Configure Dell EMC NetWorker backup plugin

Owned by MS (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 29, 2023
5 min read

Requirements

  • When you create the Backup manager in Abiquo to configure the endpoint and credentials of the NetWorker system, you must enter NetWorker credentials and vCenter credentials

Configure NetWorker

To configure NetWorker, do the following steps:

  1. Design your backup system with sites, which can be two sites, or dual/stretched sites

  2. For each site make a list of the hypervisor names (in Abiquo), e.g. esxi1.example.com, esxi2.example.com, or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, make a list of vCenter cluster names.

  3. 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:

  1. Log in to the Abiquo Remote Services server. 

  2. 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.

  3. 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". # Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name, for example, # "vCenter-cluster1.example.com-domain-c1" # 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". # Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name, for example, # "vCenter-cluster2.example.com-domain-c2" # 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:

  1. Log in to the Abiquo Remote Services server

  2. Edit the abiquo.properties file. 

  3. 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

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
in the configured time unit

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. Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name (for example, "vCenter-cluster1.example.com-domain-c1").



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. Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name (for example, "vCenter-cluster2.example.com-domain-c2").



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. Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name (for example, "vCenter-cluster3.example.com-domain-c3").



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. Or if you are using vCenter clusters as physical machines, enter the vCenter cluster name (for example, "vCenter-cluster4.example.com-domain-c4").



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

Or if you are using vCenter cluster as physical machine, enter the vCenter cluster name:

  • abiquo.networker.siteA.hosts=vCenter-cluster1.example.com-domain-c1

  • abiquo.networker.siteB.hosts=vCenter-cluster2.example.com-domain-c2

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.

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