AVAMAR EM TO BACKUP RECOVERY MANAGER TRANSITION

AVAMAR EM TO BACKUP RECOVERY MANAGER TRANSITION

Raghu Prasad T RMahantesh AmbaljeriVrinda Gopakumar

2015 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2

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.


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


Navigation

EM-> Client Manager

BRM->Launch icon->Client Manager

Figure 10: Launch Client Manager


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.


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

Figure 12 BRM Dashboard

Page 17


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.


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


EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its

publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” EMC

CORPORATION MAKES NO RESPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF

ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS

PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES

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Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this

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AVAMAR EM TO BACKUP RECOVERY MANAGER TRANSITION

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