWorker server on a network.
To open the Change Server window, click the Change Server speedbar button (shown in Figure 3-4) or choose Change from the Server menu.
The Change Server window appears, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Follow these steps to change to another NetWorker server:
Click to highlight the hostname of a server in the Server scrolling list, or enter a valid hostname in the Server field. If the hostname you want is not displayed in the Server list, click the Update Server List button to display all the NetWorker servers on your network.
Caution: When you click the Update Server List button, NetWorker searches for every server available to your machine. On large networks, this search could take awhile. Click Ok to complete the operation and close the window.
NetWorker provides different windows for monitoring and controlling your backups: the NetWorker Administrator window, the Groups window, and the Group Control window.
In this section, you will perform the following tasks in the Group Control window:
Monitor a scheduled backup.
View the details of a scheduled backup.
Preview a backup .
Immediately start a scheduled backup.
Stop a scheduled backup.
Restart a scheduled backup.
This section describes the Group Control windows and how to use them.
Open the Group Control window by clicking the Group Control speedbar button (shown in Figure 3-6) or by choosing Group Control from the Server menu.
The Group Control window appears, as shown in Figure 3-7.
The Groups scrolling list displays information about all of the backup groups known to the NetWorker server:
Name—displays the name of the backup group.
Last Run—lists the date and time the group was last backed up.
Next Run—shows the date and time for the next enabled scheduled backup.
Status—displays one of the following messages about the progress of your backup:
Restart button—click to restart a backup that has been stopped.
Use the Groups window to create new groups, enable group backup, and set backup time for a group. See “Configuring Backup Groups” for more information.
To view more detailed information about a completed group backup, click the Details button in the Group Control window. NetWorker displays the Group Control Details window, as shown in Figure 3-8.
There are three message fields in the Group Control Details dialog box:
The Group Control Details dialog box displays save sets in the process of backing up and save sets that have completed their backups. Use this dialog box to determine which client save sets backed up successfully and which save sets have failed.
If NetWorker was unable to back up save sets for a client in the group, determine the cause for the failed backup.
Typical reasons for failed save sets include the following:
The server crashed during backup.
The client crashed during backup.
The network connection failed during backup.
| Tip: If you set Client retries to a number greater than zero in the Groups window and NetWorker fails to back up a client, you may temporarily see filesystems in the Failed Save Sets scrolling list while NetWorker retries backing up the client. |
You can preview a group backup by clicking the Preview button in the Group Control window. The Group Control Details dialog box appears, but instead of displaying past information about completed group backups, the dialog box displays information about how a group will perform during its next scheduled backup.
NetWorker actually simulates a backup for the group you select for preview in the Groups scrolling list in the Group Control window. The preview feature enables you to determine if there are potential problems with an upcoming group backup so you can take the necessary steps to avoid them.
You can immediately start a scheduled backup by clicking the Start button in the Group Control window. This initiates an immediate backup of the group selected in the window.
To start a backup immediately from the Group Control window, follow these steps:
Select the group you want to back up immediately from the Groups scrolling list.
Click the Start button. A confirmation dialog box appears, as shown below.
Click OK to start the backup or Cancel to discontinue.
NetWorker immediately backs up the clients in the group, overriding the backup schedule, and displays “running” in the Status field of the Group Control window.
| Tip: You can also start an immediate backup by selecting the Start now button in the Groups window (available from the Customize menu). |
If you need to stop a scheduled backup in progress, use the Stop button in the Group Control window.
To stop a scheduled backup in progress, follow these steps:
Select the group you want to stop from the Groups scrolling list.
Click the Stop button. A confirmation dialog box appears, as shown below.
Click OK to stop the backup or Cancel to continue.
As soon as the current save set completes backing up, NetWorker halts the scheduled backup and displays “Not Finished” in the Status field in the Group Control window.
If you want to restart a scheduled backup that you stopped, use the Restart button in the Group Control window.
Follow these steps to restart a backup:
Select the name of the halted backup group from the Groups scrolling list in the Group Control window.
Click the Restart button.
A confirmation dialog box appears, as shown below.
Click OK to restart the backup or Cancel to discontinue.
NetWorker resumes the scheduled backup for the group and displays “running” in the Status field.
If a client's open files change during a scheduled backup, NetWorker backs up the file and “notices” that it is changing. A warning message similar to the following displays in the Group Control Details window:
warning: file name changed during save |
You may restart the backup group, back up the client manually, or allow NetWorker to back up the client during the next scheduled backup.
The Legato NetWorker Archive Application provides file archiving and retrieval services to a range of client machines. If you purchased this optional extension for your NetWorker server, the Archive Request Control choice on the Server menu is enabled.
For complete instructions on using the NetWorker Archive Application, see Chapter 8, “Archive Application.”
To see licensed components of the NetWorker server, choose Registration from the Server menu. The Registration window appears, with an enabler code, host ID, and expiration date for each component. IRIX NetWorker does not use the Auth code field.
Most copies of IRIX NetWorker arrive with a temporary license. See the IRIX NetWorker Installation Guide for information on obtaining a permanent license.
If you fail to obtain a permanent license, NetWorker automatically disables itself 45 days after installation. Once the server disables itself, you will not be able to back up any more files. However, you will be able to recover previously backed-up files.