The IRIX NetWorker Administrator's Guide contains information on how to configure and manage the IRIX NetWorker™ backup and recover software. Information on configuring and managing optional NetWorker add-on products available for complete network storage management solutions is also included.
This manual provides enough information for the basic use and administration of IRIX NetWorker installed in a typical networked environment. For more technical information on IRIX NetWorker commands, refer to the online reference pages after you have installed the software.
This manual is intended for administrators who install software and maintain the servers and clients on a network. Operators who monitor the daily backups of the machines and maintain the backup media and devices may also find this manual useful.
The information in this manual has been organized to help you become familiar with the graphical user interface, get you started using NetWorker, and assist you in configuring and managing your NetWorker backups.
Where possible, information is divided into three sections. These sections help you locate the kind of information you need to accomplish a NetWorker task or understand a feature. A description of each section follows:
Navigating—explains the contents of a window and how to accomplish the associated tasks.
Examples—provide examples of NetWorker tasks and configurations.
Understanding—provides a thorough explanation of a NetWorker feature.
The following conventions are used in this manual to make information easy to access and understand.
Command names are displayed in bold typeface. For example:
To start the NetWorker Administrator program, use the nwadmin command.
Examples of what you type are shown in bold fixed-width typeface. For example:
# nwadmin &
Entries that you type and are substituted by a variable are displayed as a bold italic fixed-width typeface. For example:
% man nsr
Examples, shell prompts, and information displayed on the screen are displayed in fixed-width typeface. For example:
media waiting: recover waiting for 8mm 5GB tape volume name
Names of NetWorker buttons, displays, menus, scrolling lists, and windows are displayed in Helvetica typeface. For example:
Click the Cancel button to close the Help window.
Directory pathnames, machine names, and new terms defined in the glossary are displayed in italic typeface. For example:
When you use IRIX NetWorker to back up your /usr files from the client machine, you are saving them to backup volumes on the IRIX NetWorker server.
The following paragraph types indicate various kinds of information to help you use NetWorker productively.
 | Caution: Important pieces of information and cautionary notes that prevent you from making a mistake are marked “Caution.” |
 | Note: Helpful information that you might want to know is marked “Note.” |
 | Tip: Tips or suggestions that you do not necessarily have to follow, but may give you hints as to how to set up IRIX NetWorker at your site, are marked “Tip.” |
| Tip: Step-by-step procedures that help you save time because they provide the minimum information you need to complete a task are marked as “Shortcut.” |
Both the IRIX NetWorker Administrator's Guide and IRIX NetWorker User's Guide are available online, as IRIS InSight™ books. To view the manuals, install the subsystems networker4.books.NetWorker_AG and networker4.books.NetWorker_UG.
To learn how to use the NetWorker Backup and Recover windows for manual backups, see the IRIX NetWorker User's Guide. To get information about a specific release of IRIX NetWorker, see the IRIX NetWorker Release Notes. If you would like more technical information about the NetWorker commands, see the online reference pages after you have installed NetWorker.
Silicon Graphics® offers a comprehensive product support and maintenance program for IRIX products. For information about using support services for this product, refer to the release notes that accompany it.
A set of client files backed up by IRIX NetWorker is called a save set. Save sets are written to backup volumes or media (for example, tapes or optical disk) mounted in a backup device attached to the NetWorker server. A collection of backup volumes tracked by NetWorker is a media set.
NetWorker uses volume pools to sort specific data to preselected backup volumes to help manage the media set.
The client save sets and backup volumes are maintained in two online indexes on the server: the file index and the media index. IRIX NetWorker uses these two indexes to track the saved files and the volumes to which they are backed up.
When backing up files, IRIX NetWorker may request that a writable backup volume be mounted in the server backup device. When recovering files, IRIX NetWorker requests a specific backup volume by name. You need to mount the requested backup volume(s) in a device attached to the server. If you use an autochanger (a jukebox) for backups, the requested volume is automatically loaded if it is stored in it.
The terms autochanger and jukebox are used interchangeably throughout this manual. Both terms refer to a variety of backup devices, including autoloader, carousel, library, near-line storage, and datawheel.
In addition to NetWorker products for UNIX® based servers and TCP/IP networks, Legato Systems Corporation offers other software products that provide additional network backup options.
NetWorker for Windows NT® provides support for Windows NT servers and TCP/IP networks, and can back up a wide variety of UNIX systems, NetWare® systems, Macintosh® desktops, and PC desktops.
NetWorker for NetWare backs up and recovers data on NetWare networks and is fully interoperable with UNIX systems.
NetWorker ClientPak™ software allows a wide variety of client platforms on heterogeneous networks to back up to and recover data from NetWorker servers.
The NetWorker Autochanger Software Module allows you to fully realize the automatic backup capabilities of NetWorker.
NetWorker database modules reliably back up the most widely used databases, including Oracle®, Informix®, SQL Server®, and Exchange®.
The NetWorker Archive Application provides you with a sophisticated method for archiving valuable client data.
All NetWorker server products support the latest backup devices that provide the highest performance and most reliable solutions for your network backup and recovery requirements.