Configure Networker
To configure networker, do the following steps:
- Design your backup system with sites, which can be two sites, or dual/stretched sites
- For each site make a list of the hypervisor names (in Abiquo), e.g. esxi1.example.com, esxi2.example.com
- Create one policy with multiple workflows – one workflow for each site using backup (with or without replication/clone action)
- The Abiquo integration supports Complete backups only and it does not manage Networker policies.
Configure Networker properties
To configure the Networker backup integration properties:
- Log in to the Abiquo Remote Services server.
- Go to the /opt/abiquo/config folder and create a networker.properties file. This is the default location, but you can configure your own file as required.
- Enter the properties as described here. Default values are set and optional properties are commented out with a hash mark "#".
# Host name of the vCenter used with the Networker backup tool abiquo.networker.vcenter.hostname= # Optional port of the vCenter used with the Networker backup tool # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.vcenter.port=443 # Define storage of results for the site in Abiquo # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.siteA= abiquo.networker.siteB= abiquo.networker.siteC= abiquo.networker.siteD= # List of hosts to define site A (which is the group of VMs on these hypervisors to back up), separated by commas. # Enter hypervisor machine names, for example, "esxi1.example.com,esxi2.example.com". # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.siteA.hosts= # List of hosts to define site B (which is the group of VMs on these hypervisors to back up), separated by commas. # Enter hypervisor machine names, for example, "esxi3.example.com,esxi4.example.com". # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.siteB.hosts= # List of hosts for dual / stretched sites; used in the same way as properties for site A and site B # Reloadable properties abiquo.networker.siteC.hosts= abiquo.networker.siteD.hosts= # Policy Name for on-demand backups without replication. # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy= # Policy Name for on-demand backups with replication. # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy.replication= # Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site A. # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationA= # Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site B. # Reloadable property abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationB= # Workflow within a policy to back up to replication of dual / stretched sites; used in the same way as properties for site A and site B # Reloadable properties abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationC= abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationD= # Optional timeouts for client to connect, read, and write with networker API, with default of 10 seconds. To disable a timeout, set the value to 0 # Reloadable properties #abiquo.networker.client.timeout.connectionms=10000 #abiquo.networker.client.timeout.readms=10000 #abiquo.networker.client.timeout.writems=10000 # Track on-demand backup and restore operations at this interval # in the configured time unit #abiquo.networker.client.tracker.interval=1 # Fail on-demand backup and restore operations after no response # in the configured time unit #abiquo.networker.client.tracker.timeout=30 # Time unit for tracking on-demand backup and restore operations #abiquo.networker.client.tracker.timeunit=minutes # Duration to store cache of Networker data #abiquo.networker.cache.expire.duration=90 # Time unit for duration to store cache of Networker data #abiquo.networker.cache.expire.duration=minutes # Period for reloading the properties that are reloadable to avoid tomcat restarts #abiquo.networker.config.reload.period=60 # Time unit for period for reloading properties that are reloadable to avoid # tomcat restarts #abiquo.networker.config.reload.timeunit=minutes # If true, log debug information for Networker client # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.client.debuglog=false # If true, verify SSL for Networker client #abiquo.netwoker.client.verifyssl=false # Optional results safety range time value # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.results.safetyrange.amount=15 # Optional results safety range time unit # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.results.safetyrange.chronounit=minutes # Optional character to split users for backup system and vCenter (to restore undeployed VMs) # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.credentials.splitter.user=# # Optional character to split passwords for backup system and vCenter (to restore undeployed VMs) # Reloadable property #abiquo.networker.credentials.splitter.pass=#
Configure Abiquo Properties
To activate the Networker plugin and define the location of the configuration file:
Log in to the Abiquo Remote Services server
- Edit the abiquo.properties file.
- Set the path to the plugin properties file using the following property.
abiquo.backup.networker.config.path=/opt/abiquo/config/networker.properties
Table of plugin properties
| Name | Default value | Required | Type | Reloadable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy | Policy name for on-demand backups without replication |  | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy.replication | Policy Name for on-demand backups with replication | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationA | Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site A | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationB | Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site B | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationC | Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site C | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationD | Workflow within a policy to back up to for replication of site D | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.cache.expire.duration | Duration to store cache of Networker data | 90 |  | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.cache.expire.timeunit | Time unit for duration to store cache of Networker data | minutes | | TimeUnit | |
| abiquo.networker.client.debuglog | If true, log debug information for Networker client | false | | Boolean | |
| abiquo.networker.client.timeout.connectionms | Optional timeouts for client to connect to networker API, with default of 10 seconds. To disable the timeout, set the value to 0 | 10000 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.client.timeout.readms | Optional timeouts for client to read from networker API, with default of 10 seconds. To disable the timeout, set the value to 0 | 10000 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.client.timeout.writems | Optional timeouts for client to write to networker API, with default of 10 seconds. To disable the timeout, set the value to 0 | 10000 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.client.tracker.interval | Track on-demand backup and restore operations at this interval | 1 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.client.tracker.timeout | Fail on-demand backup and restore operations after no response in the configured time unit | 30 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.client.tracker.timeunit | Time unit for tracking on-demand backup and restore operations | minutes | | TimeUnit | |
| abiquo.networker.client.verifyssl | If true, verify SSL for Networker client | false | | Boolean | |
| abiquo.networker.config.reload.period | Period for reloading the properties that are reloadable to avoid tomcat restarts | 60 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.config.reload.timeunit | Time unit for period for reloading properties that are reloadable to avoid tomcat restarts | minutes | | TimeUnit | |
| abiquo.networker.credentials.splitter.pass | Optional character to split passwords for backup system and vCenter (to restore undeployed VMs) | # | | String | |
| abiquo.networker.credentials.splitter.user | Optional character to split users for backup system and vCenter (to restore undeployed VMs) | # | | String | |
| abiquo.networker.results.safetyrange.amount | Optional results safety range time value | 15 | | Long | |
| abiquo.networker.results.safetyrange.chronounit | Optional results safety range time unit | minutes | | ChronoUnit | |
| abiquo.networker.siteA | Define storage of results for the site in Abiquo | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteA.hosts | List of hosts to define site A, separated by commas. Enter the machine names of the hypervisors (for example, "esxi1.example.com,esxi2.example.com") that contain the VMs to back up. | | List | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteB | Define storage of results for the site in Abiquo | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteB.hosts | List of hosts to define site B, separated by commas. Enter the machine names of the hypervisors (for example, "esxi3.example.com,esxi4.example.com") that contain the VMs to back up. | | List | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteC | Define storage of results for the site in Abiquo | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteC.hosts | List of hosts to define site C, separated by commas. Enter the machine names of the hypervisors (for example, "esxi5.example.com,esxi6.example.com") that contain the VMs to back up. | | List | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteD | Define storage of results for the site in Abiquo | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.siteD.hosts | List of hosts to define site D, separated by commas. Enter the machine names of the hypervisors (for example, "esxi7.example.com,esxi8.example.com") that contain the VMs to back up. | | List | | |
| abiquo.networker.vcenter.hostname | Host name of the vCenter used with the Networker backup tool | | String | | |
| abiquo.networker.vcenter.port | Optional port of the vCenter used with the Networker backup tool | 443 | | integer | |
Description of plugin properties
For on-demand backups, to indicate which policy to execute depending on the user request, set the following properties:
- abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy=policyName
- abiquo.networker.backup.ondemand.policy.replication=policyName
To indicate the name of the workflow inside a policy used to backup to one site or the other, set:
- abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationA=workflow
- abiquo.networker.backup.workflow.replicationB=workflow
To identify the sites of the VMs, define a list of the hypervisor machine names at each site with the following properties:
- abiquo.networker.siteA.hosts=esxi1.example.com,esxi2.example.com
- abiquo.networker.siteB.hosts=esxi3.example.com,esxi4.example.com
The configuration properties could require changes every time a new host is added to infrastructure or a policy name is changed in NetWorker, so the plugin integration reloads them in order to avoid a tomcat restart. Only the properties defined as reloadable will be reloaded. To configure when the properties will be reloaded, set:
- abiquo.networker.config.reload.period=60
- abiquo.networker.config.reload.timeunit=minutes
On demand backup and restore operations are tracked by a job. To configure the tracking and set a timeout to fail a job if it appears it will not finish, set the properties starting with:
- abiquo.networker.client.tracker.