Using Arcserve UDP Agent (Linux) › How to Integrate and Automate Arcserve UDP Agent (Linux) with the Existing IT Environment › Verify the Recovery Points are Usable

Verify the Recovery Points are Usable

The d2dverify utility helps to verify the recovery points from various backup sessions are usable. Typically, backup jobs run every day and when you have multiple recovery points you may not be sure if the recovery points are usable for data recovery during a system failure. To avoid such situations, you can perform BMR jobs periodically to verify if the backups are useable. The d2dverify utility helps you automate the task of verifying the usability of the recovery points.

After you set up the required parameters, the d2dverify utility submits the BMR job and recovers data to the specified VM. Then d2dverify starts the VM and runs a script to verify if the applications in the VM function properly. You can also create a schedule to run the d2dverify utility periodically using system utilities such as Linux Cron. For example, you can run the d2dverify utility after the last backup of a recovery set. In such case, d2dverify verifies all recovery points in that recovery set.

Note: To know more about scheduling a job using the Linux Cron scheduler, see Customize the Job Schedule.

The d2dverify utility can also be used in the following scenarios:

• You can use the d2dverify utility to migrate the backups of several physical machines to virtual machines.
• After a hypervisor is recovered, you can use the d2dverify utility to restore all the VMs to the new hypervisor.

Consider the following prerequisites before you use the d2dverify utility:

• Identify the source nodes whose backup you want to verify.
• Identify a hypervisor on which VMs will be created.
• Create VMs for each node that you want to verify. Assign the VM name in the following format:

  verify_<node name>
  

  Note: You do not require to attach virtual hard disks for these VMs. And you may not attach virtual network to these VMs if you specify "vm_network" parameters.

• Review the network requirements
• Identify a network in which the VMs will be connected.

  Note: The d2dverify utility supports the static IP network only.

Important! If the database has the node account information related to a non-root user, then d2dverify will reset the password of the non-root user to 'CAd2d@2013 for the target VM.

Network Requirements:

When you use d2dverify, it is recommended to keep the target VMs in an isolated virtual network to avoid any conflict with the production environment. In such cases, the target VMs must be connected to the Backup Server and the backup storage both.

Hypervisor Support:

d2dverify depends on the d2drestorevm utility to perform the restore. d2dverify supports the following versions of hypervisors:

• XenServer 6.0 and above
• RHEV 3.0 and above
• OVM 3.2

Arguments:

--template

Identifies the template that includes the parameters to run the d2dverify utility.

--createtemplate

Creates an empty template that that includes the parameters to run the d2dverify utility.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Backup Server as a root user.
2. Create the template that is used by the d2dverify utility using the following command:

   d2dverify --createtemplate=file_path
   

3. Open the template and update the following parameters:

   node_list

   Specifies a list of nodes or a query criteria that queries information from the database of the Backup Server. Each node is separated by a comma, such as Node1,Node2,Node3.

   Notes: If the ssh port number is not the default port 22, then the format to specify each node is: Node1:new_port,Node2:new_port,Node3:new_port. The VM name is assigned as verify_<node name>, where node name does not include the port number.

   Example: Node1:222,Node2:333,Node4:333

   The following list is an example of query criteria:

   [node=prefix]

   Finds the node name that contains the defined prefix.

   [desc=prefix]

   Finds the node description that contains the defined prefix.

   guest_ip_list =

   Specifies the list of IP address that is applied to each target node respectively. Each IP address is separated with a comma, such as IP1,IP2,IP3. If there is only one IP address available but there are multiple nodes in the node_list parameter, then the fourth segment of the IP address is increased by one for each node. The d2dverify utility verifies if an IP address has been used. If yes, that IP address is skipped.

   For example, if you have three nodes, Node 1, Node 2, and Node 3, and one IP address, xxx.xxx.xxx.xx6, then the IP address is applied as shown in the following list:

   Node 1: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx6

   Node 2: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx7

   Node 3: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx8

   vm_type

   Specifies the type of the hypervisor. The following three types of hypervisors are valid: xen, ovm, or rhev.

   vm_server

   Specifies the host name or IP address of the hypervisor manager.

   vm_svr_username

   Specifies the user name of the hypervisor manager.

   vm_svr_password

   Specifies the password of the hypervisor manager. The password must be encrypted using the d2dutil --encrypt utility.

   The following command is used to encrypt the password:

   echo "password" | d2dutil --encrypt
   

   vm_network

   Specifies the virtual network that is used by the target VM. It is recommended to specify this parameter when your target VM is connected to multiple virtual networks.

   guest_gateway

   Specifies the network gateway that is used by the guest operating system (OS) of the target VM.

   guest_netmask

   Specifies the net mask that is used by the guest OS of the target VM.

   guest_username

   Specifies the username that is used to connect to the recovered VM. The password is reset to the password specified in the guest_password parameter. The guest_username parameter is ignored when you use the d2dverify utility to query information from the Backup Server database. In such cases, the VM guest password is reset to the node’s password stored in database.

   guest_password

   Specifies the password for the guest_username parameter. The password must be encrypted using the d2dutil --encrypt utility. The guest_password parameter is ignored when you use the d2dverify utility to query information from the Backup Server database.

   storage_location

   Specifies the network path of the backup storage location. You do not have to specify the storage location if the nodes in the node_list parameter are in the Backup Server database. If the storage location is a CIFS share, use the following format to specify the location:

   //hostname/path
   

   storage_username

   Specifies the user name to access the backup storage location. This parameter is not required for an NFS share.

   For a Windows domain user, use the following format to specify the location:

   domain_name/username
   

   storage_password

   Specifies the password to access the backup storage location. The password must be encrypted using the d2dutil --encrypt utility. This parameter is not required for an NFS share.

   recovery_point = last

   Specifies the session that you want to restore. Typically, a recovery session is in the following format: S00000000X, where X is a numeric value. S00000000X is the folder name of the recovery points. If you want to restore the most recent session, specify the keyword 'last'.

   encryption_password

   Specifies the encryption password for the recovery point. The password must be encrypted using the d2dutil --encrypt utility.

   script

   Specifies the script that you want to run. The script runs on the target machine after a successful recovery. If this parameter is not provided, the d2dverify utility runs the ‘ls /proc’ command on the target machine.

   email_to_address

   Specifies the email address of the recipients who will receive reports in an email. You can specify more than one email address, separated by a comma.

   email_subject

   Specifies the subject line of the email.

   report_format

   Specifies the format of the report that you will receive in an email. The format could be either text (.txt) or html.

   Default: html

   node_not_in_db

   Specifies the nodes from the node_list parameters that are not in the Backup Server database. You must specify the storage_* related parameters.

   Value: yes

   stop_vm_after_recovery

   Specifies that the target VM stops after a successful recovery and verification. The values for this parameter are yes and no.

   Default: yes

4. Save and close the template.
5. Run the d2dverify utility using the following command:

   d2dverify --template=file_path
   

Note: The d2dverify utility fails if the nodes in the node_list parameter are added using the public/private key. To resolve this issue, configure the environment variable 'export D2D_SSH_IGNORE_PWD=yes' in the shell environment where you run the d2dverify utility.

The usability of recovery points has been successfully verified.