Networker Notes

This TWiki area is being used for note gathering for Stephen Nickerson (snickers) and not meant for general use. When information is ready for the masses, it will be placed in a more appropriate TWiki location.

This TWiki page is for gathering information which may be used to solve the backups failing problems on a Mac system.

Mac command-line utilities

1. scutil
2. networksetup

It looks like the command line utilities scutil and networksetup likely retrieve their information from:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Notes from 'man 8 nsr'

From nsr man page - NetWorker 8.1.1 Jan 24, 14 nsr(8)

NAMING AND AUTHENTICATION As described above, the NSR server only accepts connections initiated from the machines listed as clients or listed in the remote access list (for recovering). Since machines may be connected to more than one physical network and since each physical network connection may have numerous aliases, the policies below are used as a compromise between security and ease of use. For further information about naming in the UNIX environment, refer to gethostent(3) or other documentation on name services.

A client determines its own name as follows. First the client's UNIX system name is acquired via the gethostname(2) system call. The UNIX system name is used as a parameter to the gethostbyname(3) library rou- tine. The client declares its name to be the official (or ``primary'') name returned by gethostbyname. This name is passed to the NetWorker server during connection establishment.

A server authenticates a client connection by reconciling the connec- tion's remote address with client's stated name. The address is mapped to a list of host names via the gethostbyaddr(3) library function. Next, the client's stated name is used as a parameter to gethostbyname to acquire another list of host names. The client is successfully authenticated only if a common name between the two lists exists.

The NetWorker server maps a client's name to an on-line index database name by resolving the client's name to the official name returned by gethostbyname. This mapping takes place both at client creation time and at connection establishment time.

To ensure safe and effective naming, the following rules should be employed:

1) The NetWorker clients and servers should access consistent host name databases. NIS (YP) and the Domain Name System (DNS) are naming subsystems that aid in host name consistency.

2) All hosts entries for a single machine should have at least one common alias among them.

3) When creating a new client, use a name or alias that will map back to the same official name that the client machine produces by backward mapping its UNIX system name.

From IST’s Networker page:

https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/services/backup-and-restore/installing-emc-networker-clients

Mac OS X client installation

In the following discussion it is assumed that the user has some familiarity with the Terminal window (Applications:Utilities:Terminal) and unix commands, including the sudo command. If/when you are prompted for a password when you issue a sudo command, you should use the same password that you use when installing applications.\x{2028}In rare cases sudo does not provide the required access, and you may need to log on as root. It is very easy to cause massive damage to the Mac OS X system when logged on as root. If you do decide to log on as the root user, be very sure you know what you are doing. The download step should have placed file macosx.dmg on your desktop.

1. Double-click macosx.dmg to run the installer; accept all defaults.
2. Create file /nsr/res/servers containing two lines. \x{25e6} In a Terminal window, enter sudo pico /nsr/res/servers. \x{25e6} Type hoover.uwaterloo.ca. \x{25e6} Type hoover.private.uwaterloo.ca. \x{25e6} Save the file (^O) and exit from pico (^X). \x{25e6} Enter sudo /bin/launchctl stop com.emc.NetWorker
3. Restrict backup service to a limited set of network ports. \x{25e6} In a Terminal window, enter sudo /usr/bin/nsrports -S 7937-7941 \x{25e6} sudo /bin/launchctl stop com.emc.NetWorker
4. If we are not instructed otherwise we will backup entire system, all drives and directories.

Verify backup operation You may now inform the backup server operator that your client installation is complete. The operator will probably make sure that the backup server is able to communicate with your computer to be backed up. The backup operator will also enter the name of your computer into the list of computers to be backed up. You should receive email each time the backup server attempts to back up your workstation/laptop/server. The success or failure of the backup will be indicated in the email.

Mac OS X - Overriding DHCP- or VPN-assigned DNS servers

The web page Overriding DHCP- or VPN-assigned DNS servers in Mac OS X provides information about overriding DHCP-defined DNS servers. This may be useful in producing a solution for Mac NetWorker backup problems. -- StephenNickerson - 2014-07-16