4 4 3 Beefalo:Topology

From SEPsesam
<<<Back
Components
User Manual
Next>>>
Clients



Topology

Topology represents the SEP sesam backup environment including the hardware, computers, backup devices, etc.

All interconnected computers – SEP sesam Clients and SEP sesam Servers – can be logically grouped into locations and sub-locations. You can use locations to group your clients according to their OS, data type, different geographical location, etc.

The menu item Topology shows all SEP sesam locations, clients, loaders, and drives known to the Master Server as well as the media within the devices. By clicking the symbols they can be expanded into the subordinate structures via a function tree. Each client is assigned to a location and each loader and drive to a client. You can open their properties by double-clicking the relevant component (location, client or drive).

Such grouping enables large organizations at different locations to be managed and represented as a group with separate, centrally-managed units (using a tree view). Locations can be hierarchically organized - multiple sub-locations can be summarized under one Location.

A Master Sesam at the highest level presents all currently accessible regular SEP sesam computers. With a mouse click their individual data can be viewed.

A regular SEP sesam Server shows one node only, namely itself.


With v. 4.4.3. Beefalo, SEP sesam provides additional View Mode button that enables you to switch between the table view and the tree view with grouped objects.

  • Tree view: SEP sesam default view shows the status of individual locations grouped together in a hierarchical view.
  • Table view: A simple flat view that shows the status of individual locations one after another.

To create a new location independent of another location or a sub-location, click Topology, and click the button New Location. A client is always assigned to and created within a location. For details, see Configuring Location.

Updating client(s)

As of v. 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, the sm_update_client command has been extended to automatically install service packs on the SEP sesam Server. Now you can check in the SEP sesam GUI if an update for your clients is available, see Checking update status. If this is the case, the icon with the orange arrow is shown. For details on the GUI icons, Client status icons.

You can update all clients within the location at once by right-clicking the location and selecting Update all clients. You can also select to update only the clients running on Windows or Linux by using Update all Linux/Windows Clients. This will update all Windows or Linux clients, respectively, within the selected location. For details, see Performing mass update.

If you want to update an individual client rather than all clients within the location, right-click it and select Update Client. You may want to exclude a particular client from being updated; in this case, double-click it to open its properties and select Do not update this client check box. Note that this setting applies in general for all possible updates.

If you have new Windows clients and would like to install either a SEP sesam Client, RDS (with GUI), GUI (with SEP sesam Client), or a SEP sesam Server on the selected client (with or without BSR), you only need to specify a user name and password (OS access) when selecting Install SEP sesam. For the Exchange and Hyper-V clients, the selected package will be installed by providing the credentials used to connect to the host computer. You can also uninstall SEP sesam from the respective client by clicking Uninstall SEP sesam.

Location properties

Locations are defined as a group of clients and/or further sub-locations. This should help you to organize larger networks so that computers in a building, an external office, etc., can be managed and represented in the separate units.

You can configure new locations from a SEP sesam Server or from an existing location (sub-location). SEP sesam sets up a tree-structure for all locations (e.g., USA-Colorado-Boulder-SEP Software) offering greater visibility. For details, see Configuring Location.

You can also edit the existing location or sub-location settings by double-clicking a relevant location/sub-location to open its Properties.


Location tab

  • Name: Name of the location
  • in: Superordinated location (relevant for sub-locations)
  • Description: More exact description of the location
  • Contact: Contact person at this location
  • Note: Additional information

OS Access tab

When configuring a new location, you can enter the credentials that will apply to all clients within a location, instead of specifying it for each client individually. In this case, enter the credentials as an administrator to access the respective systems. You can edit your credentials in the location properties. You have to use DOMAIN\USER format for the domain accounts or HOST\USER for the local accounts.

Permissions tab

Under the Permissions tab, you can configure permissions (ACLs) for your locations, if you have the admin rights. For details, see Using Access Control Lists.

Client properties

Clients are the computers in the network (including the SEP sesam Server) that you want to back up and restore.

The following screenshot shows the input fields and functions of the clients (the options may differ depending on your SEP sesam version).

Note
The client properties are slightly different if you are configuring a new client or when the client is already added and configured and you edit its properties. The Platform is only available when configuring a new client, while tabs for specifying additional settings are only available for the already configured client in its properties.


Client tab

  • Name: Enter the name of the client – this has to be the network host name of the computer. The name has to be resolvable either by DNS or etc/hosts file.
  • Location: Predefined location. A client must always be assigned a location.
  • Virtual machine (≥ 5.0.0 Jaglion): Previously referred to as Client is a virtual machine. If you select this option, you can edit the VM server name (host) and the VM name. These values are used to identify the backup client as a VM in a virtual environment.
  • Platform: Select the relevant platform of the client (LINUX, WINDOWS, UNIX, NDMP, VMS, or NETWARE). Depending on the platform, tabs for special access parameters are displayed. The Platform is only available when configuring a new client.
  • Operating system: Select the operating system version of the computer you are adding as a client.
  • Access mode: Select the appropriate access method for server-client communication. The Access mode option is only available in Advanced or Expert UI mode. So if you run the GUI in Basic UI mode, you first have to change the mode to Advanced or Expert, as described in Selecting UI mode.
    • CTRL: Access mode, which was the default mode in older versions of SEP sesam.
    • SMSSH: Current default access mode. SEP sesam SSH-based control communication. SSL libraries include libmicrohttpd, libcurl, and libopenssl. See also FAQ: access permissions.
    • PROXY: Access mode for a hypervisor or other systems without an installed backup client. The data transfer is executed via vendor specific protocols and the client is accessed via the mandatory data mover. For details, see What is a SEP sesam data mover. The following protocols are supported: vSphere (vCenter Server), Citrix Xen Server, Nutanix, NetApp, NDMP and Novell SMS for NetWare 5.1/6.0/6.5.
    • VIRTUAL: Access mode for a virtual machine (VM) without an installed backup client, where there is no direct remote access to this VM. Note that VIRTUAL access mode is similar to PROXY, but is specifically intended for managing VMs as clients by allowing configuration of ACLs for VMs. This means that the administrator can allow explicit restore access to a virtual client while preventing access to the hypervisor server. For details on how to configure permissions (ACLs) for clients, see Using Access Control Lists.
    • SSH: This communication mode is based on a key-pair operation of the SSH implementation of the operating system used.
    • RSH: Remote Shell; this option is deprecated and rarely used.
  • VM server type: If the client should be managed as a VM server, select the relevant type. This enables, for example, browsing the virtual environment when creating backup tasks.
  • Last SEP sesam message: The most recent system status message for the existing client.
  • Last successful access: The last successful access to the existing client.
  • Notes: Optional comment.
  • Interfaces:
  • Note
    Only edit this field if a client is a SEP sesam Server or Remote Device Server (RDS).

    If there is an additional network for backups available, the resolvable and changed DNS-name of a second network card of the SEP sesam Server can be entered into a new line. If several network cards are available, they need to be known to the DNS otherwise the connection to SEP sesam Server will fail.

    The network protocols for data transfer can be set by using the common prefixes ftp:// (default), http:// or https://. For each protocol one interface has to be added in the interfaces box separated by single spaces. One interface for the HTTP protocol http://<hostname>:11000 and one interface for the HTTPS protocol https://<hostname>:11088.

    You can set the default interface for a drive group in Main Selection -> Components -> Drives. Double-click the drive group you want to modify and select the required interface in the Default interface drop-down list. All events that do not have an interface set and are using the drives in this drive group will use the interface, selected for the drive group as default.

  • SEP sesam version: This field shows the SBC (SEP sesam backup Client) version of the installation.
  • Additional options
  • There are two additional client-related options:
    • Virtual machine (Client is a virtual machine in ≤ 4.4.3. Beefalo V2): If you select this option, you can edit the VM host (name of the VM Server) and the VM name. These values are used to identify the backup client as a VM in a virtual environment.
    • Do not update this client (≥ 4.4.3. Beefalo V2): Checking this option allows you to exclude a particular client from being updated. This setting applies in general for all possible updates.
    • Execution off: If a client needs to be excluded from the backup for technical or other reasons, you can deactivate it by checking this option.
    • Note
      If this option is set, the client will not be backed up until it is unlocked again even if it is scheduled for backup.

Options tab

By default, SEP sesam uses random ports that are assigned by the operating system for its data connections. However, if you want to back up a client which is behind a firewall, you must manually define the ports. The available options depend on the client type.


  • Access options: The default communication port on the backup client is 11301. If a port other than 11301 is used, it must be configured in the client's sm.ini file. In this field, enter the port over which the client is reachable (e.g., -p 17301).
  • STPD options: The STPD options are used to define the backports from the clients to the SEP sesam Server, e.g. 11003-11006. These ports are then used to carry data during backups and restores. For each backup that runs parallel 2 ports of a client are needed.
  • Listen port: The default STPD-port for Remote Device Servers (incl. SEP sesam Server) is 11001.
  • Wake on LAN: For more information, see WOL - wake on LAN of a SEP sesam client.
Note
In SEP sesam v. ≥ 4.4.3, SEP Si3 source-side deduplication (Si3S) backup does not work if the STPD service TCP port on the client side (in sm.ini and/or stpd.ini) is changed from the default port. With Jaglion you can avoid this issue by setting the STPD service TCP port to the new TCP port in the client properties -> Options tab -> Listen port.

For details, see List of Ports Used by SEP sesam.

OS Access tab

When configuring a new client, you have to enter the credentials as an administrator to access the respective systems. You can also edit your credentials in the client properties. You have to use DOMAIN\USER format for domain accounts or HOST\USER for local accounts.


Additional tabs

In the client properties two additional tabs are available for specifying additional settings.

Under the Permissions tab, you can add the relevant permissions (ACLs) for your client. For details, see Using Access Control Lists.


If you are configuring clients that must be backed up by special task types, additional settings must be specified. A fifth tab is available for the following task types: Micro Focus Open Enterprise Server (formerly Novell OES), VMware, Citrix XEN, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NetApp, RHV. For example, for Micro Focus OES or NetWare server backup you have to specify the login data for the eDirectory and select the appropriate data mover. For Micro Focus, this is a SEP sesam Micro Focus (formerly Novell) Client which is installed on Linux computer with Micro Focus Storage Management Services (SMS).

For more information on specific task type, see the respective wiki articles under Extensions.

See also

Configuring LocationConfiguring ClientsUpdating SEP sesamUsing Access Control ListsList of Ports Used by SEP sesam


Copyright © SEP AG 1999-2024. All rights reserved.

Any form of reproduction of the contents or parts of this manual is allowed only with the express written permission from SEP AG. When compiling and designing user documentation SEP AG uses great diligence and attempts to deliver accurate and correct information. However, SEP AG cannot issue a guarantee for the contents of this manual.