AVAMAR EM TO BACKUP RECOVERY MANAGER TRANSITION Raghu Prasad T R Mahantesh Ambaljeri Vrinda Gopakumar
AVAMAR EM TO BACKUP RECOVERY MANAGER TRANSITION
Raghu Prasad T RMahantesh AmbaljeriVrinda Gopakumar
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................... 3
Pre-requisite .................................................................................................. 3
EM to BRM Transition .................................................................................... 3
System Monitoring .................................................................................. 4
Policy ...................................................................................................... 5
Replication ............................................................................................ 11
System Maintenance and Miscellaneous .............................................. 12
Conclusion ................................................................................................... 15
Image Index ................................................................................................. 16
Appendix ...................................................................................................... 17
Enterprise Manager .................................................................................. 17
Backup and Recovery Manager................................................................ 17
References .................................................................................................. 18
Disclaimer: The views, processes or methodologies published in this article
are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect EMC Corporation’s
views, processes or methodologies.
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Introduction
As of Avamar®7.2, Enterprise Manager (EM) will become a deprecated
feature and will cease to exist in the product. EM will be replaced by Backup
Recovery Manager (BRM).
Improving on Avamar EM, BRM offers a number of enhanced
constructs/semantics to monitor, report, and conduct basic administrator
operations on multiple Avamar servers. The Avamar Product Engineering
team is proposing to elevate BRM as Avamar’s monitoring and reporting tool
of choice from Avamar7.2 forward.
Keeping in mind existing customer’s dependence on Avamar EM, this
Knowledge Sharing article attempts to improve user experience when it
comes to feature transition from EM to BRM. This is accomplished by
mapping EM functionalities with BRM functionalities, graphically illustrated, to
ensure a smooth learning and transition experience.
Pre-requisite
To get the most from this article, Administrators should have good working
knowledge of Avamar. It is assumed that the Administrator has managed
multiple Avamar grids using Avamar EM application and hence is proficient
with Avamar EM features as well.
A good understanding of BRM application is also required to map the
functionalities of EM onto it.
EM to BRM Transition
Transitioning the Avamar administrator from using Avamar EM to BRM is
done by pivoting the EM features as a reference and explaining the
equivalent offering within the BRM application. Snapshots of EM application
and BRM application are used in conjunction to ensure ease of
understanding and feature mapping.
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Note: Color coding is used to map between EM and BRM features in the
screenshots below.
System Monitoring
The EM UI provides information on capacity and usage of Avamar server,
Event monitoring – Unacknowledged events, Event monitoring – Hardware
event, Data Domain® information – Status, Data Domain information –
Capacity usage/forecast, Data Domain information – Event monitoring, and
Average daily change rates for server/clients.
EM-> Systems
BRM-> Systems
Figure 1: System Monitoring EM-BRM mapping
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BRM provides information on Avamar, NetWorker®, and Data Domain. BRM
incorporates all of the EM features for Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain
in a single browser session such as Capacity and Usage, Event monitoring,
and Average daily change rates for servers/clients.
Policy
EM has a separate tab dedicated to list the policies, whereas BRM handles
the policies as a part of the reports tab. In BRM, the user selects the required
option and clicks on the run report on the right-hand bottom to display the
associated attributes.
Navigation:
EM - >Policy
BRM –> Reports->Configuration report
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Figure 2: Policy EM-BRM mapping
i. View groups Displays the backup groups created by the user, domain, the
schedule, and the number of clients associated with the clients.
Navigation:
EM -> Policy->Groups
BRM -> Reports->Configuration report->Groups-
>Run Report
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Figure 3: View Groups EM-BRM Mapping
ii. Clients Navigation
EM -> Policy->Clients
BRM -> Reports->Configuration report->Clients-
>Run Report
Figure 4: Clients EM-BRM Mapping
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iii. Datasets
This tab lists the datasets created and the associated names and domain.
Navigation
EM -> Policy->Datasets
BRM -> Reports->Configuration report->Datasets-
>Run Report
Figure 5: Datasets EM-BRM Mapping
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iv. Schedules
The Schedules tab displays the backups scheduled by the
user such as daily, weekly, and monthly. Similarly, BRM
displays the schedules and the Avamar or NetWorker severs
associated with it.
Navigation
EM -> Policy->Schedules
BRM -> Reports->Configuration report->Schedules-
>Run Report
Figure 6: Schedules EM-BRM Mapping
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v. Retention policies
Similar to EM, BRM has retention policies that display the time
period that backups of Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain are
retained.
Navigation
EM -> Policy->Retention policies
BRM -> Reports->Configuration report->Retention
policies->Run Report.
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Figure 7: Retention Policies EM-BRM mapping
Replication
EM allows users to add an Avamar server from the UI, configure
replication, start/stop replication, and monitor the status accordingly.
BRM has a similar feature that enables users to add the Avamar server
from the configuration tab of the BRM UI, select the clients to be
included, select the retention policy, start/stop the replication, and
monitor the status on the Configuration as well as the Activities page,
and the Home page.
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Figure 8: Replication EM-BRM Mapping
System Maintenance and Miscellaneous
i. Launch Management console Graphical User
Interface (MCGUI):
Users can launch the MCGUI Systems page of the EM UI.
An equivalent feature is available in BRM, where the MCGUI is launched
from the systems page. BRM also supports launching NetWorker
Management Console (NMC) from the systems page.
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Figure 9: Launch MCGUI EM-BRM Mapping
ii. Launch Client Manager
EM has the capability to launch the Avamar Client Manager.
While an equivalent feature is available in BRM, usability in BRM
is not as good as in EM. It has a 2-step manual process for
configuring Avamar server to launch. Refer to Document
EMC®Backup & Recovery Manager®Version 1.2 User Guide,
Section on Enable Single Sign on, for more detail.
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Navigation
EM-> Client Manager
BRM->Launch icon->Client Manager
Figure 10: Launch Client Manager
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Conclusion
With the introduction of Harmony which incorporates all the three EMC
products — Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain — it is important that the
user has a single interface to monitor the server activities. Hence, based on
the features described in this article, BRM serves the purpose.
However, certain features, i.e. licensing report, maximum and minimum
change rate for individual clients, Dashboard, and Activity status (activity
completed with exception), are to be included in BRM.
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Image Index
Figure1 System Monitoring EM-BRM mapping
Page 4
Figure 2 Policy EM-BRM mapping
Page 6
Figure 3 View Groups EM-BRM Mapping
Page 7
Figure 4 Clients EM-BRM Mapping
Page 7
Figure 5 Datasets EM-BRM Mapping
Page 8
Figure 6 Schedules EM-BRM Mapping
Page 9
Figure 7 Retention Policies EM-BRM mapping
Page 11
Figure 8 Replication EM-BRM Mapping
Page 12
Figure 9 Launch MCGUI EM-BRM Mapping
Page 13
Figure 10 Launch Client Manager
Page 14
Figure 11 EM Dashboard
Page 16
Figure 12 BRM Dashboard
Page 17
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Appendix
Enterprise Manager
Enterprise Manager (EM) is the web-based multi–system management
console that provides centralized administration of Avamar servers. It helps
monitor all Avamar servers in the enterprise from a single web browser
session and also monitors multiple Avamar versions. EM provides an
overview of Avamar server status, such as Capacity, number of backups that
succeeded or failed, Reports, and managing the clients. A screenshot of the
Enterprise Manager UI is shown below.
Figure 11: EM Dashboard
Backup and Recovery Manager
Backup and Recovery Manager (BRM) is a unified interface for the
management of Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain and simplifies the
current management platform. The NetWorker and Avamar server is
registered to the BRM using the adaptor associated with the respective
Servers which is a binary that allows communication between the
NetWorker/Avamar server and the BRM. The dashboard and the systems
page that provides the status of Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain is
shown in the following screenshot.
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Figure 12: BRM Dashboard
While EM has been a very important feature for Avamar administration, it
does not cater to monitoring other EMC backup Servers such as NetWorker
and Data Domain. Meanwhile, BRM is a unified management console for
backup and recovery products Avamar, NetWorker, and Data Domain. An
easily deployable application, BRM is currently being used by customers and,
with Harmony release, it will be used as an EM replacement as well.
References
Avamar Administration Guide
BRM User Guide
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