Backup Central

All-

We're being asked to back up a new Intel-based Mac OS Xserve server
running OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard). We realize OS X 10.6 is not on
the software compatibility guide for either the 7.5.2 client or the 7.6
client (both of which we've tried). We have found a couple of blog posts
from Preston indicating that he was able to get it to work, apparently
without much difficulty, but we've had several problems.

The client is

Model Name: Xserve
Model Identifier: Xserve3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8

System Version: Mac OS X Server 10.6.2 (10C540)
Kernel Version: Darwin 10.2.0
64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes

Our server (which doesn't even factor into these issues) is NetWorker
7.4.5 (soon to be 7.5.2) on RHEL 5.4 on i686.

The issues we're seeing:

- When the OS X sysadmin starts up nsrexecd on the OS X client, he gets:

SystemStarter start NetWorker
Starting NetWorker Client.
/Library/StartupItems/NetWorker/NetWorker: line 10: 4667 Illegal
instruction /usr/sbin/nsrexecd

Despite the complaint, nsrexecd does actually start and stay running,
but "Illegal instruction" doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

- portmapper on the OS X client is apparently supposed to start
automatically as needed (by "launchd"), however when I use "rpcinfo"
to probe the client, it is not started and rpcinfo finds nothing.

- the OS X sysadmin was able to force portmapper to start and stay
running, so that rpcinfo finds it, but even with nsrexecd running,
rpcinfo only shows portmapper. It appears that nsrexecd is not
registering with portmapper, possibly because of the message it
outputs when it starts.

- savegrp probes of the client fail completely:

40473:savegrp: command ' savefs -s nwserver-s.nodak.edu -c
osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu -g BackupGroup -p -l full -R -v' for
client osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu exited with return code 1.
32496:savegrp: job (1090160) host: osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu savepoint:
osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu:All had SEVERE indication(s) at completion.
savegrp BackupGroup: Warning - the job output is NULL
7340:savegrp: osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu:probe abandoned.


Anyone encountered these issues with the OS X client, and have any
suggestions for working around them?

Thanks,

Tim
--
Tim Mooney Tim.Mooney < at > ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure 701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building 701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164


via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

Hi Tim,

Sorry for not responding sooner - it's been a fairly busy couple of weeks for me.

The experiences you've described below pretty much sum up how NetWorker and Snow Leopard have 'deteriorated' since I initially had success. I have to qualify that because it's not technically supported.

Unfortunately when you hit the problems you've experienced, it comes time to reinstall+reboot+reinstall, which usually will resolve the backup.

I've posted today where I'm currently at as far as common errors on Snow Leopard - it's at:

http://nsrd.info/blog/2010/03/11/snow-leopard-networker-redux/

I've also raised a question case with EMC to try to pursue official support. I imagine the best hope will be to aim to get it included in say, 7.6 SP1.

Cheers,

Preston.


On 27/02/2010, at 03:37 , Tim Mooney wrote:

All-

We're being asked to back up a new Intel-based Mac OS Xserve server
running OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard). We realize OS X 10.6 is not on
the software compatibility guide for either the 7.5.2 client or the 7.6
client (both of which we've tried). We have found a couple of blog posts
from Preston indicating that he was able to get it to work, apparently
without much difficulty, but we've had several problems.

The client is

Model Name: Xserve
Model Identifier: Xserve3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8

System Version: Mac OS X Server 10.6.2 (10C540)
Kernel Version: Darwin 10.2.0
64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes

Our server (which doesn't even factor into these issues) is NetWorker
7.4.5 (soon to be 7.5.2) on RHEL 5.4 on i686.

The issues we're seeing:

- When the OS X sysadmin starts up nsrexecd on the OS X client, he gets:

SystemStarter start NetWorker
Starting NetWorker Client.
/Library/StartupItems/NetWorker/NetWorker: line 10: 4667 Illegal
instruction /usr/sbin/nsrexecd

Despite the complaint, nsrexecd does actually start and stay running,
but "Illegal instruction" doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

- portmapper on the OS X client is apparently supposed to start
automatically as needed (by "launchd"), however when I use "rpcinfo"
to probe the client, it is not started and rpcinfo finds nothing.

- the OS X sysadmin was able to force portmapper to start and stay
running, so that rpcinfo finds it, but even with nsrexecd running,
rpcinfo only shows portmapper. It appears that nsrexecd is not
registering with portmapper, possibly because of the message it
outputs when it starts.

- savegrp probes of the client fail completely:

40473:savegrp: command ' savefs -s nwserver-s.nodak.edu -c
osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu -g BackupGroup -p -l full -R -v' for
client osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu exited with return code 1.
32496:savegrp: job (1090160) host: osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu savepoint:
osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu:All had SEVERE indication(s) at completion.
savegrp BackupGroup: Warning - the job output is NULL
7340:savegrp: osx-client-s.ndsu.nodak.edu:probe abandoned.


Anyone encountered these issues with the OS X client, and have any
suggestions for working around them?

Thanks,

Tim
--
Tim Mooney Tim.Mooney < at > ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure 701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building 701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164


via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

--
Preston de Guise

http://nsrd.info/blog NetWorker Blog
http://iamtheanticloud.wordpress.com Confused about Cloud? Get a fresh opinion here
http://www.enterprisesystemsbackup.com "Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A corporate insurance policy"





via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

In regard to: Re: [Networker] NetWorker client on Mac OS 10.6 (Snow...:

Hi Tim,

Sorry for not responding sooner - it's been a fairly busy couple of
weeks for me.

I appreciate the response Preston. I certainly didn't expect any kind of
a deadline on a response.

The experiences you've described below pretty much sum up how NetWorker
and Snow Leopard have 'deteriorated' since I initially had success. I
have to qualify that because it's not technically supported.

Understood.

Unfortunately when you hit the problems you've experienced, it comes
time to reinstall+reboot+reinstall, which usually will resolve the
backup.

Thanks for that info.

I've posted today where I'm currently at as far as common errors on Snow
Leopard - it's at:

http://nsrd.info/blog/2010/03/11/snow-leopard-networker-redux/

I've also raised a question case with EMC to try to pursue official
support. I imagine the best hope will be to aim to get it included in
say, 7.6 SP1.

After not getting any response on the list for a couple of days, I opened
a call too. My call # is 33640358. I've been told that Snow Leopard
won't be supported until 7.6.1. I've also essentially been told that I
can't have early access to 7.6.1 because that release is mainly about
Avamar integration, and if we're not an Avamar customer we're not going to
get it before it's released. Support is hinting it's probably going to be
3-4 months before 7.6.1 is available. Jeanette from support has been
great to work with, but I can't deny that I'm disappointed that we can't
get early access to 7.6.1 just because we're not the target demographic
that product management is looking for on this particular release.

If you find out any additional details about support for Snow Leopard,
please keep the list informed. Otherwise, we're going to be "patiently"
waiting for 7.6.1.

Thanks,

Tim
--
Tim Mooney Tim.Mooney < at > ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure 701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building 701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164


via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

So if I am an Avamar customer how do I go about asking for the early access to the release?

In regard to: [Networker] NetWorker client on Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard),...:

So if I am an Avamar customer how do I go about asking for the early
access to the release?

You can try going through software support. We tried that, but they deemed
my site "not worthy" for early access to the new client, so we're still
waiting for the official release.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney Tim.Mooney < at > ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure 701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building 701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164


via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

We have installed NW 7.6.1 on our backup server in October 2010 on our 19- Mac OS X 10.6 Apple Xserver file servers. Working great now!!!

-John