Configure Dell EMC Networker backup plugin

Configure Networker

To configure networker, do the following steps:

1. Design your backup system with two sites
2. For each site make a list of the hypervisor names (e.g. esxi1.example.com)
3. Create one policy with two workflows – one 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=

# 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=



# 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=


# 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
#abiquo.networker.client.debuglog=false


# If true, verify SSL for Networker client
#abiquo.netwoker.client.verifyssl=false

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

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.