AVAMAR

IMPLEMENTATION

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 Table of Contents

Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) Overview ................................................................... 3

What Is AVE ........................................................................................................................ 3
AVE Supported Environments.............................................................................................. 5
AVE Integration .................................................................................................................... 6
Server Replication................................................................................................................ 7
AVE and Data Domain Integration ....................................................................................... 8

Avamar Installation .................................................................................................. 10

Pre-Requisites - AVE Installation ....................................................................................... 10
Avamar System Utilities for Implementation ....................................................................... 15
Avamar System Utilities - Commands ................................................................................ 18
AVE Installation in VMware Environment ........................................................................... 19
Commercial DPS Deployer ................................................................................................ 36
Post Installation Configuration............................................................................................ 43

Avamar Upgrade ...................................................................................................... 46

Avamar OS Enhancements ................................................................................................ 46
Upgrade Requirements and Best Practices........................................................................ 48
Upgrading Avamar Software .............................................................................................. 49
Post-Upgrade Activities ...................................................................................................... 53

Course Summary ..................................................................................................... 57

Course Summary ............................................................................................................... 57

Avamar ...................................................................................................................... 58
Avamar .............................................................................................................................. 58

Appendix ................................................................................................. 61

Glossary .................................................................................................. 73

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 Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) Overview

Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) Overview

What Is AVE

Deployed

AVE or Single-Node Avamar Virtual host server

Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) is a simplified, single-node version of Avamar

software for easy deployment in virtual environments.

AVE integrates1 the latest version of Avamar software (v19.2) with the SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 Service Pack (SP) 4 as a single package.

A customer or Dell EMC personnel can install an AVE. AVE provides the following
features:

1 The AVE is integrated as a prepackaged virtual machine, instance, or machine

image depending on the environment.

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Rapid Simplified Lower Cost of Reduced cost of

Deployment2 Management3 Ownership4 support5

2AVE can be deployed rapidly its supported environments such as VMware,

Hyper-V, AWS, Azure, etc.

3 AVE enables simplified management by virtualizing all aspects of the backup and
recovery solution

4 AVE lowers the cost of ownership by sharing server and storage infrastructure.

5 AVE reduces the cost of support and maintenance on the hardware and the need
for backup administrators at the remote sites.

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 Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) Overview

AVE Supported Environments

AVE can be deployed in the following environments:

• VMware ESXi 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7

• Microsoft Azure
• Hyper-V
• Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM)
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Go to the E-Lab Navigator for information about supported versions.

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AVE Integration

Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) integrates the latest version of Avamar software with
the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) as a prepackaged virtual machine,
instance, or machine image, depending upon the environment.

Supported environments include:

AVE for VMware AVE for Azure AVE for Hyper-V AVE for KVM AVE for AWS

AVE is not scalable to a multinode Avamar server, and resizing the virtual machine
is not supported. However, the storage capacity can be increased using other
techniques.

Important: This course covers detailed installation and upgrade

procedures about AVE in a VMware environment. For detailed
information about the Installation and Upgrade procedure for other
environments, see Dell EMC Avamar Virtual Edition Installation and
Upgrade Guide.

Note: Cloud environments can be used for Cloud Disaster Recovery

(CDR) and archiving the backup data.

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Server Replication

Remote Office
AVE1
Data Center

(
Remote Office
AVE2 Remote Office

(
(

Avamar Data Store

An Avamar replication job copies client backups from the source Avamar system to
an alternate destination. The destination can be an AVE server or a physical
Avamar server depending on the use cases. In the event of a disaster that prevents
recovery of backups from the source Avamar system, the backup from the Avamar
server to which the Avamar source was replicated can be used to recover data.

In the figure:

(1) Two of the remote sites have a local AVE server.

(2) One site has a local physical Avamar server.
(3) Both sites replicate their backup data to a larger central Avamar server.

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AVE and Data Domain Integration

Avamar Server

AUI

MS Exchange Server Data Domain System

Data Domain systems can be used as storage for Avamar backup data. Using a
Data Domain for storage can provide faster backup and recovery, especially for
large active databases. Backup data is sent directly from the client to the Data
Domain system using DD Boost technology.

Backup metadata used to identify files and backup is stored on the local storage of
the Avamar Server . Backups can then be managed through the Avamar system.

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Supported Clients6 Maintenance Activities7 Checkpoints and

Recovery8

Important: References to Data Domain systems in this course, in the

UI, and elsewhere in the product include Data Domain systems and
the new PowerProtect DD systems.

6AVE with DD integration supports all Avamar clients which include File System,
Oracle, NDMP, SAP with Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SharePoint VSS, Microsoft
Exchange VSS, Sybase, Hyper-V VSS, Microsoft SQL Server, Lotus/Domino,
VMware image backup and restore.

7 Avamar and Data Domain follow different schedules for maintenance activities.
However, maintenance activities that are performed on the Avamar data that are
stored on Data Domain are controlled by Avamar. This means a backup that has
expired or been deleted on the Avamar server is also deleted from the Data
Domain. Avamar garbage collection, checkpoints, rollbacks, HFS checks, and
replication are also performed on Data Domain.

8 You can store checkpoints for a single-node Avamar server or AVE on a Data
Domain system, which is referred to as checkpoint backups. Avamar takes a
checkpoint of the metadata and instructs the Data Domain to take a snapshot of
the Avamar data stored on it. Hence, to recover from a disaster, a checkpoint
backup and its corresponding snapshot are required. This is useful in environments
that do not have a secondary Avamar server and Data Domain system for
replication, as well as in environments where most backups are stored on a Data
Domain system.

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Avamar Installation

Pre-Requisites - AVE Installation

Appropriate Environments for AVE

The following factors affect the reliability, availability, and supportability of an AVE
virtual machine:
• I/O performance capability of an AVE storage subsystem
• Amount of data added daily to the AVE virtual machine.
• Capacity used within the AVE virtual machine

The file server9 and mixed10 environments are used to determine the proper
implementation of an AVE.

Capacity File Server Data Mixed Data

Configuration

0.5 TB AVE Less than 2 GB per day Less than 5 GB per day

1 TB AVE Less than 4 GB per day Less than 10 GB per day

2 TB AVE Less than 8 GB per day Less than 20 GB per day

9 File server environments include only file system data.

10Mixed environments include file system data and structured data (for example,
database data).

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4 TB AVE Less than 20 GB per day Less than 20 GB per day

8 TB AVE Less than 40 GB per day Less than 40 GB per day

16 TB AVE Less than 80 GB per day Less than 80 GB per day

Note: The capacities that are mentioned in the above table are post
deduplication. The size of the actual source data that can be
protected can be much larger.

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Pre-Requisites - AVE Installation

The following pre-requisites must be reviewed before an AVE installation in a
VMware environment:

System Virtual Disk Software Verify Domain Network

Requirements Requirements Requirements Name Server Requirements
(DNS)
Configuration.11

11The DNS verification task applies only to the deployment of AVE on VMware,
Hyper-V, and Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) environments.

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Disk Configuration - Best Practices

Thick Provision Thin

Provision

Lazy Zeroing
Eager Zeroing

RAID 1 RAID 10

Virtual machines use virtual disks for storage. These disks can be set to thin
provision or thick provision12, which are also referred to as dynamic and fixed in
Hyper-V. AVE uses thick provisioned disks.

Similarly, virtual disks can be either eager zeroed13 or lazy zeroed14.

12 When thick provisioning is used, all disk space is allocated upon creation of the
virtual disk.

13 Eager zeroing zeroes out all disk blocks at the time of disk creation.

14Lazy zeroing waits until the first write to a disk block before that block is zeroed
out.

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Lazy zeroing is used during installation which can be converted to eager zeroing15
later for better performance.

Important: It is a recommended best practice to use either RAID 1 or

RAID 1016 protection for storage.

15The drawback of using Eager Zeroing is even though eager zeroing provides
better initial performance during the operation of the AVE, creating eager zeroed
disks can take hours and can lead to timeout errors during installation.

16These RAID levels provide the best performance for virtual machines with high
disk usage.

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Avamar System Utilities for Implementation

Configuration File: mcserver.xml

• The mcserver.xml17 file stores configuration options for the MCS process.
• Some configuration changes necessitate editing18 the file.
• After editing the mcserver.xml file, restart the process19.

17
The mcserver.xml file stores settings for ConnectEMC, LDAP, Desktop/Laptop,
VMware integration, and other operations.

18
The mcserver.xml file stores settings for ConnectEMC, LDAP, Desktop/Laptop,
VMware integration, and other operations.

19To restart the msc process, enter the commands dpnctl stop msc and dpnctl start
msc. Also, be sure to start the backup scheduler process if it was previously
running with dpnctl start. This process shuts down whenever mcs is stopped.

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Node Resource Database File: probe.xml

• The probe.xml20 file supports both the Network Address Translation (NAT) and
multiple network interfaces.
• Different node types21 can be specified in probe.xml.
• The probe.xml file is created using the dpnnetutil utility with information that is
obtained during the installation procedure.

20The probe.xml file is a node resource database file that stores the types and IP
addresses of Avamar server nodes.

21Node types that are specified in probe.xml include utility, storage, access,
accelerator, spare, single-node server, and unclassified. Probe.xml supports both
Network Address Translation (NAT) and multiple network interfaces.

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Loading SSH Keys

Some Avamar commands and utilities, such as mapall, authenticate against all
nodes in a multinode Avamar system. To avoid having to provide a password for
each node, load the appropriate ssh keys using the admin_key from the utility
node.

To run a command as root user, load the root key ssh-add ~/.ssh/rootid followed
by the passphrase when prompted.

To run a command as user admin, load the following keys and supply the admin
key paraphrase when prompted.
• admin ssh keys su – admin
• ssh-agent bash
• ssh-add ~/.ssh/admin_key

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Avamar System Utilities - Commands

The following commands can be used to access Avamar system utilities:

nodenumbers mapall avmaint ssn scn dpnctl getlogs

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AVE Installation in VMware Environment

The deployment of AVE virtual machine in a VMware environment can be

performed using one of the two possible templates:

OVA 22 OVF23

22During an AVE OVA template deployment, three 250 GB virtual disks are created
that match the 0.5 TB configuration. These virtual disks can be reused for the 1 TB
configuration as well. For any other configurations (2 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB, and 16 TB)
deployment requires you to remove these virtual disks and create disks of the
appropriate size.

23During an AVE OVF template deployment, no virtual disks are created. You must
manually create the virtual disks as per the configurations used in the environment.
Similarly, you must configure additional network configuration during the
deployment itself. In case of an AVE OVF template deployment, all supporting files
should be available in the system.

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The following tasks must be performed The following tasks must be

while deploying AVE virtual machine using performed while deploying AVE virtual
an OVA template: machine using an OVF template:
1. Prepare a virtual machine OVA. 1. Prepare a virtual machine OVF.
2. Create additional virtual hard disks (for 2. Create additional virtual hard
2, 4, 8, and 16 TB configuration). disks.
3. Install and Configure the Avamar 3. Configure network settings.
software. 4. Install and Configure the Avamar
software.

Deploying the AVE Virtual Machine Using OVA Template

Step 1

Right-click the ESXi host and click Deploy OVF Template.

Step 2

In the Select an OVF template tab, select Local files, choose the OVA file from
your local machine, and, then, click Open.

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Step 3

In the Select a name and folder tab, provide a name to the virtual machine, then
select Avamar, and click NEXT. In the Select a compute resource tab, select the
destination and click NEXT.

Step 4

Review the Avamar Virtual Edition details under the Review details tab and click
NEXT. Then, accept the license agreement and click NEXT.

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Step 5

In the Select storage tab, select the virtual disk format as Thick Provision Lazy
Zeroed and select AVE-DE datastore, and click NEXT. In the Select networks tab,
keep the default VM network and click NEXT.

Step 6

In the Customize template tab, enter the network configuration details and click
NEXT.

Finally, review the AVE deployment details and click FINISH to start with the
deployment of the VM.

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Deploying the AVE Virtual Machine Using OVF Template

To deploy an AVE virtual machine, you must log in to the vSphere Client with your
credentials.

Once logged in to the vSphere Client, follow these steps to deploy an AVE virtual
machine using an OVF template:

Step 1

Right-click the ESXi host and click Deploy OVF Template.

Step 2

In the Select an OVF template tab, select Local files, choose the OVF and VMDK
file from your local machine, and, then, click Open.

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Step 3

In the Select a name and folder tab, provide a name to the virtual machine, then
select Avamar, and then click NEXT. In the Select a compute resource tab, select
the esx and then click NEXT.

Step 4

Review the Avamar Virtual Edition details under the Review details tab and click
NEXT. Then, accept the license agreement and click NEXT.

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Step 5

In the Select storage tab, select the virtual disk format as Thick Provision Lazy
Zeroed, then select AVE-DE datastore, and then click NEXT. In the Select
networks tab, keep the default VM network and then click NEXT.

Step 6

Finally, review the AVE deployment details and click FINISH to start with deploying
the VM.

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Once the AVE virtual machine is deployed, the next step is to create additional
virtual hard disks depending on the AVE configurations.

Create Additional Virtual Hard Disks - OVA and OVF Template

Once the AVE virtual machine is deployed, the next step is to create additional
virtual hard disks. The addition of a virtual hard disk is a similar process in both
OVA and OVF template AVE virtual machine deployment.

Additional hard disks 'do not' must be created for a 0.5 TB AVE configuration when
using an OVA template.24

24 If you are using OVA template to deploy a 0.5 TB AVE virtual machine, then
three additional hard disks are automatically created at the time of deployment. For

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Additional hard disks 'do' must be created for all the AVE configuration when using
an OVF template.25

The following steps show how to create additional virtual hard disks:

Step 1

Right-click the AVE virtual machine, and select the Edit Settings option.

other configurations (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 TB), you must create additional hard disks
based on the requirement.

25 If you are using an OVF template to deploy an AVE virtual machine, only system
hard disk (160 GB) is created automatically at the time of deployment. You must
manually add additional virtual hard disks for all the AVE configurations (0.5, 1, 2,
4, 8, 16 TB) based on the requirements.

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Step 2

Under the Virtual Hardware tab, you can add additional virtual hard disks by
clicking ADD NEW DEVICE and selecting Hard Disk.

The number of virtual disks varies based on the AVE configuration used to deploy.

Step 3

Finally, click OK to update the changes.

Note: You can create additional hard disks based on the AVE configuration (1, 2, 4,
8, and 16 TB).

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Configure Network Settings - OVF Deployment

While deploying an AVE using an OVF template, you must configure the network
information using the CLI. In case of deploying an AVE using an OVA template,
you are configuring the network settings while deploying the AVE virtual machine.

The following steps demonstrate how to configure the network settings when using
an OVF template to deploy an AVE:

Step 1

Log in to the console as root and will automatically open the network configuration
page.

Step 2

Enter 1 to configure the IPV4 IP Configuration and then press 4 to return to the
main menu.

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Step 3

Enter 3 to configure the DNS settings, which include Primary Nameserver,

Hostname/FQDN, and return back to the main menu.

Step 4

In the main menu, review the network configuration, and then enter 5 to save the
changes and exit.

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Step 5

Enable the NTP, and then apply all changes and exit.

Avamar Software Installation

The Avamar software installation process is similar in both OVA and OVF
deployment.

After adding additional hard disks based on the AVE configuration and configuring
network settings, open a web browser and go to https://<Avamar
server>:avi/avigui.html to open the Avamar Installation Manager.

The following steps show how to install an Avamar software using Avamar
Installation Manager:

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Step 126 Step 227 Step 328

Demo: AVE Installation Using OVA Template

In this demonstration, you will learn how to install an AVE using an OVA template.

Movie:

The web version of this content contains a movie.

Demo: AVE Installation Using OVF Template

In this demonstration, you will learn how to install an AVE using an OVF template.

Movie:

The web version of this content contains a movie.

26 Log in to the Avamar Installation Manager with default username and password.

27 The installation package is available under the SW Releases tab. Click INSTALL
to configure details.

28In the Installation Setup tab, enter the Password and Server Settings (Time
Zone). Click SAVE and CONTINUE to start with the installation process.

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Attach a Data Domain Using AUI

You can integrate a Data Domain using Avamar Web User Interface (AUI).

Following steps demonstrates how to attach a Data Domain with Avamar using
AUI.

Step 1

Once the installation is complete, go to https://<Avamar server>/aui to open the

AUI.

Log in to the AUI with the credentials.

Step 2

Once logged in, expand the navigation pane and select

System. Click Data Domain tab and click ADD.

Step 3

Under the System tab, enter the Data Domain system name and DD Boost
credentials, and, then, click VALIDATE.

Once validated, click NEXT.

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Step 4

Under the SNMP tab, enter the SNMP Community String and click NEXT.

Keep the default setting under Tiering tab and click FINISH to attach the Data
Domain.

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Commercial DPS Deployer

Introduction

The Commercial DPS Deployer application is used to deploy and integrate Avamar
Virtual Edition (AVE) and Data Domain Virtual Edition (DDVE). The Commercial
DPS Deployer collects minimal user inputs for both AVE and DDVE and performs
parallel deployment, configuration, and basic integration of Data Domain with
Avamar.

Click to enlarge.

The following system requirements must be met before downloading and launching
the Commercial DPS Deployer:
• Minimum of 7 GB of hard drive space
• Windows 64-bit operating system
• The Operating System should have Java Runtime Environment 1.8 or above.
• Administrator-privilege user account

You can download the application from Dell Support page.

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Install and Integrate AVE and DDVE Using Commercial DPS Deployer
(1 of 2)

Before you launch Commercial DPS Deployer to install and integrate AVE and
DDVE, you must download the AVE OVA file and the DDVE OVA file that come
bundled with the evaluation license on the system.

Here are the steps that are performed while installing and integrating AVE and
DDVE using the Commercial DPS Deployer:

Step 1

Launch the Commercial DPS Deployer application, accept the terms and
conditions, and then click NEXT.

Step 2

Under the License and Configuration tab, select SMALL(500GB AVE, 8TB
DDEV) as the hardware specification, and then upload the AVE and DDVE OVA
files. When the files are uploaded, click NEXT.

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Step 3

Under the vCenter Credentials tab, enter the vCenter Hostname/IP, vCenter
Username, vCenter Password, and, then, click NEXT.

The vCenter IP, Username, and Password is entered to access the vCenter to
which the AVE and DDVE virtual machine will be deployed.

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Step 4

Under the vCenter Resources tab, enter the details such as Datacenter29, Host30,
Datastore31, Network32, and, then, click NEXT.

Note: The information entered in the vCenter Resources tab specifies the location
where the AVE and DDVE will be deployed. It also gives information about the
vCenter resources utilized by the AVE and DDVE virtual machines.

29Datacenter can be created manually. All the virtual machines and hosts are
deployed under the Datacenter.

30Host is the destination location where the virtual machines are deployed. In this
case, the host is esx hypervisor where the AVE and DDVE virtual machines are
deployed.

31 Datastore is a storage container for all the virtual machine files. This storage is
used by the virtual machines during the deployment. In this case, AVE and DDVE
virtual machines uses AVE-DE and DDVE-DS datstores.

32 Network option provides the networking and communication between hosts and
virtual machines that use virtual switches.

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Install and Integrate AVE and DDVE Using Commercial DPS Deployer
(2 of 2)

Here are the steps involved while installing and integrating AVE and DDVE using
Commercial DPS Deployer:

Step 5

Under the Network Configuration tab, enter the required AVE and DDVE
information such as VM name, IP Address, FQDN Hostname, Subnet Mask,
Gateway, DNS, Timezone. When the information is entered, click NEXT.

Note: All these IP addresses must be configured before and added to the DNS.

Step 6

Under the Account Configuration tab, check the common password field and
enter the common password and DD Boost username. Click NEXT to continue.

Note: The DD Boost username and password need not be pre-configured as this is
a fresh install.

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Step 7

The site information tab is optional. Click NEXT to view the summary. Review the
summary information and click FINISH to start with the installation and integration
of AVE and DDVE.

Step 8

The installation and integration takes 15-20 minutes. Once the installation is
complete, you would be able to login to the AUI and see that the Data Domain is
integrated.

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Activity: Commercial DPS Deployer

In this simulation activity, you will learn how to deploy and integrate AVE and
DDVE using Commercial DPS Deployer.

The web version of this content contains an interactive activity.

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Post Installation Configuration

The following items must be configured after installation. Click each tasks to learn
more.

Configuration Tasks

3 2 1 4

1: Modifying Schedule

The Default Schedule must be modified from its original value so that it starts at the
same time as the Backup Window. This is done by opening the Managing
Schedules window in Avamar Administrator, selecting the Default Schedule, and

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changing its earliest start time to 8:00 PM and the end time to 6:00 AM in the local
time zone.

2: Installing The Avamar Downloader Service

To install the downloader service, transfer the Avamar Downloader Service

installation file to a compatible Windows host and install the software. The
installation adds an Avamar Downloader Service icon to the Control Panel and the
system tray. The installation also adds the AvamarDownloaderService to Windows
Services.

If a site prohibits access to the Internet, copy packages to the

/data01/avamar/repo/packages directory on the utility node or single-node server
instead of installing the Avamar Downloader Service. The AvInstaller manages
download packages that are copied to the directory.

3: Activating Avamar Software using EMC Common Licensing Platform

The procedure below activates the Avamar software in the EMC Common
Licensing Platform.

1. Log in to EMC Online Support using the credentials provided in the EMC
License Authorization (LAC) email.
2. In the Service Center dropdown list, click Manage Licenses.
3. Select Avamar from the list of products.
4. Click Activate my software link. The Activation wizard opens.
5. Search for the license by entering the License Authorization Code(LAC) and
click Search.
6. Follow the prompts in the wizard to complete licensing information.
7. After the license key has been generated, download the key to be used when
licensing the software.

4: Enabling Replication

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Replication can be configured by selecting the New Replication Group tab through
the dashboard. Groups can be created as per customer's requirements. Shown in
the image is an example.

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Avamar Upgrade

Avamar OS Enhancements

Previous Releases

Avamar 19.1 and earlier versions had to be deployed in two separate packages.

Avamar 19.1 and Earlier Versions

• Avamar server used SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP4 Operating
System (OS).
• AVP files for Avamar upgrade and OS upgrade came in separate packages that
had to be updated separately.

Avamar 19.2 Version

• Comes with SLES 12 SP4 operating system and service pack (SP) release
• The Avamar upgrade and OS upgrade are combined into a single package that
deploys both.

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Avamar 19.2 - Operating System

In Avamar 19.2, all supported platforms are updated to SLES 12

SP4 operating system (OS) and service pack (SP) release.

• The upgrade replaces the previously used SLES 11 SP4 OS.

• OS upgrade does not affect the functionality or interfaces of the
Avamar software.
• Avamar platform OS security rollup supports server that runs
SLES 12 SP4.
• Underlying OS commands are changed from systemv to
systemd.
• Underlying libraries are upgraded.

Upgrade Path

The Avamar system cannot be updated to version 19.2 from any version other than
Avamar 19.1. In such cases, upgrade the system to 19.1 from 18.2 or earlier
version, and, then, upgrade to 19.2.

Avamar Avamar

OS - SLES11 SP4 OS - SLES12

SP4
Avamar Avamar
18.2 19.1

OS needs to be upgraded to SLES11 SP4 to

upgrade to Avamar 19.2

Avamar 18.2 Avamar 19.2

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Upgrade Requirements and Best Practices

Following are some of the requirements and best practices that must be kept in
mind before initiating an AVE upgrade:

Upgrade Client and Upgrade Tape-out Stop Replication Tasks35

Database Plug-ins33 Applications34

33Before initiating an AVE upgrade, you must upgrade few components in an

Avamar environment in order to retain compatibility.1) If you are using an Avamar
VMware or NDMP plug-in, these plug-ins must be upgraded to a supported version
before upgrading an AVE.2) If you are using Avamar along with NetWorker, the
NetWorker software must be upgraded to a supported version before an AVE
upgrade.

34The Avamar Data Migration Enabler (ADMe) must be upgraded to the 19.12
version before performing an AVE upgrade for better performance.

35Any active replication session must be canceled before performing the AVE
upgrade, otherwise the upgrade process may fail.

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Upgrading Avamar Software

The AVE upgrade workflow package provides a customer-enabled way to upgrade

the Avamar software on an AVE virtual machine.

Step 1

Download the AVE upgrade workflow package from Dell Support or Avamar
Downloader Service or Local Downloader Service (LDLS).

Step 2

Open a web browser and log in to the Avamar Installation Manager by entering
https://Avamar-server:7543/avi.

Avamar-server is the IP address or the hostname of the Avamar server.

Log in as root for the Avamar software.

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Step 3

Under the Repository tab, upload the Avamar Upgrade avp package and wait until
the status of the package is accepted.

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Step 4

Click the SW Upgrade tab, and, then click Install to initiate the Avamar upgrade.

Step 5

On the Installation Setup page, enter the required information, click Save and
then Continue.

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Step 6

During the upgrade process, the Avamar server restarts and the new HTML5
based interface is displayed.

Step 7

Log in to the Avamar Installation Manager and click Monitor to view the progress
of the upgrade.

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Post-Upgrade Activities

Review the following activities after the upgrade, and perform all tasks that apply.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1: Verify and Enable Swap Partitions.

After the upgrade, verify the swap partition and, if necessary, correct the partition
name. The task applies only to AWS virtual environment.

1. Open a command shell and log in to the AVE instance as admin.

2. Switch user to root by typing the command: su -
3. Check the swap partition status by typing the command: swapon -s; if the
partition is enabled, skip the remaining steps
4. Verify the swap partition name by typing: fdisk -l|grep swap
5. Using a text editor, such as vi, open /etc/fstab: vi /etc/fstab
6. Locate the line for the existing swap partition.
7. Replace the existing swap partition name with the name of the swap partition
that was recorded.
8. Save and close the file.

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9. Enable the swap partition by typing the command: swapon -a

10. Check the swap partition status by typing the following command: swapon -s

2: Start Avamar schedulers.

Ensure that the backup and maintenance schedulers are active after the upgrade.

1. Open a command shell and log in to the server as admin.

2. Start the backup scheduler by typing the following command: dpnctl start
sched
Identity added: /home/admin/.ssh/admin_key
(/home/admin/.ssh/admin_key)
dpnctl: INFO: Resuming backup scheduler...
dpnctl: INFO: Backup scheduler resumed.

3. Start the maintenance scheduler by typing the command: dpnctl start maint
4. Start the backup scheduler by typing the following command: dpnctl start
sched

Identity added: /home/admin/.ssh/admin_key

(/home/admin/.ssh/admin_key)
dpnctl: INFO: Resuming maintenance windows scheduler...
dpnctl: INFO: maintenance windows scheduler resumed.

3: Verify Avamar Services

Ensure that the backup and maintenance schedulers are active after the upgrade.

1. Open a command shell and log in to the server as admin

2. Verify that all services are online by typing the following command: dpnctl
status

Identity added: /home/admin/.ssh/admin_key

(/home/admin/.ssh/admin_key)
dpnctl: INFO: gsan status: up
dpnctl: INFO: MCS status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: emt status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: Backup scheduler status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: Maintenance windows scheduler status: enabled.
dpnctl: INFO: Unattended startup status: enabled.

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dpnctl: INFO: avinstaller status: up.

dpnctl: INFO: ConnectEMC status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: ddrmaint-service status

4: Restart Avamar Proxy Clients

If Avamar Proxy clients are installed, perform the following steps.

1. Switch user to root by typing: su -

2. Restart the proxy clients by typing: mccli mcs reboot-proxy --all=true
3. Switch user to admin by typing exit

5: Test Data Domain Integration

If the AVE is configured with Data Domain, verify the status of the Data Domain
integration. Open any service requests with Customer Support when problems
occur.

The Avamar and Data Domain System Integration Guide contains information
about how to add a Data Domain system to the Avamar server and then verify it.

6: Generate New Certificates for Data Domain systems

If session ticket authentication was enabled during the upgrade of an AVE with
Data Domain, you must generate new certificates on the Data Domain system. See
the Avamar Product Security Guide for more information.

7: Set a passphrase on Data Domain systems

After upgrading an AVE that is connected to a Data Domain system, enable a

passphrase for the DD Boost user by performing the following steps:

1. Log in to the Data Domain system.

2. Type the following command at the Data Domain CLI: system passphrase set
3. Type a passphrase when prompted.

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8: Test Replication

Verify the status of all the replications that are configured before the AVE upgrade.
Open any service requests with Customer Support in case of any issues. The
Avamar Administration Guide contains more information about replication.

9: Upgrade the Avamar client downloads.

To learn about the procedures to install client packages, see the Avamar Client
Downloads and Client Manager Installer Upgrades Technical Note, available at the
Dell support website.

10: Install server Hotfixes And The Security Patch Rollup

Dell EMC releases server hotfixes and the Avamar platform OS security patch
rollup on a periodic basis. Install hotfixes and the security patches on new and
existing AVE systems. The Avamar Administration Guide contains information
about installing hotfixes.

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 Course Summary

Course Summary

Course Summary

You have reached the end of the course.

Here are the key takeaways:

• AVE is a simplified, single-node version of Avamar software suitable for easy
deployment in virtual environments.
• Avamar replication is used to recover data in the event of a disaster. An Avamar
replication job copies client backups from the source Avamar system to an
alternate destination.
• Review pre-requisites, such as system requirements, virtual disk requirements,
software requirements, DNS configuration, and network requirements, before
installing an AVE in a virtual environment.
• The deployment of an AVE virtual machine in a VMware environment can be
performed using either OVA or OVF templates.
• The Commercial DPS Deployer application is used to deploy and integrate AVE
and DDVE.
• Must review and perform all configuration tasks post installation.
• Unlike previous releases, Avamar 19.2, combines Avamar upgrade and OS
upgrade into a single package that deploys both.
• Upgrade to Avamar version 19.2 can only be performed from version 19.1.
Earlier versions must be upgraded to 19.1 before they can be upgraded to 19.2
version.

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 Avamar

Avamar

Avamar

DECS-SA Avamar Specialist Exam for DECS-IE Avamar Specialist Exam for
Systems Administrator36 Implementation Engineers37

36The courses listed in the curriculum focus on individual readiness to configure,

administer, operate, and use Avamar. The exam covers Avamar terminology,
concepts, procedures, and best practices across all supported Avamar
configurations and editions, including Avamar Virtual Edition.

37 The courses listed in the curriculum focus on individual readiness to install,

upgrade, deploy, implement, integrate with Data Domain, and maintain Avamar in
single and multi-node environments. Post-implementation skills such as
administering, monitoring, and supporting Avamar are also evaluated. The exam
covers Avamar terminology, concepts, procedures, best practices, and supported
Avamar configurations and editions, including Avamar Data Store and Avamar
Virtual Edition.

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 Avamar

Systems Administrator, Implementation Engineer,

Avamar Avamar

A. Avamar Concepts (ODC) A. Avamar Concepts (ODC)

B. Avamar Administration (ODC, ODL) B. Avamar Implementation (ODC, ODL)
C. Avamar Administration (ODC, ODL)
OR
D. Avamar Installation and Maintenance
A. Avamar Administration (C, VC) (ODC, ODL)

OR

A. Avamar Implementation and Administration

(C, VC)
B. Avamar Installation and Maintenance
(ODC, ODL)

OR

Information Storage and Management Data Protection and Management

A. Information Storage and Management A. Data Protection and Management (C, ODC)
(C, VC, ODC)

(C) - Classroom

(VC) - Virtual Classroom

(ODC) - On Demand Course

(ODL) - On Demand Lab

For more information, visit: http://dell.com/certification

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Appendix

AVE for VMware

AVE on VMWare supports backup of physical and virtual clients. For a physical
client, you must install the Avamar client software on each client.

Virtual clients can be backed up in two ways:

• Guest operating system backup: Require the Avamar client software to be
installed on each virtual machine
• Image backup: require a proxy

AVE is compatible with VMWare ESXi versions 6.0, 6.5 and 6.7.

Azure
AVE on Azure supports replication in the cloud. It can be used to replicate on-
premises physical and virtual Avamar servers, including non-Azure types of AVEs.
However, for security reasons, replication should be performed using a VPN, VPC,
or a direct link.

AVE on Azure is certified to support Azure Government Cloud (US), which provides
the ability for U.S. residents (government agencies and customers) to move
sensitive workloads into the cloud.

Hyper-V
AVE runs as a Virtual Machine in a Windows environment using Hyper-V Manager.
The latest version of Avamar software is installed as a Hyper-V Virtual Machine.
AVE for Hyper-V supports all disk capacity configurations.

KVM
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization infrastructure that has been
merged into the Linux kernel. AVE can be installed as a Virtual Machine on
Openstack KVM. Running AVE on a KVM environment requires a distribution file

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Appendix

for the AVE. AVE integrates the latest version of Avamar software with SUSE Linux
as an OpenStack instance.

AVE for KVM is distributed as a .qcow2 file. Qcow2 is a file format for KVM disk
images. Unlike the OVA file used in VMware, the virtual machine settings, such as
memory CPU and disk configurations, are configured manually.

AWS
AVE on AWS can be used to replicate on-premises physical and virtual Avamar
servers, including non-AWS types of AVEs. However, for security reasons,
replication should be performed using a VPN, VPC, or a direct link.

AVE for AWS is certified to provide support for AWS GovCloud (US), which
provides the ability for U.S. residents (government agencies and customers) to
move sensitive workloads into the cloud.

Increasing Capacity
You can increase storage capacity by either of the following methods:
1. Deploying additional AVE virtual machines: divide backups among the virtual
machines
2. Replacing a larger virtual machine: replicate data to a temporary location, create
a larger virtual machine, move back the replicated data

Avamar replication
Avamar replication is used to recover data in the event of a disaster. Replication
prevents data loss in case the source Avamar system fails.

Use Cases for Avamar Replication

Depending on the destination server for replication, the following use cases may be
considered:

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• In cases where the target is Avamar with Data Domain integration, the capacity
is scalable, and the clients can be directly restored to the target server without
complications.
• AVE-to-AVE and Avamar with Data Domain Virtual Edition deployments may
pose scalability issues. This also carries elevated risks compared to using a
physical Avamar setup, due to the dependency on the health of the virtual
environment.

System Requirements
ESXi versions 5.1i, 5.5i, 6.0i, 6.5i, and 6.7i and Windows 2012, Windows 2016, and
2012 R2 are supported by the latest versions of AVE.

Requiremen 0.5 TB 1 TB 2 TB 4 TB 8 TB 16 TB
ts AVE AVE AVE AVE AVE AVE

Processors Minimum Minimum Minimum Minimum Minimum Minimum

two 2 two 2 two 2 four 2 eight 2 sixteen 2
GHz GHz GHz GHz GHz GHz
processo processo processo processo processo processo
rs rs rs rs rs rs

Memory 6 GB 8 GB 16 GB 36 GB 48 GB 96 GB

Disk Space 935 GB 1,685 GB 3,185 GB 6,185 GB 12,185 24,185

GB GB

Network 1 GbE connection

Connection

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Virtual Disk Requirements

The AVE disk layout consists of one operating system (OS) disk38 and several
storage partitions39.

The table below defines the number and size of the virtual disks that are required
for each capacity configuration.

Capacity Configuration Number of Virtual Disks

0.5 TB 3 storage partitions (250 GB each)40

1 TB 6 storage partitions (250 GB each)

2 TB 3 storage partitions (1000 GB each)

4 TB 6 storage partitions (1000 GB each)

38 The OS disk stores the operating system, Avamar application, and log files.

39Backup data is stored in the storage partitions. All the data is evenly distributed
across the storage partitions. The primary portion of the disk read, write, and seek
usage occurs on the storage partitions. You need to distribute the storage partitions
across high-performance logical units in order to improve the performance in a
storage configuration.

40 An AVE .ova installation creates three 250 GB storage partitions along with the
OS disk and hence requires approximately 935 GB of free disk space during the
installation.
However, an AVE .ovf installation does not create storage partitions during
installation and therefore requires only enough disk space for the OS disk at the
time of installation. You need to manually create additional storage partitions.

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8 TB 12 storage partitions (1000 GB each)

16 TB 12 storage partitions (2000 GB each)

Software Requirements

Requirement Description

Applications • PuTTY

Files • AVE installation package

• OS security patches

Network Requirements
The following information needs to be gathered before installing AVE:
• Hostnames and IP addresses for the AVE virtual machine and the DNS server
• Gateway, netmask, and domain of the AVE virtual machine
• Firewall access

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Appendix

nodenumbers

The nodenumbers command generates a table that shows the logical node
number, physical node number, IP address, and MAC address of each node in an
Avamar server. This utility requires a valid probe.xml file in order to resolve
MODULE.NODE designations into actual IP addresses. The SYSPROBEDIR
environment variable typically stores the path to a directory containing a valid
probe.xml file. If SYSPROBEDIR is not set, the default probe.xml location is used.
You can also override this location with the --nodedb=FILE option.

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mapall

The mapall command runs the same command on all of the nodes in the Avamar
server. It uses probe.xml to resolve MODULE.NODE designations into IP
addresses. mapall is a utility used to perform operations on all of the nodes in an
Avamar server. Some Avamar commands or utilities run mapall from within their
execution. The mapall utility uses probe.xml to resolve MODULE.NODE
designations into IP addresses. If a probe.xml file is not found, then a legacy
probe.out file is used. To avoid password prompts, first load the SSH keys.

The format of the command: mapall <options> ‘command’, where the

command can be any valid operating system command on the remote system.
Common options include:

• --all: Runs command on all nodes in the system. If not supplied, command is
only run on the storage nodes
• --bg: Runs command in the background and does not wait for it to complete
• --nodes = NODELIST: Runs command on these nodes
• --noerror: Continue if error occurs
• --parallel: Runs command on each node simultaneously

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avmaint

The avmaint command is a command line maintenance and statistics gathering

program for the Avamar server. The avmaint utility is a highly complex program
with many powerful sub-commands. The Dell EMC Avamar Technical Addendum
documents all forms of the avmaint command. Other Avamar guides that document
the use of this command give the specific form needed.

The following are some of the examples of avmaint command:

• Applying a license: avmaint license /tmp/license_key_file --
avamaronly
• Verifying license installation: avmaint license --avamaronly

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ssn

The ssn command is the Avamar secure remote shell program. This program
wraps the OpenSSH ssh program to accept simpler MODULE.NODE designations.
The ssn utility requires a valid probe.xml file in order to resolve MODULE.NODE
designations into actual IP addresses. If a probe.xml file is not found, then a legacy
probe.out file is used. The SYSPROBEDIR environment variable typically stores
the path to a directory containing a valid probe.xml file. If SYSPROBEDIR is not
set, the default probe.xml location (/usr/local/avamar/var/) is used. You can also
override this location with the –nodedb = FILE option. This utility reads a default
operating system user ID from the SYSPROBEUSER environment variable. If
SYSPROBEUSER is not set, then remote commands are run as user admin.

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scn

The scn command is the Avamar secure file copy program. The scn program uses
MODULE.NODE (0.0, for example) to represent a source or destination instead of
a hostname. This utility requires a valid probe.xml file to resolve MODULE.NODE
designations into actual IP addresses. If a probe.xml file is not found, then a legacy
probe.out file is used.

The scn program copies to or from the running nodes. The probe.xml file specifies
running status of a node by the connected attribute’s setting. True indicates a node
is running, and false indicates it is not running.

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dpnctl

Use the dpnctl utility to manually start up, stop, enable, disable, and check the
status of Avamar server subsystems. It implements unattended automated
shutdowns, and restarts of single-node servers as well as simplifies shutdowns and
restarts on all Avamar servers. The dpnctl utility is run from the command line on
the Avamar single node server or utility node of a multi-node Avamar server. The
slide shows an example of running dpnctl status. Note that the server subsystems
are listed in the status display.

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Appendix

getlogs

The getlogs command gathers important log files from all server nodes and
writes them to local utility node directories, where they can be viewed and analyzed
to support maintenance and troubleshooting activities.

The getlogs command accepts an optional file name (FILE). If not supplied, the
default file name, logs.DATE.tar is used. The getlogs program copies getnodelogs
to each node in the system and runs it. The getlog s command then gathers the
important log files from that node and compresses them into a single tar file
(nodelogs.tgz).

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Glossary
Avamar Virtual Edition
Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) is a single-node, non-RAIN (Redundant Array of
Independent Nodes) Avamar server that runs in various environments.

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