Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
I was reading that section of the 6.5.6 release notes and I just couldn't quite understand it. It seems to say that as of 6.5.6 Symantec have caused VSP to be automatically installed. Previously we have always disabled it - we do Windows installs using silentclient.cmd, and that has an entry you can edit to stop it installing VSP. So it seems to read that as a new feature in 6.5.6 you cannot stop it installing VSP? It then goes on to say that at NetBackup 7.0 VSP is not supported Am I reading this right...6.5.6 will install VSP whether you like it or not, and so if you want to get back to the 'status quo' at e.g. 6.5.4 of not installing it, you must use this new VSP disable tool, or suddenly VSP is going to start running on all the 6.5.6 clients, in place of VSS? There is a table on page 50/51 of the 6.5.6 document updates that shows the behaviour of Windows - it says The following table describes the backup behavior based on the Windows Open File Backup setting for the client and whether or not VSS is available on the client. - and in none of the cases is VSP run. I'm guessing that they meant to say that the table applies *after the VSP disable tool is run* and that makes it really confusing. Does anyone know what actually needs to be done after upgrading to 6.5.6 on Windows 2003, to make sure VSP is not going to run? Also...the VSP Disable tool can be run from a Windows master server or media server - we don't use those, all our Master Media are UNIX. So what do we do? William D L Brown From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Herbert.George Sent: 01 June 2010 21:18 To: Spencer O'Donnell; Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS From a recent case with Symantec support: ... in the NB_6.5.6 readme, might be something to consider. === NetBackup 6.5.6 automatically installs the Veritas volume snapshot Provider (VSP) method for Open File Backups. VSP is the default Open File Backup method in this release. NetBackup 6.5.6 includes the VSP disable tool (bpvspdisable.exe) for administrators to use to disable VSP on clients if it is not needed. The tool deletes the VSP cache files from the disk of the client system. All future VSP requests on those clients are redirected to use Microsoft native Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). The VSP method for Open File Backups is not supported in NetBackup 7.0. Having run the VSP disable tool does not affect upgrading to NetBackup 7.0. The VSP disable tool can be used on the following operating systems: ■ Windows Server 2000 ■ Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (x86 and IA64) ■ Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and IA64) George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Spencer O'Donnell Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 1:14 PM To: Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec Forums. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM To: pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.commailto:pranav_vent...@hotmail.com wrote: I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0. Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000. I agree but why? Windows 2000 did not have a snapshot service provided by the operating system so Veritas had to write their own. Microsoft added it in Windows 2003. VSS has a HUGE advantage for the backup administrator because snapshots are now the responsibility of the server administrator, not the backup administrator. If snapshots fail, it's usually because the server administrator doesn't have something configured correctly or the admins have neglected to install patches to VSS (there are some but some Windows admins seem to install ONLY security patches and ignore all reliability/functionality fixes). What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster server and both got hung while getting backed up. We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server
Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
If you have a windows machine handy, you could install the media server software on it to get the VSP disable tool. You don't actually have to do backups with it. Of course there are licensing considerations, but that should work. Since I don't yet have a 6.5.6 installation, I can only guess that your silent install will still work as it has in the past. But only actually trying it will tell. Maybe someone with 6.5.6 can provide some experience I agree with the previously expressed VSP is evil! George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of William Brown Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 5:59 AM To: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS I was reading that section of the 6.5.6 release notes and I just couldn't quite understand it. It seems to say that as of 6.5.6 Symantec have caused VSP to be automatically installed. Previously we have always disabled it - we do Windows installs using silentclient.cmd, and that has an entry you can edit to stop it installing VSP. So it seems to read that as a new feature in 6.5.6 you cannot stop it installing VSP? It then goes on to say that at NetBackup 7.0 VSP is not supported Am I reading this right...6.5.6 will install VSP whether you like it or not, and so if you want to get back to the 'status quo' at e.g. 6.5.4 of not installing it, you must use this new VSP disable tool, or suddenly VSP is going to start running on all the 6.5.6 clients, in place of VSS? There is a table on page 50/51 of the 6.5.6 document updates that shows the behaviour of Windows - it says The following table describes the backup behavior based on the Windows Open File Backup setting for the client and whether or not VSS is available on the client. - and in none of the cases is VSP run. I'm guessing that they meant to say that the table applies *after the VSP disable tool is run* and that makes it really confusing. Does anyone know what actually needs to be done after upgrading to 6.5.6 on Windows 2003, to make sure VSP is not going to run? Also...the VSP Disable tool can be run from a Windows master server or media server - we don't use those, all our Master Media are UNIX. So what do we do? William D L Brown From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Herbert.George Sent: 01 June 2010 21:18 To: Spencer O'Donnell; Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS From a recent case with Symantec support: ... in the NB_6.5.6 readme, might be something to consider. === NetBackup 6.5.6 automatically installs the Veritas volume snapshot Provider (VSP) method for Open File Backups. VSP is the default Open File Backup method in this release. NetBackup 6.5.6 includes the VSP disable tool (bpvspdisable.exe) for administrators to use to disable VSP on clients if it is not needed. The tool deletes the VSP cache files from the disk of the client system. All future VSP requests on those clients are redirected to use Microsoft native Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). The VSP method for Open File Backups is not supported in NetBackup 7.0. Having run the VSP disable tool does not affect upgrading to NetBackup 7.0. The VSP disable tool can be used on the following operating systems: ■ Windows Server 2000 ■ Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (x86 and IA64) ■ Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and IA64) George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Spencer O'Donnell Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 1:14 PM To: Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec Forums. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM To: pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.com wrote: I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0. Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000. I agree but why? Windows 2000 did
Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
This is the tool from the Symantec forums and I used it on my Solaris master and it worked fine. http://www.symantec.com/connect/downloads/interactive-checkenable-vss-windows-hosts From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Herbert.George Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 1:22 PM To: William Brown; Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS If you have a windows machine handy, you could install the media server software on it to get the VSP disable tool. You don't actually have to do backups with it. Of course there are licensing considerations, but that should work. Since I don't yet have a 6.5.6 installation, I can only guess that your silent install will still work as it has in the past. But only actually trying it will tell. Maybe someone with 6.5.6 can provide some experience I agree with the previously expressed VSP is evil! George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of William Brown Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 5:59 AM To: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS I was reading that section of the 6.5.6 release notes and I just couldn't quite understand it. It seems to say that as of 6.5.6 Symantec have caused VSP to be automatically installed. Previously we have always disabled it - we do Windows installs using silentclient.cmd, and that has an entry you can edit to stop it installing VSP. So it seems to read that as a new feature in 6.5.6 you cannot stop it installing VSP? It then goes on to say that at NetBackup 7.0 VSP is not supported Am I reading this right...6.5.6 will install VSP whether you like it or not, and so if you want to get back to the 'status quo' at e.g. 6.5.4 of not installing it, you must use this new VSP disable tool, or suddenly VSP is going to start running on all the 6.5.6 clients, in place of VSS? There is a table on page 50/51 of the 6.5.6 document updates that shows the behaviour of Windows - it says The following table describes the backup behavior based on the Windows Open File Backup setting for the client and whether or not VSS is available on the client. - and in none of the cases is VSP run. I'm guessing that they meant to say that the table applies *after the VSP disable tool is run* and that makes it really confusing. Does anyone know what actually needs to be done after upgrading to 6.5.6 on Windows 2003, to make sure VSP is not going to run? Also...the VSP Disable tool can be run from a Windows master server or media server - we don't use those, all our Master Media are UNIX. So what do we do? William D L Brown From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Herbert.George Sent: 01 June 2010 21:18 To: Spencer O'Donnell; Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS From a recent case with Symantec support: ... in the NB_6.5.6 readme, might be something to consider. === NetBackup 6.5.6 automatically installs the Veritas volume snapshot Provider (VSP) method for Open File Backups. VSP is the default Open File Backup method in this release. NetBackup 6.5.6 includes the VSP disable tool (bpvspdisable.exe) for administrators to use to disable VSP on clients if it is not needed. The tool deletes the VSP cache files from the disk of the client system. All future VSP requests on those clients are redirected to use Microsoft native Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). The VSP method for Open File Backups is not supported in NetBackup 7.0. Having run the VSP disable tool does not affect upgrading to NetBackup 7.0. The VSP disable tool can be used on the following operating systems: ■ Windows Server 2000 ■ Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (x86 and IA64) ■ Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and IA64) George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Spencer O'Donnell Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 1:14 PM To: Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec Forums. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM To: pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.com wrote: I have a small
[Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
Hello Geeks, I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000.I agree but why? What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster server and both got hung while getting backed up.We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server both running fine from 2 weeks and didn't hung once. Does VSP plays some part in making the server hung?What could be the possible reasons?Does VSP plays some part in making the CPU utilisation high? ==Please provide me any valuable information on this. Thanks in advance!! Thanks and Regards Pranav Batra _ Bollywood This Decade http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywoodthisdecade/___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.comwrote: I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0. Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000. I agree but why? Windows 2000 did not have a snapshot service provided by the operating system so Veritas had to write their own. Microsoft added it in Windows 2003. VSS has a HUGE advantage for the backup administrator because snapshots are now the responsibility of the server administrator, not the backup administrator. If snapshots fail, it's usually because the server administrator doesn't have something configured correctly or the admins have neglected to install patches to VSS (there are some but some Windows admins seem to install ONLY security patches and ignore all reliability/functionality fixes). What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster server and both got hung while getting backed up. We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server both running fine from 2 weeks and didn't hung once. Does VSP plays some part in making the server hung? What could be the possible reasons? Does VSP plays some part in making the CPU utilisation high? VSP is evil. Don't try and debug it - just quit using it. .../Ed Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP, BCSD, SCSP, SCSE ewi...@ewilts.org Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/ewilts ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec Forums. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM To: pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.com wrote: I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0. Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000. I agree but why? Windows 2000 did not have a snapshot service provided by the operating system so Veritas had to write their own. Microsoft added it in Windows 2003. VSS has a HUGE advantage for the backup administrator because snapshots are now the responsibility of the server administrator, not the backup administrator. If snapshots fail, it's usually because the server administrator doesn't have something configured correctly or the admins have neglected to install patches to VSS (there are some but some Windows admins seem to install ONLY security patches and ignore all reliability/functionality fixes). What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster server and both got hung while getting backed up. We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server both running fine from 2 weeks and didn't hung once. Does VSP plays some part in making the server hung? What could be the possible reasons? Does VSP plays some part in making the CPU utilisation high? VSP is evil. Don't try and debug it - just quit using it. .../Ed Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP, BCSD, SCSP, SCSE ewi...@ewilts.org Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/ewilts ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
From a recent case with Symantec support: ... in the NB_6.5.6 readme, might be something to consider. === NetBackup 6.5.6 automatically installs the Veritas volume snapshot Provider (VSP) method for Open File Backups. VSP is the default Open File Backup method in this release. NetBackup 6.5.6 includes the VSP disable tool (bpvspdisable.exe) for administrators to use to disable VSP on clients if it is not needed. The tool deletes the VSP cache files from the disk of the client system. All future VSP requests on those clients are redirected to use Microsoft native Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). The VSP method for Open File Backups is not supported in NetBackup 7.0. Having run the VSP disable tool does not affect upgrading to NetBackup 7.0. The VSP disable tool can be used on the following operating systems: ■ Windows Server 2000 ■ Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (x86 and IA64) ■ Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and IA64) George Herbert Basline Storage Engineer - Backup SunTrust Banks, Inc. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Spencer O'Donnell Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 1:14 PM To: Ed Wilts; pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec Forums. From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM To: pranav batra Cc: Veritas Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra pranav_vent...@hotmail.com wrote: I have a small question on VSP/VSS. As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ? It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0. Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find any tech note specifying why VSS: They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000. I agree but why? Windows 2000 did not have a snapshot service provided by the operating system so Veritas had to write their own. Microsoft added it in Windows 2003. VSS has a HUGE advantage for the backup administrator because snapshots are now the responsibility of the server administrator, not the backup administrator. If snapshots fail, it's usually because the server administrator doesn't have something configured correctly or the admins have neglected to install patches to VSS (there are some but some Windows admins seem to install ONLY security patches and ignore all reliability/functionality fixes). What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster server and both got hung while getting backed up. We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server both running fine from 2 weeks and didn't hung once. Does VSP plays some part in making the server hung? What could be the possible reasons? Does VSP plays some part in making the CPU utilisation high? VSP is evil. Don't try and debug it - just quit using it. .../Ed Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP, BCSD, SCSP, SCSE ewi...@ewilts.org Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/ewilts LEGAL DISCLAIMER The information transmitted is intended solely for the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of or taking action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. SunTrust is a federally registered service mark of SunTrust Banks, Inc. Live Solid. Bank Solid. is a service mark of SunTrust Banks, Inc. [ST:XCL] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
