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FalconStor® File-interface Deduplication System User Guide

Version 1.15

FalconStor Software, Inc.


2 Huntington Quadrangle, Suite 2S01
Melville, NY 11747
Phone: 631-777-5188
Fax: 631-501-7633
Web site: www.falconstor.com

Copyright © 2009-2010 FalconStor Software. All Rights Reserved.


FalconStor Software, FalconStor, and IPStor are registered trademarks of FalconStor Software, Inc. in the United States and other
countries.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
FalconStor Software reserves the right to make changes in the information contained in this publication without prior notice. The reader
should in all cases consult FalconStor Software to determine whether any such changes have been made.

This product is protected by United States Patents Nos. 7,093,127 B2; 6,715,098; 7,058,788 B2; 7,330,960 B2; 7,055,008 B2; 7,469,337
and additional patents pending.

080510.6576
Contents
Introduction
How FDS works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Concepts and components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Installation
Pre-configured physical appliance setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Pre-configured appliance - Delivered components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Physical appliance - Mount the FDS appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Physical appliance - Connect to your storage network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Software appliance kit setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Install an operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Set network information for your FDS appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Install FDS server software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Getting Started
Run the FalconStor Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Launch the web-based console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Install and launch the console on an administrative computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Connect to your FDS server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Configure your FDS server using the configuration wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Step 1: Enter license keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Step 2: Set up network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Step 3: Set hostname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Step 4: Prepare physical devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Step 5: Set up FDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Step 6: Configure deduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Step 7: Create resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Step 8: Create share . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Set the security mode for Windows clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Domain mode configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Map/mount shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Windows clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
NFS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Add NFS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

The FDS Console


Understanding the objects in the tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
FDS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
FDS server object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
FDS Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

FDS User Guide 1


Physical Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Logical Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Console options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
System maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Bond IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Network configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
IPMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Set hostname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Restart FDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Restart network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Reboot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Halt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Rescan physical devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Sort the Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Filter the Event Log. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Export data from the Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Print the Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Create a report or report schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
View a report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Print a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Change a report schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Export data from a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Refresh report display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Delete a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Sample FDS Detailed Statistics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Sample FDS Statistics Summary report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Server properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Directory properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Software patch updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
SNMP traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Mirror the configuration database and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Check mirroring status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Replace a failed disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Fix a minor disk failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Replace a disk that is part of an active mirror configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Swap the primary disk with the mirrored copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Rebuild a mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Suspend/resume mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Deduplication
Reclaim disk space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Check integrity of deduplicated data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Add repository resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Exclude folders from deduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

FDS User Guide 2


Integration examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Veritas™ NetBackup™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Symantec™ Backup Exec™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Statistics
FDS Resources statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Resource-level statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Share and folder-level statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Repository statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Replication
Configure incoming replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
Configure outgoing replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Check replication status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Recover files from a replica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
Exclude folders from replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Change replication properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Manually start replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Suspend/resume replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Multipathing
Load distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Path management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Enable load balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

NIC Port Bonding


Enable NIC Port Bonding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
Change IP address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Email Alerts
Configure Email Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Modify Email Alerts properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
Script/program trigger information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Customize email for a specific trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

Appendix
Firewall ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Maximum number of data streams per FalconStor appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

Index

FDS User Guide 3


Introduction
The FalconStor® File-interface Deduplication System (FDS) is a block-level data
deduplication solution that provides a space-efficient repository for data from:
• Third-party tape backup software, such as: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
(TSM), EMC NetWorker, Veritas NetBackup, Symantec Backup Exec, CA
ARCserve, Arkeia Network Backup, CommVault Simpana, BakBone
NetVault, and VMware Consolidated Backup.
• Third-party disk backup software, such as: Vizioncore vRanger Pro, Idera
SharePoint backup, and Idera SQL safe backup.
• Database backup utilities, such as: Oracle RMAN and SQL-BackTrack.
• Archiving applications, such as: MimosaTM Systems NearPointTM, Arkivio®
auto-stor, CommVault Simpana Archive, Symantec Enterprise Vault, and
Enigma Data Solutions' SmartMove.
• Any other mechanism for delivering data to a network share, such as
FalconStor FileSafeTM.
With FDS, you can reduce your disk storage needs dramatically, allowing you to
maintain far more data on disk while incurring minimal additional storage costs. FDS
can also function as a nearline data repository for project archives, storing older
files, etc.
FDS supports many-to-one data replication, providing a cost-effective Disaster
Recovery (DR) solution. Only deduplicated data is sent over the WAN, providing
bandwidth savings. Smaller offices and remote sites can eliminate tape backup
entirely using the FDS repository. Data restoration is quick and efficient from native
format files rather than from tape backup formats.

FDS User Guide 1


Introduction

How FDS works


FDS uses standard network protocols such as Common Internet File System (CIFS)
or Network File System (NFS) to present a simple, network-based file share as the
target for backed up data. Connection to FDS is a simple matter of mapping to a
share, making it compatible with any application that uses an IP network to store
data.
Each FDS file share holds incoming data, acting as a "disk" for disk-to-disk (D2D)
backup. Based on user policy, deduplication occurs at the scheduled time or on an
as-needed basis.
During deduplication, the system analyzes blocks of data and determines whether
the data is unique or has already been copied to the FDS repository (virtualized
disks that hold deduplicated data). The process then passes only single instances of
unique data to the FDS repository and replaces each deduplicated file with a small
file (called a stub file), whose function is to point to the repository and is used to
retrieve stored data.
Even though the user interface is file-based, deduplication is performed at the block
level, not at a file level. Block-level deduplication examines small sub-blocks,
making it far more effective at reducing storage consumption than file-based
deduplication.

Because it uses network-based file shares for backed up data, restoring data can be
faster and easier with FDS. The administrator has direct access to all files without
the need for a restore job. Even after deduplication occurs, pointers (stub files) on
the share point to the full file in the repository. Restoring data copied by archiving
software is as simple as copying the necessary files from a share back to the
appropriate location.

FDS User Guide 2


Introduction

Concepts and components


The primary components of the FDS solution are listed below. These components all
sit on the same network segment, the storage network.
• FalconStor FDS appliance - An industry-standard server that provides all
data deduplication functions. The appliance can function as a standalone
appliance with internal storage or it can function as a gateway to storage on
an existing network. FDS storage is used to store the original data as well
as the unique data blocks and the indexes to the data.
• FDS Clients - Backup servers or application servers that use an FDS share
to store data. Storage resources appear to client operating systems
(Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.) as network-attached devices.
• FDS shares - Logical resources presented to clients via the IP network.
Clients access shares using either the NFS or CIFS network protocol.
• FalconStor Management Console - The FDS administration tool. This
Java application can be used on a variety of platforms and allows
administrators to create shares, configure deduplication, and monitor
resources and deduplication.

FDS User Guide 3


Installation
You will have received FDS in one of the following ways:
• Pre-configured FDS appliance - A ready-to-use appliance with FDS
already installed. The appliance includes a pre-configured repository, FDS
resources, and FDS shares and was designed to get you running in a
minimal amount of time.
• FDS Software Appliance Kit (SAK) - Software only to be installed on a
physical appliance. You will need to install an operating system, set network
information for your appliance, install FDS server software, and configure
your FDS system.
This chapter explains how to get started with a pre-configured appliance or SAK and
how to install the FDS Console. If you have FDS virtual appliance software, refer to
your FDS Virtual Appliance Getting Started Guide.

FDS User Guide 4


Installation

Pre-configured physical appliance setup


Pre-configured appliance - Delivered components

If you received a pre-configured appliance, verify that you have received the
following items:
• FalconStor FDS appliance with installed hard drives, two power cords, rail
kit, and manufacturer’s documentation.
• For some FDS systems, up to three storage capacity units, each with two
power cords, SAS interconnect cables, rail kit, and manufacturer’s
documentation.
• Product keycode certificates (if you have a pre-configured appliance,
product keycodes have already been installed).
Contact your FalconStor representative if any items are missing.

Physical appliance - Mount the FDS appliance

If you are using a physical appliance, you will probably want to rack-mount the
system.
If you received a pre-configured appliance from FalconStor, the FDS appliance will
occupy 2U; each storage capacity unit will occupy 3U (maximum of six units).

1. Stabilize your rack unit before installing the appliance into the rack.

2. Install the slide rails and system in the rack according to the provided rack
installation documentation.

Physical appliance - Connect to your storage network

If you received a pre-configured appliance from FalconStor, follow the instructions in


the FalconStor Hardware QuickStart Guide supplied with the appliance to complete
the physical connections. Unless otherwise noted, the following instructions are
general and can be used for any appliance.

1. Connect a monitor and keyboard to the appliance.


You may use a KVM device if necessary. You may also connect the keyboard to
a USB port instead of a PS/2 port. The Linux operating system will automatically
detect USB devices upon system startup.

2. Connect an Ethernet cable to the appropriate port.

3. If your appliance includes a Fibre Channel card, connect a FC cable from your
switch to each of the FC ports on the rear of the appliance.

FDS User Guide 5


Installation

4. On the FDS appliance, connect both power cords from a standard AC outlet to
the appliance. If your FDS system includes storage capacity units, do not power
on the appliance.

Note: To ensure redundancy, be sure to use all power cords.

5. If your FDS system includes storage capacity units, set the storage mode switch
on the front panel of each unit to the unified position.

6. Power-on the FDS appliance using the power button on the front of the
appliance. When the server has completed the startup process, you will see a
login prompt. You do not need to log in to the server.
You will continue FDS configuration using Web Setup and the FalconStor
Management Console for FDS.

FDS User Guide 6


Installation

Software appliance kit setup


FDS has been designed for quick setup. The following steps guide you through
preparing your FDS appliance for the FDS software.

System requirements

The following table lists the minimum FDS server requirements. Since each
environment is unique, you may want to consult with FalconStor Professional
Services to assist you in pre-deployment sizing.

CPU Minimum: Four CPU cores (for example, two dual-core or


one quad-core) Intel/AMD processor, 2+GHZ
Recommended: Eight CPU cores (for example, two quad-
core) Intel/AMD processor, 2+GHZ

Memory The amount of memory required depends upon the size of


your FDS repository resources. The minimum amount of
memory is 8 GB. Please contact your FalconStor
representative to properly size your FDS system.

Operating system • Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 3


• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
• CentOS 5.3

Network Interface Card Check the FalconStor website certification matrix for a list of
network cards that are supported.

Fibre Channel Host Bus QLogic FC HBAs


Adapter

Hard Disk Fibre Channel, SCSI, SAS, or SATA hard drives:


• Operating system disk - 50 GB.
• FDS resources - Must be greater than your largest single
backup data set.
• Data disks - Depends upon the amount of data backed up
and the retention time. Each LUN can be a maximum of 16
TB.
• Index and folder disks - At least 8% of the total data disks.
Note: An additional 200 GB is required if you are using the
Hosted Backup option.

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Installation

Install an operating system

You must install a certified operating system on your FDS appliance before you
install FDS. There are several ways to do this:
• If you are using FalconStor certified hardware, you can use a FalconStor
USB key. If available, USB key images are the fastest and easiest way to
install the operating system, management utilities, and software for an
appliance. If an appropriate image exists, you can download it from
FalconStor’s FTP site.
• If a USB key for your hardware platform does not exist, you will need to
manually install the operating system. The operating system CD and
several scripts are available on FalconStor’s FTP site to help you do this.

Install from a You will need to download an appropriate image for your FalconStor certified
FalconStor hardware. To do this:
USB key
1. Connect to the FalconStor FTP site: ftp://goldkey1.falconstor.com/
• User name: ftpuser1
• Password: gold_key2

2. Look under /USB_Images for the hardware manufacturer of your appliance.

3. Download the appropriate zip file containing the USB key image for your
hardware, along with the MD5 checksum to verify that the download was
successful.

4. Follow the steps in the FalconStor USB OS Installation Guide to install the
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 3 operating system from the USB key.
You can download this guide from the USB_Images_Site_Map.html. Click the
pdf link under USB OS Install.

Manually install If a USB key for your hardware platform does not exist, you will need to manually
install the operating system. To do this:

1. Connect to the FalconStor FTP site: ftp://goldkey1.falconstor.com/


• User name: ftpuser1
• Password: gold_key2

2. Select USB_Images_Site_Map.html.

3. Download the CD zip file and the scripts from Manual OS Install.

4. Follow the steps in the FalconStor Operating System Installation Guide to


manually install the Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 3 operating system.
You can download this guide from the USB_Images_Site_Map.html. Click the
pdf link under Manual OS Install.

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Installation

Set network information for your FDS appliance

If you haven’t done this already:

1. Contact your network administrator to obtain the following for your FDS
appliance in order to connect your FDS appliance to your storage network:
• IP address
• Netmask
• Default gateway
• Primary name server information.

2. Power up your FDS appliance and log in.


You will need to have a monitor and keyboard to access the FDS appliance.

3. Change the IP address, netmask, default gateway, and primary name server to
what your network administrator provided to you.
You can type system-config-network-tui to load a utility that allows you to
change them.

4. Type service network restart for these changes to take effect.

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Installation

Install FDS server software

To do this:

1. Log in to the FDS appliance.

2. Mount the FDS CD.


# mount /dev/cdrom /media
# cd /media

3. At the # prompt, type ./fdsinstall.

4. Type Y to continue.

5. When prompted, click Enter to accept the default maximum number of LUNs per
adapter.

6. When prompted, click Enter to accept the default maximum number of SCSI
disks to scan.

7. When prompted, indicate the type of Fibre Channel HBAs you are using, qlogic,
qlogicnpiv, or q (if no HBA).

8. When prompted, select to configure Network Time Protocol on the FDS


appliance.

9. Type Y to accept the configuration when you see the screen that summarizes
the FDS appliance configuration.

10. Reload the environment variables.


Type . /etc/.is.sh or log out (using the logout command) and then log back in.

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Getting Started
If you received a pre-configured FDS appliance from FalconStor, basic configuration
will already have been done for you. If not, follow the instructions in this section to
configure FDS.

Run the FalconStor Management Console


The FalconStor Management Console for FDS is the graphical administration tool
that enables you to manage FDS. The computer that runs the FDS console needs
connectivity to the network segment where FDS is running, because it
communicates directly with the server and clients (CIFS and NFS backup servers or
application servers). There are two ways to run the FDS console.

Launch the web-based console

To launch a web-based version of the console, open a browser from any machine
and enter the IP address of the FDS server (for example: http://10.0.0.2) and the
console will launch. If you have Web Setup, select the Go button next to Install
Management Software and Guides and click the Launch Console link.
In the future, to skip going through Web Setup, open a browser from any machine
and enter the IP address of the FDS server followed by :81, for example:
http://10.0.0.2:81/ to launch the console. For easier access, you may want to save
the location as a Favorite or Bookmark.

Install and launch the console on an administrative computer

To install the FalconStor Management Console software from Web Setup, open a
browser from any machine and enter the IP address of the FDS server (for example:
http://10.0.0.2). Select the Go button next to Install Management Software and
Guides and click the Install Windows Console link. You can install the FalconStor
Management Console onto any machine, as long as that machine has a Graphical
User Interface and the Java Runtime Environment. Note that if you are installing the
console on a Windows machine, you must be a Power User or Administrator.
To launch the console after installation, select Start --> Programs --> FalconStor -->
FDS 1.15 --> FDS Console.

Connect to your FDS server


If your server already appears in the tree, right-click it and select Connect.
If your server does not appear in the tree, do the following to add it:

1. Right-click the Servers object and select Add.

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Getting Started

If you are running on a Windows machine, you can right-click the FDS Servers
object and select Discover to detect FDS servers in a range of IP addresses.
You should then specify the subnet range of your FDS server and wait for the
FDS server hostname to appear in the navigation tree. When the hostname
appears in the navigation tree, right-click it and select Connect.

2. Type the FDS Server name or address (for example, 10.0.0.2) and enter a valid
user name and password (both are case sensitive) to log in.
If you purchased an appliance from FalconStor, log in with fsadmin as the User
Name. The default password is IPStor101 but this may have been changed in
Web Setup.
If you want to be able to add accounts or set network configuration in the
console, log into your appliance with the “root” user and password (default
“IPStor101”).
The username and password are case sensitive.
Once you are connected to a server, the server icon will change to show that you
are connected.
If your system is not already configured, the configuration wizard launches.

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Getting Started

Configure your FDS server using the configuration wizard


FDS provides a convenient wizard that leads you through your FDS configuration.
Some appliances, such as FDS storage appliances, will be configured via Web
Setup. If your FDS server has not been configured yet, the configuration wizard will
be launched when you connect to it.

Click Next to begin the steps in the wizard. If you want to skip a step, press Skip.

Step 1: Enter license keys

Click the Add button and enter the keycodes shown on your Product Keycode
certificates, one at a time.
Be sure to enter keycodes for all options you have purchased. Each FDS option
requires that a keycode be entered before the option can be configured and used.
Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to add
license keys, you can right-click your FDS server appliance and select License.

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Getting Started

Step 2: Set up network

1. Enter information about your network configuration.

Domain name - Internal domain name.


Append suffix to DNS lookup - If a domain name is entered, it will be appended
to the machine name for name resolution.
DNS - IP address of your Domain Name Server.
Default gateway - IP address of your default gateway.
NIC - List of Ethernet cards in the server.

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Getting Started

2. Click Config to configure each network interface card (NIC).

If you select Static, you must click the Add button to add IP addresses and
subnet masks.
MTU - Set the maximum transfer unit of each IP packet. If your card supports it,
set this value to 9000 for jumbo frames.
Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to
change these settings, you can right-click your FDS server appliance and select
System Maintenance --> Configure Network.

Step 3: Set hostname

Enter a valid name for your FDS appliance.


Valid characters are letters, numbers, underscore, or dash. The server will
automatically reboot when the hostname is changed.

Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to


change the name again, you can right-click your FDS server appliance and
select System Maintenance --> Set Hostname.

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Getting Started

Step 4: Prepare physical devices

Prepare physical devices for use with FDS. These devices will be used to create
logical resources (repository resources and shares).

1. Select Virtualize.

2. Click the Select All button to select all physical devices.

3. Click Finish to confirm.


4. Type YES to confirm that you want to delete all data on these devices.
Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you add new
hardware that you need to prepare, you can right-click Physical Resources and
select Prepare Disks.

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Getting Started

Step 5: Set up FDS

Select the physical devices that you prepared in the previous step for your FDS
index, folder, and data disks.

1. Select Physical Device as the storage type.

2. Select the virtualized disk(s) that will be used as repository resources for the
configuration database.

The configuration database contains FDS configuration information.

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Getting Started

3. Select the virtualized disk(s) that will serve as repository resources for the FDS
index and folder disks.

The index points to the data on FDS storage. Folders store information relating
to the contents of each deduplication session.
The selected LUN(s) must be of sufficient size to contain these resources.
The minimum size disk recommended for these resources is at least 8% of the
total size of the FDS data disks.

4. Select the device(s) that will be used as repository resources for data storage.

The selected disks should all be the same size. The number of physical data
disks should be a power of two (i.e., 2, 4, 8, or 16 disks).

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Getting Started

5. For performance purposes, select how your data devices will be organized.

Your storage devices will be grouped into one or more columns. A column
represents the y axis in a graph while a row represents the x axis.

In the above example, there are nine disks and these are the possible
groupings. The ninth disk is not used in the 2, 4, and 8 column configurations.
The recommended scenario is selected by default. To determine this, the system
looks at the viable configurations and then determines which wastes the fewest
drives and, lastly, which contains the most columns.
In the above example, the single column configuration would be selected by
default.
How do the number of columns affect performance?
Performance will be better with multiple columns, if each column is on its own
RAID controller. If you have one RAID group, a single column is best.

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Getting Started

Example #1: If a single 8 TB physical LUN is available, the wizard will determine
that the best configuration is one column with four 2 TB virtual devices. This
column will have 16 slices (aka “hash”) in the range of 0~F.

The console shows that the Data


Repository has been configured in
one column with a capacity of 8 TB
across all sixteen slices/hashes.

Example #2: If two 8 TB physical LUNs are available, the wizard will determine
that the best configuration is two columns, each with four 2 TB disks. Each
column will have eight of the 16 slices in ranges of 0~7 and 8~F.

The console shows that the Data


Repository has been configured into
two columns with a capacity of 16
TB across all sixteen slices/hashes.

6. Click Finish to confirm.

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Getting Started

Step 6: Configure deduplication

Configure when deduplication should occur and determine if you want to exclude
specific files and folders:

1. Specify when deduplication should occur.

You can set it to occur automatically, minutes after files are detected, on a
scheduled basis, or manually.

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Getting Started

2. If you selected to schedule deduplication, set the schedule.

Specify when deduplication should begin and, optionally, when it should end.
Also specify the frequency. If you want to exclude specific days/hours/months,
select Set exclusion.

3. If you selected Set exclusion, select the hours, days, or months during which
deduplication should not occur.

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Getting Started

4. Determine what types of files to deduplicate.

You can exclude specific file types, small files, or files based on when they were
last modified or last accessed. Note that files smaller than 8 KB are excluded by
default because the file that replaces a deduplicated file and points to data in the
repository (called the stub file) is at least 8 KB in size. Therefore, there is no
benefit to deduplicating files smaller than 8 KB.
Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to
change your global deduplication policy, you can right-click your server and select
Deduplication --> Configure.

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Getting Started

Step 7: Create resources

FDS resources are virtualized disks that are used to create FDS shares. Create one
or more FDS resources. You will then create FDS shares from these resources.

1. Select your file system or click Next to accept the defaults.

File System - FDS automatically detects the supported file system, ext3 or ext2.
Format Options - These options are used when the drive is formatted. The
default settings include:
• -F - Forces the format regardless of what is on the drive.
• -I 256 - Increases the inode size from 128 bytes (default) to 256 bytes.
• -m 0 - Reserve 0% of the filesystem blocks for the super-user.
• -v - Format in verbose.
• -j - Creates the filesystem with an ext3 journal.
• -E resize=16383G - Preserves the maximum filesystem metadata space (16
TB) for later filesystem resize.
• -J size=128 - Sets the journal size to 128 MB for resize purposes.
• -b size=4096 - Block Size determines the minimum amount of space to use
for each file. For example, if you keep the default of 4096, each file will
minimally be 4k in size.
Mount Options - These options are used when the drive is mounted. The default
settings include:
• rw - Allows read/write access.
• nosuid - Disallows set-user-id execution.
• user_xattr - Supports “user” extended attributes.
If you need to change the default Format Options or Mount Options, click the
Advanced button.

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Getting Started

2. Select the physical device(s) from which to create this FDS resource.

3. Select the creation method and size of FDS resources.

Custom lets you select which physical device(s) to use and lets you designate
how much space to allocate from each.
Express lets you designate how much space to allocate and then automatically
creates an FDS resource using an available device.
Batch lets you create multiple FDS resources at one time. These FDS resources
will all be the same size.

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Getting Started

4. (Express and Custom only) Enter a name for the new FDS resource.

Resource names cannot use blanks or contain the following characters: < > / \ "
%#:;|*?&$'()`

5. Confirm that all information is correct and then click Finish to create the FDS
resource.
This may take a while, depending upon the size of the resource(s) being
created. Larger resources take significantly longer to format than smaller
resources.
You should wait until the FDS resource is attached and mounted before creating
shares.
Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to create
FDS resources, you can right-click the FDS Resources object and select New. If you
need to create OpenStorage resources, you can right-click the OpenStorage
Resources object and select New.

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Getting Started

Step 8: Create share

Create shared folders (called shares) into which your backup software or other
application can put files.
By default, FDS uses share mode for authentication. If you want to use domain
mode, refer to ’Set the security mode for Windows clients’ before creating your
shares.

1. Enter a folder name.

The folder name cannot exceed 238 characters.

2. Enter a share name and indicate if you want Windows clients to have access to
this share.

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Getting Started

Share names cannot start with a dot or contain the following characters: < > / \ "
%#:;|*?[]=+,

3. (Windows clients) Enter permissions for the Windows clients who will access the
share.
Share authentication mode window

Select if you want all


Windows clients to have
the same type of
permission.

Select if you want to use


both types of permissions.
The password for full
access must be different
from the read only
password.

Domain authentication mode window

Set access rights


for this client.
Select the clients who
should have access to
the share.

FDS User Guide 28


Getting Started

4. (NFS clients) Enter permissions for the NFS clients who will access the share.

You can click the Add button to add an NFS client. Refer to ’Map/mount shares’
for more information.
Select insecure if your client’s operating system does not use a reserved port for
NFS (an Internet port less than IPPORT_RESERVED -- 1024). AIX is an
example of an operating system that needs to select insecure.
Squash can be used to map user IDs to nobody.

root_squash all_squash Action

- - No UIDs mapped.

X - UID=0 (root user) is remapped to


nfsnobody:nasgrp (default).

X X All UIDs are mapped to nfsnobody:nasgrp.

5. Click Finish to confirm.


Configuration note: After completing the configuration wizard, if you need to create
additional shares, you can right-click an FDS resource or a folder and select New
Share. You can also select New Folder. Any time after creating the folder, you can
assign clients to it by right-clicking and selecting Sharing.

FDS User Guide 29


Getting Started

Set the security mode for Windows clients


There are two security modes that you can use to authenticate users/groups trying
to access FDS shares:
• Share mode - Authentication is done by passwords (a full access password
and/or a read only password) that are set when you create the share.
• Domain mode - The authentication server must be a Domain Controller. The
FDS Server and all clients must belong to the domain controlled by this
Domain Controller.
By default, FDS uses share mode. If you want to use domain mode, you will need to
follow the instructions below.

Note: It is important that you do not change your authentication mode once you
begin using your FDS system. If you do change it, you will lose all of your share
assignments.

Domain mode configuration

You must do the following if you will be using domain mode for authentication:

Synchronize Your FDS server and your Windows domain controller must have their clocks
clocks synchronized to within five minutes of each other. If they are not synchronized, you
can use the date command on your FDS server to adjust the date and time.
However, the system clock on a PC can “drift” over time. Therefore, we recommend
that you use an automated synchronization service to adjust the system’s clock.
Refer to the ntpd service on Linux and the Windows Time service on Windows for
more information. You can add a time server through the console (right-click the
server and select System Maintenance --> Configure Network). If no time server is
available, you can use the IP address of the domain controller (DC). You need to
edit /etc/ntp.conf on the FDS server and add ‘server [DC IP address]’. Also, edit /
etc/ntp/step-tickers and add just the domain controller IP address.

Server is Make sure each FDS server has a valid DNS entry created in the Microsoft DNS
resolvable by (part of the Active Directory you plan to join) with a valid PTR resource record (DNS
DNS reverse lookup zone must contain this record).
If your server’s hostname is resolvable by a DNS machine, the DNS server should
have been configured via Web Setup (and the /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf files
should have been updated accordingly). You should check /etc/hosts afterward to
make sure it was updated correctly. Refer to ’Update /etc/hosts’ below if you need to
update it manually.
If the DNS server was not configured, you can add it manually by right-clicking on
your server in the console and selecting System Maintenance --> Configure Net-
work. Otherwise, refer to ’Server is not resolvable’ below.

Server is not If your server’s hostname is not resolvable by a DNS machine, you need to
resolvable manually add it to /etc/hosts. Refer to ’Update /etc/hosts’ below for details.

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Getting Started

Update If your server’s hostname is not resolvable by a DNS machine, you need to
/etc/hosts manually add it to /etc/hosts. Even if your server is resolvable, we recommend
checking /etc/hosts file and updating, if necessary.

1. Use the command vi /etc/hosts to edit /etc/hosts on your FDS server.


For example, your environment looks like this:
FDS server name: fds-server
FDS server IP address: 192.168.15.151
Primary Authentication Server: windows-domain
Primary Authentication Server IP address: 192.168.15.145
Domain being joined: abc.net

2. Add the following lines to /etc/hosts:


192.168.15.151 fds-server.abc.net fds-server
192.168.15.145 windows-domain.abc.net windows-domain
If "fds-server.abc.net" or "fds-server" are already part of another entry, such as:
127.0.0.1 fds-server localhost.localdomain localhost
Remove the fds-server entry from that line and add the other lines:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.15.151 fds-server.abc.net fds-server
192.168.15.145 windows-domain.abc.net windows-domain

Active Directory If your Domain controller is running Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, the FDS
server can be configured to utilize Microsoft’s Active Directory to obtain users and
groups.
If you will be using Active Directory, you will need the following:
• Account for FDS - This account should have minimal security, similar to that
of the guest account. The account will be used by FDS to access the active
directory that FDS will browse to identify the users/groups that will have
access to FDS shares. For a more secure account, you can limit this
account to have read-only access to the Organizational Units (OUs) that will
be browsed by FDS.
• Your FDS server and your Active Directory Server must have their clocks
synchronized to within five minutes of each other. We recommend that you
use an automated synchronization service (NTP server) to adjust the
system’s clock. Refer to the nptd service on Linux and the Windows Time
service on Windows for more information.

Select domain To select domain mode:


mode as the
security mode 1. In the FDS console, right-click Windows Clients and select Set Security Mode.

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Getting Started

2. Select Domain Mode and indicate if you are using Active Directory.

3. Enter your authentication server.

Primary Authentication Server - Enter the name of the server (not an IP address)
from which the FDS server will get the user account information. The FDS server
will use this server to authenticate users when they try to share an FDS
resource. The server's name must be resolvable.
Backup Authentication Server - You can optionally enter a server name (not an
IP address) to use for authentication if the primary authentication server is not
available. The server's name must be resolvable.
Domain - Enter the domain that the FDS server must join. This is the name of
the domain that the Primary Authentication Server and Backup Authentication
Server belong to. If you are using Active Directory you will not see this field.

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Getting Started

4. (Domain mode with Active Directory) Enter information about the account FDS
will use to log into Active Directory.

User - Enter the account FDS will use to log into Active Directory.
Password - Enter a valid password for this account.
Bind Point - You can use the Bind Point to mark where in the OU tree FDS will
start browsing from. This is useful if FDS’s user account does not have root
access to the entire OU tree. Without this access, FDS cannot see anything in
the tree. In this case, enter a Bind Point to direct FDS to a starting point or a
single tree such as the /Engineering or /Accounting tree. If you leave this field
blank or enter “/”, FDS will start at the root of this OU.

Notes:
• If you see the message “Unable to connect to active directory due to
excessive clock skew. Please synchronize server and active directory
clocks.” when you click Next, the clocks on your FDS Server,
Windows Domain Controller, and your Active Directory Server are not
synchronized to within five minutes of each other. Use the date
command or an automated synchronization service to adjust the
system’s clock.
• If you see the message “Failed to locate the authentication server”
when you click Next, the Windows primary authentication server
name and IP address are not in the /etc/hosts file or are not
resolvable.

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Getting Started

5. (Domain mode with Active Directory) Select the organizational units to which you
will offer FDS shares.

Click in the checkbox next to the OUs to which you want to offer FDS shares.
By default, everything is selected. If you click the checkbox next to the OU, it will
de-select that OU. In order to select only certain OUs, you should click the root
first, then select the OUs to which you want to offer FDS shares.

6. Enter a descriptive comment.

This description of the FDS Server will be displayed in the Comment field of
Windows Explorer, such as when you see a list of computers under My Network
Places.

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Getting Started

Indicate if you want to preserve current users/groups. This field appears when
existing UID or GUID ranges must be cleared or preserved (for instance when
you switch from share mode to domain mode and then back to share mode).
7. Select how you want to reserve User IDs (UIDs).

UIDs are associated with users on your system.


Auto Selection lets you set the maximum number of UIDs that FDS should use
for authentication of FDS users and automatically reserves an unused range.
Manual Selection lets you select which range(s) to use. You will need to select
an available UID range and designate a starting and ending UID. The range
cannot start with a number below 10,000.
Be sure to select a big enough range to handle the number of users you have.
Reserved ranges cannot be removed. Additional ranges can be added.

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Getting Started

8. Select how you want to reserve Group IDs (GIDs).

GIDs are associated with groups on your system.


Auto Selection lets you set the maximum number of GIDs that FDS should use
for authentication of FDS groups and automatically reserves an unused range.
Manual Selection lets you select which range(s) to use. You will need to select
an available GID range and designate a starting and ending GID. The range
cannot start with a number below 10,000.
Be sure to select a big enough range to handle the number of groups you have.
Reserved ranges cannot be removed. Additional ranges can be added.
9. Enter an administrative username and password.

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Getting Started

This name/password will be used to create a computer account for the FDS
Server in the domain.
If you are using Active Directory, the Console will try to join the domain as an
Active Directory Member Server even if no username/password is supplied. If
that fails, FDS will try to join the domain as a legacy Windows NT 4 server.

10. Confirm all information and click Finish.

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Getting Started

Map/mount shares
Windows clients

Set Windows 7 and Windows 2008 client machines use NTLMv2 authentication with
authentication FDS shares when using share mode authentication. If you are using share mode
and you want to connect to a share from a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 client, you
will need to set the authentication mode on that machine. You do not need to do this
for older versions of Windows or if you are using domain mode for authentication.
The procedure to set authentication is different depending upon the version of
Windows you are using.
Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions and Windows 2008

1. Launch gpedit.msc from a command line.


This launches Microsoft’s Local Group Policy Editor.

2. Locate Local Computer Policy --> Computer Configuration --> Windows Settings
--> Security Settings --> Local Policies --> Security Options.

3. Locate Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level in the right pane.

4. Change the value to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if
negotiated and click OK and quit.

5. Open a DOS command prompt and type, gpupdate /force to force the policy to
be applied.
Windows 7 Home edition

1. Locate the following key in the registry:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

2. Right-click in the right pane to create a new DWORD (32-bit) or DWORD (64-
bit).

3. Set the LmCompatibilityLevel value to 2.

4. Reboot the machine in order for the changes to take effect.

Map a share You should map a share for each Windows client to allow access to the share. Do
the following on each Windows client:
1. Open Windows Explorer (or My Computer).
2. Select Tools --> Map Network Drive.
3. Set the path to the shared folder.
The path is: \\hostname\sharename

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Getting Started

where hostname is the FDS Server’s name or IP address and sharename is the
name of the shared folder. For example: \\server1\Data1
4. Enter login information.
For share mode, the user name is always guest. For Windows 2000/2003
clients, the user name is filled out (and grayed out). For Windows Vista/Windows
2008/Windows 7 clients, you may need to type the user name as:
WORKGROUP\guest. Enter the password you set when you created the share.
For Domain mode, enter the user’s full account name (Domain\username) and
the user’s password that is defined at the Active Directory level.

NFS clients

Mount a share You should mount a share for each NFS client to allow access to the share. Do the
following on each NFS client:
1. Create a directory to mount the NFS share to.
For example: /mnt/share
2. Locally, mount the share.
mount hostname:/nas/fdsresource/fds/folder/mount_point
where hostname is the FDS Server’s name or IP address, fdsresource is the
name of the FDS device, folder is the full folder name, and mount_point is a
directory the NFS share can be accessed from, in this case /mnt/share, as set in
step 1.

Note: In the path above, /nas/ and /fds/ are not variables and must be included in
the path.

For example:
mount FSDEFDS35:/nas/FDSDisk-00001/fds/Data1/mnt/share

Client mount We recommend using the following mount options for NFS clients:
options
AIX 5.x
mount -v nfs -o proto=tcp,vers=3,intr,hard,llock, combehind,rsize=65536,
wsize=65536 hostname:/nas/fdsresource/fds/folder/mount_point
Solaris 9 and 10
mount -F nfs -o hard,llock,intr,vers=3,proto=tcp,rsize=65536,
wsize=65536 hostname:/nas/fdsresource/fds/folder/mount_point
Note: We highly recommend using the “llock” mount option with Solaris NFS cli-
ents.

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Getting Started

HP-UX 11v2 and 11v3


mount -F nfs -o rsize=65536,wsize=65536,hard
hostname:/nas/fdsresource/fds/folder/mount_point
Linux
mount -t nfs -o hard,nolock,intr,nfsvers=3,tcp,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,bg
hostname:/nas/fdsresource/fds/folder/mount_point

Note: We highly recommend using the “nolock” mount option with Linux NFS cli-
ents.

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Getting Started

Add NFS clients


There are two types of FDS clients:
• Windows clients - These clients use the Common Internet File System
(CIFS) protocol.
• NFS clients - These are usually Unix clients using the Network File System
(NFS) protocol.
You do not need to add Windows clients. If you are using the Share authentication
mode, any Windows client can access a share (provided he/she knows the
password). In Domain authentication mode, the list of users comes from the
authentication server.
To add NFS clients:

1. Expand FDS Clients, right-click the NFS Clients object, and select Add.

You can also access this dialog and add NFS clients while creating an FDS
share.

2. Enter information as applicable.


Name - This is the name displayed in the console for this group of one or more
NFS clients. For example, you may want to enter NetBackup to identify these
clients.
Machine - The machine that will become an NFS client. You can enter an
abbreviated name that can be resolved, a fully qualified domain name, or an IP
address for a machine. You can also enter a subnet and netmask if you want to
grant FDS share access to an entire subnet. The format to do this is:
subnet/netmask (for example: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0). Wildcard characters
are not supported in machine names or domain names.

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Getting Started

Comment - You can optionally enter a description or explanation in this field.


This information will be displayed in the right pane of the console for this client.

Note: You should verify that the hostnames listed in the /etc/hosts files on
both the FDS server and NFS clients (Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX) are
lowercase only. This is because, when a share is accessed via NFS, the
kernel converts hostnames to lower case, while NFS uses hostnames as
typed (i.e. lowercase, uppercase, combo, or both). This can result in errors on
the NFS clients.

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The FDS Console
The FalconStor Management Console for FDS allows you to manage your FDS
system, users, and administrators; create FDS shares; set server properties;
monitor FDS activity; configure your deduplication policy; monitor deduplication; and
run/view reports.
The FDS console displays FDS server configuration, organized in a familiar
Explorer-like tree view.

The tree allows you to navigate the FDS server and its configuration objects. You
can expand or collapse the display to show only the information that you wish to
view. Double-clicking an item will toggle the expanded/collapsed view of the item.
You need to connect to a server before you can expand the server object. The
console remembers the servers to which the console has successfully connected. If
you close and restart the console, the servers will still be displayed in the tree but
you will not be connected to them.
When you highlight any object in the tree, the right-hand pane contains detailed
information about the object. You can select one of the tabs for more information.

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The FDS Console

Understanding the objects in the tree


FDS Servers

This object allows you to add FDS servers to the navigation tree in the console.

FDS server object

From the server object, you can manage user/administrator accounts; add/remove
licenses; reset passwords; run a server connectivity test, configure server-level
options such as deduplication, replication, OpenStorage, and email alerts; perform
system maintenance; generate an x-ray file; and set server properties.
When you are connected to a server, you will see the following tabs:
• General - Displays configuration information, including the version of the
FDS software, the type and number of processors, amount of physical and
swappable memory, and network adapter information.
• Event Log - Displays system events and errors.
• Version Info - Displays the server and console version and lists any installed
patches.
• Global Deduplication Statistics - Displays information about repository
usage and amounts of data written/stored over time.
• Integrity Check Status - Displays the status (or current progress) of an
integrity check job.
• Excluded Paths - Displays the folders that have been excluded from
deduplication and replication.

FDS Clients

Clients are the backup servers and application servers that use an FDS share to
store data. There are two types of FDS clients:
• Windows clients - These clients use the Common Internet File System
(CIFS) protocol. From the Windows Clients object, you can modify the
security settings defined during initial FDS configuration, review properties,
refresh the connection, and update user accounts and authentication
servers. You do not need to add Windows clients. If you are using the Share
authentication mode, any Windows client can access a share. In Domain
authentication mode, the list of users comes from the authentication server.
• NFS clients - These are usually Unix clients using the Network File System
(NFS) protocol. From the NFS Clients object, you can add clients.

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The FDS Console

Physical Resources

Physical resources are the actual physical adapters and storage devices attached to
the FDS server. From this object, you can prepare new physical devices for use with
FDS and rescan disks.

Logical Resources

Logical resources are all of the resources defined on the FDS server:
• Repository Resources - Virtualized disks configured as storage (data disks,
index disks, and folder disks) for deduplicated data. Each resource can be
mirrored for high availability.
• FDS Resources - Logical resources that have been defined as folders and
FDS shares that are presented to clients. In order for FDS resources to be
accessible by a client, the FDS administrator needs to add shares, assign
the folders to clients, and provide authentication information to clients. Each
resource can be mirrored for high availability. There is also an Event Log
available from the FDS Resources object that displays events and errors
related specifically to the FDS resources. If this server receives replicated
data from another FDS server, you will see an FDS Replica object in the
tree beneath the resource being used to hold incoming replication.
• OpenStorage Resources - OpenStorage Resources represent Logical
Storage Units (LSUs), virtualized disks that are used with the FalconStor
OpenStorage Option (a software interface between a VeritasTM NetBackupTM
Media or Master server and your FalconStor FDS Server). For more
information about using the OpenStorage option, refer to your FalconStor
OpenStorage Option User Guide.
• Configuration Database - This object contains FDS configuration
information and can be mirrored for high availability.

Reports

FDS provides reports that offer a variety of information:


• Throughput
• Physical resources - allocation and configuration
• Disk space usage
• Repository resource allocation
• FDS statistics

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The FDS Console

Console options
To set options for the console:
1. Select Tools --> Console Options.

2. Select the options you want to use.


Remember password for session - If the console is already connected to a
server, when you attempt to open a subsequent server, the console will use the
credentials from the last successful connection. If this option is unchecked, you
will be prompted for a password for every server you try to open. You should not
remember passwords when the console is being shared by different users.
Automatically time out servers after nn minute(s) - The console will collapse a
server that has been idle for the number of minutes you specify. If you need to
access the server again, you will have to reconnect to it. The default is 10
minutes. Enter 0 minutes to disable the timeout.
Automatically refresh the event log every nn second(s) - The console will update
the event log by the frequency you specify, only when you are viewing it.
Console Log Options - The console log (fdsconsole.log) is kept on the local
machine and stores information about the local version of the console. The
console log is displayed at the very bottom of the console screen. The options
affect how information for each console session will be maintained.
- Overwrite log file - Overwrite the information from the last console session
when you start a new session.
- Append to log file - Keep all session information.
- Do not write to log file - Do not maintain a console log.

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The FDS Console

System maintenance
The FDS console gives you a convenient way to perform system maintenance for
your FDS Server.

Notes:
• The system maintenance options are hardware-dependent. Refer to your
hardware documentation for specific information.
• Only the root user can access the system maintenance options.

Bond IP IP Bonding is a load balancing/path redundancy feature that enables you to


configure your FDS server to load balance network traffic across two or more
network connections creating redundant data paths throughout the network. Refer to
“NIC Port Bonding” for more information.

Network If you need to change FDS Server IP addresses, you must make these changes
configuration using Configure Network. Using any other third-party utilities will not update the
information correctly. Refer to ’Set up network’ for more information.

IPMI Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a hardware level interface that
monitors various hardware functions on a server. IPMI is used for remote manage-
ment and access to the server.
If FDS detects IPMI when the server boots up, you will see several IPMI options on
the System Maintenance --> IPMI sub-menu, Config, Monitor, and Filter.
Config - Lets you change the IP address, netmask, and default gateway for your
IPMI card. You can click the Setting button to see the current settings. If you do
make a change, we recommend using a static IP address on a separate
management subnet.

Monitor - Displays the hardware information that is presented to FDS. Information is


updated every five minutes but you can click the Refresh button to update more
frequently. You will see a red warning icon in the first column if there is a problem
with a component.

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The FDS Console

Filter - You can filter out components you do not want to monitor. This may be useful
for hardware you do not care about or erroneous errors, such as when you do not
have the hardware that is being monitored. You must enter the Name of the
component being monitored exactly as it appears in the hardware monitor above.

Set hostname Right-click a server and select System Maintenance --> Set Hostname to change
your hostname. The server will automatically reboot when the hostname is changed.

Restart FDS Right-click a server and select System Maintenance --> Restart FDS to restart the
Server processes.

Restart network Right-click a server and select System Maintenance --> Restart Network to restart
your local network configuration.

Reboot Right-click a server and select System Maintenance --> Reboot to reboot your
server.

Halt Right-click a server and select System Maintenance --> Halt to turn off the server
without restarting it.

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The FDS Console

Rescan physical devices


1. To rescan all devices, right-click Physical Resources and select Rescan.
If you only want to scan on a specific adapter, right-click that adapter and select
Rescan.

2. Determine what you want to rescan.


If you are discovering new devices, set the range of adapters, SCSI IDs, and
LUNs that you want to scan.
Use Report LUNs - The system sends a SCSI request to LUN 0 and asks for a
list of LUNs. Note that this SCSI command is not supported by all devices.
Stop scan when a LUN without a device is encountered - This option will scan
LUNs sequentially and then stop after the last LUN is found. Use this option only
if all of your LUNs are sequential.
Auto detect FC HBA SCSI ID scans QLogic HBAs. It ignores the range of SCSI
IDs specified and automatically detects the SCSI IDs with persistent binding.

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The FDS Console

Administrators
Only the root user can add or delete an FDS administrator or change an
administrator’s password.

1. Right-click the server and select User Accounts.

There are two types of administrators:


- FDS Administrators are authorized for full console access (except that only the
root user can add or delete an FDS administrator, change an administrator’s
password, or access the system maintenance options).
The fsadmin administrator is created by default. The default password for
fsadmin is IPStor101 (case sensitive).
- FDS Users are only permitted to view information in the console. They are not
authorized to make changes.

2. Select the appropriate option.


When you add an administrator, the name must adhere to the naming
convention of the operating system running on your FDS Server. Refer to your
operating system’s documentation for naming restrictions.

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The FDS Console

Event Log
The Event Log details significant occurrences during the operation of the FDS
Server. You can view the Event Log in the FDS console when you highlight a server
or the FDS Resources object in the tree and select the Event Log tab in the right
pane.
Information displayed in the Event Log comes from the /var/log/messages file on the
FDS server. A maximum of 10,000 records will be displayed in the Event Log.
The columns displayed in the Event Log are:

Type I: This is an informational message. No action is required.


W: This is a warning message that states that something occurred that
may require maintenance or corrective action. However, the FDS system
is still operational.
E: This is an error that indicates a failure has occurred such that a device
is not available, an operation has failed, or a licensing violation. Corrective
action should be taken to resolve the cause of the error.
C: These are critical errors that stop the system from operating properly.
Date & Time The date and time on which the event occurred. Events are listed in
chronological order.
ID This is the message number.
Event Message This is a text description of the event describing what has occurred.

The Event Log is refreshed every x seconds, based on how you set it (Tools -->
Console Options). If you are at the top of the Event Log when new events are
added, the screen will automatically scroll down to accommodate the new events. If
you are anywhere else in the Event Log, your current view will not change when new
events are added. This allows you to read messages without the screen scrolling.

Sort the Event When you initially view the Event Log, all information is displayed in chronological
Log order (most recent at the top). If you want to reverse the order or change the way the
information is displayed, click on a column heading to re-sort the information. For
example, if you click on the ID heading, you can sort the events numerically. This
can help you identify how often a particular event occurs.

Filter the Event By default, all informational system messages, warnings, and errors are displayed.
Log To filter the information that is displayed:
1. Right-click your server and select Event Log --> Filter.
2. Specify your search criteria.
You can search for specific message types, records that contain/do not contain
specific text, category types, and/or time or date range for messages. You can
also specify the number of lines to display.

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The FDS Console

Export data You can save the data from the Event Log in one of the following formats: comma
from the Event delimited (.csv) or tab delimited (.txt) text. Right-click your server and select Event
Log Log --> Export to export information.

Print the Event Right-click your server and select Event Log --> Print to print the Event Log to a
Log printer.

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The FDS Console

Reports
The FDS console provides you with the following pre-defined reports:

Can be
Report
Scheduled

Server Throughput Report - Provides information about the overall throughput of the FDS Yes
server for a specific date or range of dates.

SCSI Channel Throughput Report - Displays information about data going through the Yes
selected SCSI adapter on the FDS server for a specific date or range of dates.

SCSI Device Throughput Report - Displays information about the utilization of the selected Yes
physical SCSI storage device on the FDS server for a specific date or range of dates.

Physical Resources Configuration Report - Lists the physical resources on the FDS server, No
including the physical adapters and physical devices.

FDS Disk Space Usage Report - Displays information about the amount of disk space that No
each SCSI adapter is currently using and how much is available.

Physical Resources Allocation Report - Shows the disk space usage and layout for each No
physical disk that can be allocated by the system.

Physical Resource Allocation Report - Shows the disk space usage and layout for a specific No
disk that can be allocated by the system.

Repository Resources Allocation Report - Displays information about each repository No


resource, including the physical device that holds the resource, SCSI address, sectors, size,
and percent of physical resource allocated.

FDS Detailed Statistics Report - Displays all of the files that were deduplicated and/or Yes
replicated in each active deduplication/replication session.

FDS Statistics Summary Report - Displays the deduplication and/or replication session Yes
summary information and settings for each active deduplication/replication session.

Create a report Each report can be created for a specific server.


or report
schedule 1. To create a report, right-click the Reports object and select New.

2. Select a report.
Depending upon which report you select, additional windows appear to allow
you to filter the information for the report.

3. If applicable, schedule how frequently you want to create this report and how
long each should be kept before being purged.

4. If applicable, set the date or date range for the report and indicate which
adapters, devices, repository resources, and/or SCSI devices to include in the
report.

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The FDS Console

Selecting Past 30 Days, or Past 7 Days will create reports that generate data
relative to the time of execution.

5. For FDS statistics reports, indicate if you want to include deduplication and/or
replication information in the report.
For replication, if you want to see information about the source FDS server,
select Replication Client Info. To see information about the target FDS server,
select Replication Server Info.

6. Enter a name for the report.

7. Confirm all information and click Finish to create the report.

View a report After a report is created, it is categorized by report type in the tree. Expand the
Reports object and the report type to see the existing reports.
When you select an existing report in the tree, the report is displayed in the right-
hand pane. Reports larger than 30 pages are broken into smaller sections for easier
viewing.

Print a report To print a report, right-click a report that is generated and select Print.

Change a To change a schedule, right-click the Reports object and select Schedule. Select the
report schedule schedule you want to change or remove and click the appropriate button.

Export data You can save the data from the server and device throughput and usage reports.
from a report The data can be saved in one of the following formats: comma delimited (.csv) and
tab delimited (.txt) text. To export information, right-click a report that is generated
and select Export.

Refresh report You can refresh the list of reports that are displayed. This is useful if you have
display scheduled reports that have run while you are in the console. To do this, right-click
Reports and select Refresh.

Delete a report You can delete one or more reports. To access the delete option, you can right-click
a specific report or the Reports object and select Delete.

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The FDS Console

Sample FDS The FDS Detailed Statistics Report displays all of the files that were deduplicated
Detailed and/or replicated in each active deduplication/replication session.The following is a
Statistics report sample portion of a report:

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The FDS Console

Sample FDS The FDS Statistics Summary Report displays the deduplication and/or replication
Statistics session summary information and settings for each active deduplication/replication
Summary session.
report

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The FDS Console

Server properties
To set properties for a specific server:

1. Right-click the server and select Properties.

2. On the Activity Database Maintenance tab, indicate how often the FDS activity
data should be purged.
The Activity Log is a database that tracks all system activity, including all data
read, data written, number of read commands, write commands, number of
errors etc. This information is used to generate information for the FDS reports.

3. On the SNMP Maintenance tab, set FDS to send traps to your SNMP manager.
Refer to ’SNMP traps’ for more information.

4. On the Statistics Log Option tab, select which reports to enable.


Click the word Edit in the Properties column to change purge and schedule
settings.

5. If necessary, change settings for mirror resynchronization on the Performance


tab.
The settings on this tab affect system performance. The defaults should be
optimal for most configurations. You should only need to change the settings for
special situations, such as if your mirror is remotely located.
Mirror Synchronization: Use [n] outstanding commands of [n] KB - The number
of commands being processed at one time and the I/O size. This must be a
multiple of the sector size.
Synchronize Out-of-Sync Mirrors - Determine how often the system should
check and attempt to resynchronize active out-of-sync mirrors, how often it
should retry synchronization if it fails to complete, and whether or not to include
replica mirrors. These setting will only be used for active mirrors. If a mirror is
suspended because the lag time exceeds the acceptable limit, that
resynchronization policy will apply instead.

6. Select the Auto Save Config tab and enter information automatically saving your
FDS server system configuration.
You can set your system to automatically replicate your system configuration to
an FTP server on a regular basis. Auto Save takes a point-in-time snapshot of
the FDS server configuration prior to replication.
The target server you specify in the Ftp Server Name field must have FTP server
installed and enabled.
The Target Directory is the directory on the FTP server where the files will be
stored. The directory name you enter here (such as fdsconfig) is a directory on
the FTP server (for example ftp\fdsconfig). You should not enter an absolute
path like c:fdsconfig.

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The FDS Console

The Username is the user that the system will log in as. You must create this
user on the FTP site. This user must have read/write access to the directory
named here.
In the Interval field, determine how often to replicate the configuration.
Depending upon how frequently you make configuration changes to FDS, set
the interval accordingly. You can always save manually in between if needed. To
do this, highlight your FDS server in the tree, select File menu --> Save
Configuration.
In the Number of Copies field, enter the maximum copies to keep. The oldest
copy will be deleted as each new copy is added.

7. On the Location tab, enter information about the location of this server and who
is responsible for maintaining it.
You can also include a .JPG/.JPEG format photograph of the appliance or its
location.

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The FDS Console

Directory properties
To set properties for a specific directory:

1. Right-click the directory and select Directory Properties.

2. Set the appropriate properties.


You can set specific permissions for owners, groups, and others.
Group must be a valid group on your FDS server.
Setting a directory with a sticky bit gives it additional security by requiring that
users own the file or directory, have write permissions, or be the root user if they
want to remove or rename a file.
Include subdirectories applies the permissions to all subdirectories beneath the
current one.

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The FDS Console

Software patch updates


The Version Info tab displays the current version of the FDS server and console.

With this information, you can apply patches to your FDS server through the
console.

Add patch To apply a patch:


1. Download the patch onto the computer where the console is installed.
2. Highlight an FDS server in the tree.
3. Select Tools menu --> Add Patch.
4. Confirm that you want to continue.
5. Locate the patch file and click Open.
The patch will be copied to the server and installed.

Rollback patch To remove (uninstall) a patch and restore the original files:
1. Highlight an FDS server in the tree.
2. Select Tools menu --> Rollback Patch.
3. Confirm that you want to continue.
4. Select the patch and click OK.

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The FDS Console

SNMP traps
FDS provides Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support to integrate
FDS management into an existing enterprise management solution, such as HP
OpenView, CA Unicenter, IBM Tivoli NetView, or BMC Patrol.
By default, event log messages will not be sent, but you may want to configure FDS
to send certain types of messages.
To configure SNMP:

1. In the console, right-click your FDS server and select Properties.

2. Select the SNMP Maintenance tab.

3. Specify the type of message that should be sent.


Five levels of messages are available:
• None – No messages will be sent.
• Critical – Only critical errors that stop the system from operating properly will
be sent.
• Error – Errors (failure such as a resource is not available or an operation
has failed) and critical errors will be sent.
• Warning – Warnings (something occurred that may require maintenance or
corrective action), errors, and critical errors will be sent.
• Informational – Informational messages, errors, warnings, and critical error
messages will be sent.

4. Click Add to enter the name of your SNMP server and a valid SNMP community
name.

5. Compile the appropriate MIBs into your SNMP manager.


The procedure to do this will vary by SNMP manager.
MIB files can be found at the following location: $ISHOME/etc/snmp/mibs

6. To verify that SNMP traps are set up properly, set the level to Informational and
then do anything that causes an entry to be added to the event log (such as
logging into the FDS console or creating a new FDS resource).
You should see an SNMP trap for the event.

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The FDS Console

Mirror the configuration database and resources


You can mirror the configuration database, repository resources, FDS resources,
and OpenStorage resources in order to protect your FDS configuration, index, and
data.
Mirroring an FDS resource means that each time data is written to that resource, the
same data is simultaneously written to the mirrored copy. The mirror disk maintains
an exact copy of the data. In the event that the primary resource is unusable, FDS
seamlessly swaps to the mirrored copy.
In order to mirror a resource or database, you must have at least two physical
devices (preferably on different controllers) because the mirror cannot be on the
same disk as the FDS database/resource. The mirror can be defined with disks that
are not necessarily identical to each other in terms of vendor, type, or even interface
(SCSI, FC, iSCSI).
To set mirroring:

1. Right-click a repository, FDS resource, OpenStorage resource, or the


Configuration Database object and select Mirror --> Add.
To mirror a group of resources, right-click the Repository Resources, FDS
Resources, or OpenStorage Resources object.

2. Select an available physical device that is the same size or larger than the
selected resource.

3. Select how you want to create the mirror.


Custom lets you select which disk segments to use.
Express automatically creates the mirror using available disk segments.
- Select drives from different adapter/channel - Look for space on another hard
disk only if it is on a separate adapter/channel.
- Select different drive - Look for space on another hard disk.
- Select any available drive - Look for space on any disk, including the original.
This option is useful if you have mapped a device (such as a RAID device) that
looks like a single physical device.

4. Determine if you want to monitor the mirroring process.


If you select to monitor the mirroring process, the I/O performance is evaluated
to decide if I/O to the mirror disk is lagging beyond an acceptable limit. If it is,
mirroring will be suspended so it does not impact the primary storage.
Monitor mirroring process every n seconds - Specify how frequently the system
should check the lag time (delay between I/O to the primary disk and the mirror).
Checking more or less frequently will not impact system performance. On
systems with very low I/O, a higher number may help get a more accurate
representation.
Maximum lag time for mirror I/O - Specify an acceptable lag time.

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The FDS Console

Suspend mirroring when the failure threshold reaches n% - Specify what


percentage of I/O must pass the lag time test. For example, you set the
percentage to 10% and the maximum lag time to 15 milliseconds. During the test
period, 100 I/O occurred and 20 of them took longer than 15 milliseconds to
update the mirror disk. With a 20% failure rate, mirroring would be suspended.
Suspend mirroring when the outstanding I/Os reach - Specify the minimum
number of I/Os that can be outstanding.

5. If mirroring is suspended, specify when re-synchronization should be attempted.


Re-synchronization can be started based on time (every n minutes/hours -
default is every four hours) and/or I/O activity (when I/O is less than n KB/MB). If
you select both, the time will be applied first before the I/O activity level. If you do
not select either, the mirror will stay suspended until you manually synchronize it.
If you select one or both re-synchronization methods, you must also specify how
many times the system should retry the re-synchronization if it fails to complete.

6. Specify if you want to use Throughput Control to monitor the synchronization


process.

7. If you are using Throughput Control, set the policy.

8. Confirm that all information is correct and then click Finish to create the mirror.

Check mirroring You can see the current status of your mirroring configuration by checking the
status General tab of the resource.
• Synchronized - Both disks are synchronized. This is the normal state.
• Not synchronized - A failure in one of the disks has occurred or
synchronization has not yet started. If there is a failure in the primary
database, FDS swaps to the mirrored copy.
• If the synchronization is occurring, you will see a progress bar along with the
percentage that is completed.

Replace a If one of the mirrored disks has failed and needs to be replaced:
failed disk
1. Right-click the resource and select Mirror --> Remove to remove the mirroring
configuration.

2. Physically replace the failed disk.


The failed disk is always the mirrored copy because if the primary database disk
fails, FDS swaps the primary with the mirrored copy. You can see the layout on
the Layout tab of the resource.

3. Right-click the resource and select Mirror --> Add to create a new mirroring
configuration.

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Fix a minor disk If one of the mirrored disks has a minor failure, such as a power loss:
failure
1. Fix the problem (turn the power back on, plug the drive in, etc.).

2. Right-click the resource and select Mirror --> Synchronize.


This copies differences to the mirror disk, re-synchronizing the disks and re-
starting the mirroring.

Replace a disk If you need to replace a disk that is part of an active mirror configuration:
that is part of an
active mirror 1. If you need to replace the primary database’s disk, right-click the database and
configuration select Mirror --> Swap to reverse the roles of the disks and make it a mirrored
copy.

2. Select Mirror --> Remove to cancel mirroring.

3. Replace the disk.

4. Right-click the database and select Mirror --> Add to create a new mirroring
configuration.

Swap the Right-click the database and select Mirror --> Swap to reverse the roles of the
primary disk primary database disk and the mirrored copy. You will need to do this if you are
with the going to perform maintenance on the primary database disk or if you need to
mirrored copy remove the primary database disk.

Rebuild a mirror The Rebuild option rebuilds a mirror from beginning to end and starts the mirroring
process once it is synchronized. The rebuild feature is useful if the mirror disk you
want to synchronize is from a different server.
A rebuild might be necessary if your disaster recovery site has been servicing clients
due to some type of issue, such as a storm or power outage, at your primary data
center. Once the problem is resolved, the mirror is out of sync. Because the mirror
disk is located on a different storage server in a remote location, the local storage
server must rebuild the mirror from beginning to end.
Before you rebuild a mirror, you must stop all client activity. After rebuilding the
mirror, swap the mirror so that the primary data center can service clients again.
To rebuild the mirror, right-click a resource and select Mirror --> Rebuild.
You can see the current settings by checking the Mirror Synchronization Status field
on the General tab of the resource.

Suspend/ You can suspend mirroring for an individual resource or for multiple resources.
resume When you manually suspend a mirror, the system will not attempt to re-synchronize,
mirroring even if you have a re-synchronization policy. You will have to resume the mirror in
order to synchronize.

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When you resume mirroring, the mirror is synchronized before mirroring is resumed.
During the synchronization, the system will monitor the process and check lag time.
Depending upon your monitoring policy, mirroring will be suspended if the lag time
gets above the acceptable limit.
To suspend/resume mirroring right-click a resource and select Mirror --> Suspend
(or Resume). For multiple resources, right-click the Repository Resources, FDS
Resources, or OpenStorage Resources object and select the appropriate resources.

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FDS User Guide

Deduplication
The FalconStor® File-interface Deduplication System (FDS) is a block-level data
deduplication solution offering high performance, enterprise-level functionality, disk-
to-disk (D2D) data protection, integrated replication, and global block-level data
deduplication.
This chapter provides information about reclaiming disk space, checking the
integrity of deduplicated data, adding new disks to an existing system, and excluding
folders from deduplication.
It also provides integration examples for some common backup applications and
FDS. Contact FalconStor for a Best Practices Guide for these and other backup
applications.

Reclaim disk space


During the deduplication process, only single instances of unique data are passed to
the deduplication repository. The original file is replaced with a stub file pointing to
deduplication storage.
Over time, files can be erased, formatted, or overwritten by your backup application.
It is also possible that you may have manually deleted stub files.
When a stub file is eliminated, the pointers to deduplication storage are deleted but
the actual deduplicated data is not. FDS automatically reclaims unneeded space on
the FDS Index disk and FDS Data disk. You can also run the process manually.

Reclamation The system will run a reclamation process automatically whenever a threshold is
thresholds met. There are three independent thresholds (repository object, index disk, and data
disk) and the reclamation processes run independently for each. The pre-configured
initial threshold is 80% for the repository object capacity and 50% for the index disk
capacity and data disk capacity. The numbers are adjusted after each reclamation
and can grow depending upon how much space was reclaimed and how much
space is currently available.
To see the status of your thresholds, highlight your server and select the Global
Deduplication Statistics tab.

Manual To manually run reclamation, right-click your FDS server and select Deduplication
reclamation --> Repository --> Start Space Reclamation.

Force Type the following at a command line on the FDS server if you want to force
reclamation reclamation to run now regardless of the status of the thresholds:
fdscli reclamation start -d -F

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Check integrity of deduplicated data


During deduplication, the system analyzes blocks of data and determines whether
the data is unique or has already been copied to the FDS repository. This process
passes single instances of unique data to the FDS repository and replaces each
deduplicated file with a small stub file, whose function is to point to the repository
and is used to retrieve stored data.
You can run an integrity check to confirm that the stub files and the unique data
stored in the repository are valid and that the stub file can generate source data
correctly.
The integrity check can be run on an as-needed basis or can be scheduled to occur
automatically.

Notes:

• The integrity check will only be able to validate stub files and source data
deduplicated after integrity checking has been enabled. Therefore,
integrity verification will only apply to those files deduplicated after
integrity checking has been enabled.
• Performing an integrity check is a resource-intensive operation that may
affect the performance of other operations on the FDS server.

Enable integrity checking

When you enable integrity checking, all of the configuration options that you set are
part of a policy. If you do not select to schedule integrity checks, the configuration
options will still be used when you manually run an integrity check.

1. Right-click your FDS server and select Deduplication --> Repository --> Integrity
Check --> Enable.

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2. Specify when the integrity check should be run.

3. If you selected to schedule the integrity check, set the schedule.

Specify when the integrity check should begin and, optionally, when it should
end. Also specify the frequency. If you want to exclude specific days/hours/
months, select Set exclusion.

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4. If you selected Set exclusion, select the hours, days, or months during which the
integrity check should not run.

5. Specify if you want to include all paths in the integrity check or if you want to
select specific paths to include.

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6. If you selected Custom, select what paths to include/exclude from the integrity
check.

The left pane lists all FDS resources and OpenStorage resources. Select a
folder that you want to include and click the Add Path button. The newly added
row in the table shows the detailed path.

7. Specify the validation criteria.

You can select to validate stub pointers only or include source data validation as
well.

8. Confirm all information and click Finish.

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Manually run an integrity check

To manually run an integrity check, right-click your FDS server and select
Deduplication --> Repository --> Integrity Check --> Start.
If you created an integrity check policy, all of the configuration options that you set
will be used when you manually run an integrity check.

View integrity check status

While the integrity check is occurring, you can see the status on the Integrity
Check Status tab of the server.

Stop/suspend a integrity check

To stop an integrity check that is running, right-click your FDS server and select
Deduplication --> Repository --> Integrity Check --> Stop.
To temporarily suspend an integrity check that is running, right-click your FDS server
and select Deduplication --> Repository --> Integrity Check --> Suspend. When you
want to resume the job, right-click your FDS server and select Deduplication -->
Repository --> Integrity Check --> Resume.

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Change integrity check properties

To change the configuration, right-click the server and select Deduplication -->
Repository --> Integrity Check --> Configure.

Disable integrity checking

To disable integrity checking, right-click the server and select Deduplication -->
Repository --> Integrity Check --> Disable. You will need to type “Yes” to confirm.

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Add repository resources


If your FDS appliance has additional physical disks, you can create additional logical
resources for storage of FDS data, index, or folders.

Note: You may have to purchase a capacity expansion kit in order to add physical
disks to your system.

1. Right-click the server object and select Deduplication --> Repository --> Add
data disks.
For index or folder storage, select Add Index and Folder Disks.

2. Select the type of device, physical or virtual.

3. Select an available device.

4. Confirm information about your selection and click Finish.

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Exclude folders from deduplication


By default, all folders are included for deduplication.

Exclude If you want to exclude a folder (and its sub-folders) from deduplication, you can
right-click the folder and select Deduplication --> Exclude from Deduplication.
You will see an amber X icon on every folder that is excluded.

If this folder is also excluded from replication, the icon will be half amber and half
gray.
You can see a list of all excluded folders on the Excluded Paths tab of your FDS
server.

Include To include a folder that was previously excluded, right-click the folder and select
Deduplication --> Include in Deduplication.

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Integration examples
The following examples provide integration information for some common backup
applications and FDS. Contact FalconStor for a Best Practices Guide for these and
other backup applications.

Veritas™ NetBackup™
Do the following to configure Veritas NetBackup on Windows Server 2003/2008 to
back up files to an FDS share:

1. Map a CIFS share to your NetBackup machine.

2. Configure NetBackup to work with FDS.


Integrating FDS into a NetBackup environment is an easy process that just
requires IP connections to your IP network.
The following is the general procedure for configuring NetBackup to work with
FDS. It is not meant to provide NetBackup installation instructions and does not
offer any fine-tuning tips. If you are interested in optimizing your FDS/NetBackup
configuration, contact FalconStor for the FalconStor FDS Best Practices Guide
for NetBackup.
When installing NetBackup software on a Windows platform, the current user
(generally the administrator) is used by default. This NetBackup user must have
access to the CIFS share in order to use it as a storage unit.
In addition if you are using shared mode for authentication, in order to ensure
that NetBackup will have access to the FDS share, you must have a previously-
created user (such as a Guest user) that has access to the FDS share and is a
member of the Administrators and Backup Operators groups.

This user will need to start two NetBackup services, NetBackup Client Service
and NetBackup Remote Manager and Monitor Service.

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3. Use NetBackup to create a new Storage Unit and point it to your FDS share by
putting the UNC path to the share.

4. Use NetBackup to back up data to the FDS share.

5. Monitor the deduplication process, if desired, and check deduplication results.

Symantec™ Backup Exec™

Do the following to configure Symantec Backup Exec to back up files to an FDS


share:

1. Map the CIFS share to your Backup Exec machine.

2. Configure Backup Exec to work with FDS.


Integrating FDS into a Backup Exec environment is an easy process that just
requires IP connections to your IP network.
The following is the general procedure for configuring Backup Exec to work with
FDS. It is not meant to provide Backup Exec installation instructions and does
not offer any fine-tuning tips. If you are interested in optimizing your FDS/Backup
Exec configuration, contact FalconStor for the FalconStor FDS Best Practices
Guide for Backup Exec.
• In your Backup Exec console, you will need to set up a Backup-to-Disk
folder in the Devices tab. Use the default settings, except set Allocate
number of backup sets per backup-to disk file to 1.
• Launch the Backup Wizard (click the Backup button/tab on the left) and
create a backup job with custom settings. Select folders/files to back up.
Accept all default settings except that you must select the Backup-to-
Disk resource created above as the target device.

Notes:
• If you are using multiple shares with Backup Exec, all of the shares must
have the same password.
• Backup Exec can only configure an FDS share if the share is created
with the same password as the administrator's password that is used on
the client side.

3. Run the backup job.


To monitor the backup job in Backup Exec, click the Job Monitor button/tab and
double-click your job. You will see a set of files created by Backup Exec, a file
with a .bkf extension that contains the backup data and two .cfg files. Note the
name of the .bkf file.

4. Monitor the deduplication process, if desired, and then check deduplication


results.

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Statistics
From the console, you can view the following:
• Status of active deduplication and replication jobs
• Deduplication and replication history and statistics
• Repository statistics

FDS Resources statistics


From the FDS Resources object, you can see the status of active jobs as well as
deduplication and replication statistics, which includes the aggregate of all FDS
resources.

Deduplication Highlight the Deduplication tab to see deduplication statistics for all FDS resources
statistics as well as your deduplication settings. If deduplication is currently taking place, you
can see the status in the bottom section of the screen.

Files - Total number of files. This includes files that have been deduplicated, files
that were excluded, and files awaiting deduplication.

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Deduplicated Files - Total number of files that have been deduplicated. This does
not include excluded files (smaller than 8 KB or user-configured exclusions).
Files Awaiting Deduplication - Total number of files that have not yet been
deduplicated.
Space Used by Files Awaiting Deduplication - Total size of files that have not yet
been deduplicated.
Represented Data - Total size of files copied to all FDS resources (including those
that have not yet been deduplicated).
Unique Data - Total size of data stored in the repository.
Deduplication Ratio - Total amount of data represented / (divided by) the total
amount of unique data stored. This is a cumulative ratio across all FDS resources.
If deduplication is currently taking place, you can see the status in the bottom
section of the screen (below your deduplication settings). Status includes when
deduplication started, how long it has been running, how many files were processed,
how many were actually deduplicated, total data size represented, amount of unique
data, current throughput, and the file currently being processed.

Replication Highlight the Replication tab to see replication statistics for all FDS resources as well
statistics as your replication settings.

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Files - Total number of files. This includes files that have been replicated, files that
were excluded, and files awaiting replication.
Replicated Files - Total number of files replicated. Depending upon how replication
was configured, this may not include excluded files.
Files Awaiting Replication - Total number of files that have not yet been replicated.
Space Used by Files Awaiting Replication - Total size of files that have not yet been
replicated.
Data Replicated - Total amount of data replicated.
Unique Data Replicated - Total amount of unique data replicated.
If replication is currently taking place, you can see the status in the bottom section of
the screen (below your replication settings). Status includes when replication
started, how long it has been running, how many files were processed, how many
were actually replicated, total data size represented, amount of unique data, current
throughput, and the file currently being processed.

Resource-level statistics
When you select the Device Statistics tab for an FDS resource, you will see how
much physical storage you have and how much is used as well as deduplication and
replication statistics. The deduplication and replication status is the same type of
information that is presented at the FDS Resources object level except that here it is
only for the shares on this FDS resource. Refer to ’FDS Resources statistics’ for a
description of the fields listed here.

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Share and folder-level statistics


General tab When you highlight a folder or share, the General tab displays information about that
share/folder. Here, you will find the path for the share, which can be useful for
mapping/mounting shares. Additional information is displayed if the folder has been
shared, including share settings.

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Aggregate When you highlight a folder, share, or directory, the Aggregate Statistics tab displays
Statistics tab deduplication and replication statistics for the folder/share/directory and all
subdirectories below that share/folder. The information here is similar to the
information that is presented for the resource or at the FDS Resources object level.
Refer to ’FDS Resources statistics’ for a description of the fields listed on the
Aggregate Statistics tab.

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Deduplication & When you highlight a folder or share, the Deduplication & Replication tab displays a
Replication tab list of all files and folders in that folder.

File Name - The name of the file or folder.


Last Modified Time - The date and time the file was last modified. This field is only
valid for files.
Original Size - The size of the file before deduplication.
Deduplication Status - Indicates whether the file has been deduplicated yet. While
deduplication is occurring, you will see a progress bar for the file currently being
deduplicated.
Stub size - A stub file is a small file that replaces the deduplicated file and points to
the stored data in the repository. The minimum stub file size is 8 KB.
Unique data - The amount of unique data that has been moved to the repository.
Deduplication ratio - The ratio between the original file size and the amount of
unique data moved to the repository. If you see a ratio of ALL:1, the file’s data was
already in the repository and no new unique data was stored for this file.
Replication Status - Indicates whether the file has been replicated yet.

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Statistics

Repository statistics
To view repository statistics, select your FDS server and select the Global
Deduplication Statistics tab in the right panel. These statistics can be different from
the ones that appear at the FDS Resources object level due to files being deleted or
re-written or FDS resources being deleted or added.

There are three sections in the statistics pane:


• Repository usage
• Deduplication results
• Global Deduplication statistics

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Repository This section of the display graphically shows the current state of FDS storage.
usage Values are based on all deduplication jobs performed during the life span of the
selected server. Usage values show how much space has been allocated to each
FDS storage component and how much space has been used.
When reclamation is enabled, the graphs in this section resemble a dashboard.
Green represents free space, while shades of yellow represent space used before/
after reclamation. The “needle” indicator shows the current threshold. After each
reclamation, the system refreshes the graphics.
Repository object capacity indicates the percentage of total FDS index space that
has been used and how much space is available.
Index disk capacity shows the capacity of the FDS index disk, how much space has
been used, and how much space is available.
Data disk capacity shows the capacity of the FDS data disk, how much space has
been used, and how much space is available.
Select Refresh to include activity that has occurred since the last refresh.

Deduplication This section of the display combines data written and data stored statistics for all
results accumulated data and shows deduplication activity over time. Viewing data in this
way allows you to calculate the redundancy elimination ratio for any period of time.
Reviewing deduplication operations for successive weeks of full backup reveals the
true redundancy ratios of week-to-week data evolution and can be used to
accurately forecast repository requirements. You can identify how quickly you are
using your repository disk space and when you are likely to need to add more.
The values displayed for Data written represent data scanned in FDS; Data stored
values represent the amount of unique data stored in the FDS repository.
The Redundancy elimination ratio (frequently referred to in the industry as the
Deduplication Ratio) represents this formula: [(data scanned)(data stored)].
Select a Unit of time from the drop-down list to adjust the granularity of the graph.
Use the arrow buttons to scan through accumulated data. Click Refresh to include
data for deduplication activity that has occurred since the last refresh.
Select Refresh to include activity that has occurred since the last refresh.

Global This section of the display shows current statistics: a view of the redundancy
Deduplication elimination ratio based on deduplication jobs performed since a user last reset the
statistics display.
For example, statistics might reflect 7 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 2 seconds of
deduplication processing, during which 125 GB of data was scanned by FDS. 45 GB
of data was unique and therefore stored in the repository, resulting in a redundancy
elimination ratio of 2.8:1.

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Statistics

Statistics are automatically updated every 30 seconds. You can click the Reset
button to reset values to zero and reset the time to the current time. Subsequent
updates will reflect activity since the reset. If you view the display after a few
minutes, the redundancy elimination ratio will reflect deduplication jobs currently
occurring.
Select Reset to restart the clock in this display.

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Replication
Replication protects data on FDS resources by maintaining a copy of it on another
FDS server. At prescribed intervals, new data from the source server is transmitted
to the target server so that the FDS resources are synchronized.
FDS supports many-to-one data replication, providing a cost-effective disaster
recovery solution. Only deduplicated data is sent over the WAN, providing
bandwidth savings. Smaller offices and remote sites can eliminate tape backup
entirely using the FDS repository. Data restore is quick and efficient from native
format files rather than from tape backup formats.

Note: Replication only applies to data on FDS resources. Replication of OST


resources is handled by the FalconStor OpenStorage Option plug-in.

Configure incoming replication


Do the following if you want this server to hold replicated files from another server:

1. Right-click the server object and select Replication --> Incoming --> Select
Volume.

2. Select the resource to use for the replicated data.

Note: If you are using the FalconStor OpenStorage Option, you must select
ANY VOLUME in order for NetBackup replication to complete successfully.

Once replicated data has been received on this server, you will see a new FDS
Replica object in the tree beneath the volume being used to hold incoming
replication.

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Configure outgoing replication


Do the following on the source server (the server from which you will replicate files):

1. Right-click the server object and select Replication --> Outgoing --> Enable.

2. Enter information about the replica server (the server that will hold the replicated
data) and determine if you want to use encryption during replication.

3. Determine when replication should occur.

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4. If you selected to schedule replication, set the schedule.

Specify when replication should begin and, optionally, when it should end. Also
specify the frequency. If you want to exclude specific days/hours/months, select
Set exclusion.
Replication will run based on the schedule you set. If you need to start it
manually, you can right-click the server object and select Replication -->
Outgoing --> Start.

5. If you selected Set exclusion, select the days, hours, or months during which
replication should not occur.

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6. Determine what types of files to replicate.

Determine if you want to only include deduplicated files and files too small to be
deduplicated or if you want to replicate all files regardless of whether or not they
have been deduplicated. Note that small files (<8K) will be replicated even if they
did not get deduplicated.

7. Confirm all information and click Finish to configure replication.

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Check replication status


While replication is occurring, you can see the status on the Replication tab of
the FDS Resources object on the source server.

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Recover files from a replica


To recover files, you simply need to share the replica folder that is on the target
server and then map/mount the appropriate share.
Do the following on the target server:
1. Right-click the desired FDS replica resource and select Sharing.

2. On the Windows share, select Enable Windows Share, enter a new share name
if desired, and set login information.
You can set this folder as a Windows or NFS share, or both.

3. Map/mount the share.


You can now recover files from the share.

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Exclude folders from replication


When you configure outgoing replication, all folders are included by default. If
necessary, you can exclude specific folders from replication.

Exclude To exclude a specific folder (and its sub-folders), right-click the folder and select
Replication --> Exclude from Replication.
You will see a gray X icon on every folder that is excluded.

If this folder is also excluded from deduplication, the icon will be half amber and half
gray.
You can see a list of all excluded folders on the Excluded Paths tab of your FDS
server.

Include To include a folder that was previously excluded, right-click the folder and select
Replication --> Include in Replication.

Change replication properties


You can change the following for your replication configuration:
• IP address and login information for your target server
• Replication schedule
• Replication criteria
• Encryption
To change the configuration, right-click the server and select Replication -->
Outgoing --> Configure.

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Manually start replication


There are several options to manually start replication.

Note: If replication is already occurring, your manual replication request will fail.

System-wide To perform global replication, right-click the server object and select Replication -->
replication Outgoing --> Start.
Your saved replication configuration parameters, including excluded paths, will be
used.

Specific To replicate a specific resource or folder, right-click an FDS resource or folder and
resource or select Replication --> Start Replication.
folder
This replicates all files in the selected folder (including sub-folders) regardless of
whether or not this path is normally excluded from replication.

Synchronize When you perform synchronization, files/directories between the source and replica
server will be synchronized. If a replicated file has been deleted from the source, the
file will be deleted from the replica.
In normal replication mode, files are replicated to the replica but nothing is deleted
from the replica. Normal replication gives you the chance to recover files from the
replica that may have been deleted from the source. Once you are sure that deleted
files will never need to be recovered, you can perform a synchronization to save
space on the replica.
If you want to perform global synchronization, right-click the server object and select
Replication --> Outgoing --> Synchronize --> Start.
If you want synchronize a specific resource or folder, right-click an FDS resource or
folder and select Replication --> Synchronize.

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Suspend/resume replication
You can suspend future replications from automatically being triggered. This will not
stop a replication that is currently in progress. You can still manually start the
replication process while the schedule is suspended.
To suspend/resume replication, right-click the server object and select Replication
--> Outgoing --> Suspend (or Resume).
You can see the current settings by checking the Replication tab for the FDS
Resources object.

Replication
suspended

Replication
running normally

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FDS User Guide

Multipathing
The Multipathing option allows the storage server to intelligently distribute I/O traffic
across multiple Fibre Channel (FC) ports to maximize efficiency and enhance
system performance.
Because it uses parallel active storage paths between the storage server and
storage arrays, FDS can transparently reroute the I/O traffic to an alternate storage
path to ensure business continuity in the event of a storage path failure.
Multipathing is possible due to the existence of multiple HBAs in the FDS gateway
and/or multiple storage controllers in the storage systems that can access the same
physical LUN.

The multiple paths cause the same LUN to have multiple instances in the storage
server.

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Load distribution
Automatic load distribution allows for two or more storage paths to be
simultaneously used for read/write operations, enhancing performance by
automatically and equally dispersing data access across all of the available active
paths.

Path management
Each path has either a good or bad state. In most cases when the deployment is an
active/passive storage array with an FDS Gateway, there are two load balancing
groups.
• Single load balancing group: Once the path is determined to be defective, it
will be removed from the load balanced group and will not be re-used after
the path is restored unless there are no more good paths available or a
manual rescan is performed. If either occurs, the path will be added back to
the load balanced group.

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• Two load balancing groups: If there are two load balanced groups (one is
active and the other is passive) for the physical device, then when there are
no more good paths left in the active load balanced group, the device will fail
over to the passive load balancing group.

Note: If there are two load balanced groups (one active and one passive) for the
physical device, then when there are no more “good” paths left in the active load
balanced group, the alias module will fail over to the passive group.

You can see multipathing information from the console by checking the Alias tab for
a LUN (under Fibre Channel Devices). For each device, you see the following:
• Current, Standby - Passive, or Load Balancing path
• Load Balancing (Active) vs. Standby - Passive path - A passive path cannot
be used until the LUN is trespassed, meaning the passive path becomes
active and the formally-active path becomes passive.
• Connectivity status
• Preferred path

Enable load balancing


Load balancing is disabled by default. The script $ISHOME/bin/configlb.sh is used
to enable (and disable) load balancing. This script modifies the settings in
$ISHOME/etc/.isuperm.env.

Enable To enable load balancing, use the command: $ISHOME/bin/configlb.sh enable


If FDS is running, you must restart it in order for the change to take effect.

Disable To disable load balancing, use the command: $ISHOME/bin/configlb.sh disable


If FDS is running, you must restart it in order for the change to take effect.

Status To check the current setting, use the command: $ISHOME/bin/configlb.sh status
You will get one of the following return codes:
• 0 : load-balancing is disabled.
• 1 : load-balancing is enabled.
• 255: error

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FDS User Guide

NIC Port Bonding


NIC Port Bonding is a load balancing/path redundancy feature that enables you to
configure your storage server to load balance network traffic across two or more
network connections creating redundant data paths throughout the network.
NIC Port Bonding offers a new level of data accessibility and improved performance
for storage systems by eliminating the point of failure represented by a single input/
output (I/O) path between servers and storage systems and permits I/O to be
distributed across multiple paths.
NIC Port Bonding allows you to group network interfaces into a single group. You
can think of this group as a single virtual adapter that is actually made up of multiple
physical NIC adapters. To the system and the network, it appears as a single
interface with one IP address. However, throughput is increased by a factor equal to
the number of adapters in the group. Also, NIC Port Bonding detects faults
anywhere from the NIC out into the network path and provides dynamic failover in
the event of a failure.

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NIC Port Bonding

Enable NIC Port Bonding


You may have already configured NIC Port Bonding through Web Setup when you
first received your FDS appliance. To enable NIC Port Bonding in the FDS console:

1. Right-click your FDS server.

2. Select System Maintenance --> NIC Port Bonding.

Note: If you have previously set NIC Port Bonding, the system will have to
remove the bonding and restart network services before continuing.

3. Select how many bonding groups to use.


Bond Ethernet interfaces into one group - Combines all discovered NIC ports
into a single Bond Group 0.
Bond Ethernet interfaces into two groups - Creates Bond Group 0 and Bond
Group 1, each group with half of the discovered NIC ports.

4. Select the bond type.


Round-Robin mode - The default mode that transmits data in a sequential,
round-robin order using standard switches.
Link Aggregation mode - A more dedicated, tuned mode that uses IEEE
802.1AX-capable switches to optimize traffic.

5. Enter an IP address and netmask for each bond group.

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NIC Port Bonding

Change IP address
To modify a bonded IP address of a server, you will need to remove the bonding
configuration (System Maintenance --> NIC Port Bonding --> Yes to remove) and
then rebond using the new IP addresses.

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FDS User Guide

Email Alerts
FDS includes a unique customer support utility that proactively identifies and
diagnoses potential system or component failures and automatically notifies system
administrators via email.
Using pre-configured scripts (called triggers), Email Alerts monitors a set of pre-
defined, critical system components (memory, disk, SCSI drive errors, offline device,
etc.). With its open architecture, administrators can easily register new elements to
be monitored by these scripts.
When an error is triggered, Email Alerts generates an email and sends it to a system
administrator.
With Email Alerts, system administrators are able to take corrective measures within
the shortest amount of time, ensuring optimum service uptime and IT efficiency.

Configure Email Alerts


1. In the console, right-click your FDS server and select Email Alerts --> Enable.

2. Enter general information for your Email Alerts configuration.

SMTP Server - Specify the mail server that Email Alerts should use to send out
notification emails.
SMTP Port - Specify the mail server port that Email Alerts should use.
SMTP Username/Password - If you enabled the authentication option on the
SMTP server, specify the user account that will be used by Email Alerts to log

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Email Alerts

into the mail server. Email Alerts may not work if the SMTP username and
password are set without authentication.
From - Specify the email account that will be used in the “From” field of emails
sent by Email Alerts.
To - Specify the email address of the account that will receive emails from Email
Alerts. This will be used in the “To” field of emails sent by Email Alerts.
CC - Specify any other email accounts that should receive emails from Email
Alerts.
Subject - Specify the text that should appear on the subject line.
Interval - Specify how frequently the Email Alerts triggers and the System Log
should be checked.
Test - Click the Test button to send a test Email Alerts email.

3. In the Signature dialog, enter the contact information that should appear in each
Email Alerts email.

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Email Alerts

4. In the Trigger dialog, set the triggers that will cause Email Alerts to send an
email.

Triggers are the scripts/programs that perform various types of error checking.
By default, FalconStor includes scripts/programs that check for low system
memory, low disk space, and relevant new entries in the system log.
The following are the default scripts that are provided:
chkcore.sh 10 (Core file check) - This script checks to see if a new core file has
been created by the operating system in the bin directory of FDS. If a core file is
found, Email Alerts compresses it, deletes the original, and sends an email
report but does not send the compressed core file (which can still be large). If
there are more than 10 (variable) compressed core files, they will all be deleted.
kfsnmem.sh 10 (FDS memory management check) - This script checks to see if
the maximum number of memory pages has been set. If not, Email Alerts sends
an email report. If it is set, the script checks the available memory pages. If the
percentage is lower than specified percentage (default is 10), Email Alerts sends
an email report.
memchk.sh 5 (Memory check) - This script takes in a percentage as the
parameter and checks whether the available system memory is below this
percentage. If yes, Email Alerts sends an email report.
swapcheck.pl 80 (Memory swap usage check) - This script checks memory
swap usage. If it exceeds the specified value (default 80), Email Alerts sends an
email report with the total swap space and the swap usage.
diskusagechk.sh / 95 (Disk usage check) - This script checks the disk space
usage of the root file system. If the current percentage is over the specified
percentage (default is 95), Email Alerts sends an email report. You can add

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Email Alerts

multiple diskusagechk.sh triggers for different mount points (for example, /home
could be used in another trigger).
serverstatus.sh (Server status check) - This script calls “fds status” and checks
if any module of FDS has stopped. If so, Email Alerts sends an email report.
syslogchk.sh (System log check) - This script looks at the system log for
specific entries that it needs to report on. This is determined by information
specified in the System Log Check dialog. If matches are found, Email Alerts
sends an email report.
configdbcheck.pl (Configuration database check) - This script checks the
consistency of the configuration database. If a problem is found, Email Alerts
sends an email report.
FDSmonitor.sh (FDS status check) - This script checks usage of the index
repository and data repository. If the current usage is above the trigger levels,
Email Alerts sends an email report.
ipmichk.sh (IPMI hardware check) - This script checks to see if there are any
logs generated by IPMI for hardware errors. If there are, Email Alerts sends an
email report with the logs attached.
activity.pl (Activity check) - This script checks to see an activity file (which
contains statistics) exists. If it is, Email Alerts sends an email report with the
activity file attached.
reportheartbeat.pl (Heartbeat check) - This script checks to see if server is
active. If it is, Email Alerts sends an email report.
If you need to modify an existing script, refer to ‘Script/program trigger
information’ for more information. You cannot delete the predefined triggers.

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Email Alerts

5. In the Email Alerts Attachment dialog, indicate what files should be attached to
each email alert.

6. In the System Log Check dialog, indicate the terms that should be tracked in the
system log by Email Alerts.

The system log records important events or errors that occur in the system,
including those generated by FDS.

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Email Alerts

This dialog allows you to rule out entries in the system log that have nothing to
do with FDS, and to list the types of log entries generated by FDS that Email
Alerts needs to examine. Entries that do not match the entries here will be
ignored, regardless of whether or not they are relevant to FDS.
The trigger for monitoring the system log is syslogchk.sh. To inform the trigger of
which specific log entries need to be captured, you can specify the general types
of entries that need to be inspected by Email Alerts.
Each line is a regular expression. The regular expression rules follow the pattern
for AWK (a standard Unix utility).

7. In the System Log Ignore dialog, Indicate which categories of internal messages
should not be included.

If a category is checked, you will still receive error messages but will not receive
detailed internal messages.
Select the Customized System Log Ignore tab to exclude system log entries that
were included on the previous dialog. You can enter terms to ignore, thereby
eliminating entries that will cause Email Alerts to send out email reports.
Each line is a regular expression. The regular expression rules follow the pattern
for AWK (a standard Unix utility).

8. Confirm all information and click Finish to enable Email Alerts.

Modify Email Alerts properties


Once Email Alerts is enabled, you can modify the information by right-clicking on
your FDS server and selecting Email Alerts --> Configure.
Click the appropriate tab to update the desired information.

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Email Alerts

Script/program trigger information


Email Alerts uses script/program triggers to perform various types of error checking.
By default, FalconStor includes several scripts/programs that check for low system
memory, changes to the FDS XML configuration file, and relevant new entries in the
system log.

Customize email for a specific trigger

You can specify an email address to override the default To address or a text subject
to override the default Subject. To do this:

1. Right-click your FDS server and select Email Alerts --> Configure.

2. Select the Trigger tab.

3. For an existing trigger, highlight the trigger and click Edit.

4. Check the Redirect Notification Without Attachment checkbox.

5. Enter the alternate email address or subject.


If you specify an email address, it overrides the return code. Therefore, no
attachment will be sent, regardless of the return code.

FDS User Guide 107


Appendix
This appendix contains information about firewall ports and system performance.

Firewall ports
Before implementing FDS with a firewall, you should review the following chart to
see which ports are used by FDS. Network firewalls should allow access through
these ports for successful communications. The ports required by FDS are:

Port # Protocol Description

111 TCP rpcbind RPC program number mapper (NFS)

111 UDP rpcbind RPC program number mapper (NFS)

137 UDP ipstornmbd NETBIOS Name Service (CIFS)

138 UDP ipstornmbd NETBIOS Datagram Service (CIFS)

139 TCP ipstorsmbd NETBIOS session service (CIFS)

139 UDP ipstorsmbd NETBIOS Session Service (CIFS)

161 TCP SNMP (SNMPD)

161 UDP SNMP (SNMPD)

2049 TCP nfsd NFS server (NFS)

2049 UDP nfsd NFS server (NFS)

11576 TCP ipstorcomm SecureRPC channel to Console and


Client, to configure and retrieve server configuration

18651 TCP Replication (unencrypted)

18652 TCP Replication (encrypted)

389 TCP LDAP

389 UDP LDAP

5001 TCP TTCP

8773 TCP FDS OST test port

11577 TCP IOCore port

11580 TCP RPC FO port

11676 TCP CLI proxy port

11762 TCP SIR node port

18720 TCP FDS OST port

23489 TCP FDS repository server

FDS User Guide 108


Appendix

Maximum number of data streams per FalconStor appliance


Each file written to or read from a FalconStor appliance is a data stream. The
following table shows the maximum number of concurrent writes or reads that can
be sustained for each FDS appliance:

Maximum Maximum
Appliance Model
Concurrent Writes Concurrent Reads

FDS Virtual Appliance 16 8

FDS RA101/SA101 Storage 32 8


Appliance

FDS SA102 Storage Appliance 32 8

FDS SA304 Storage Appliance 32 8

FDS SA307 Storage Appliance 90 30

FDS SA311 Storage Appliance 90 30

FDS SA318 Storage Appliance 180 50

FDS SA622 Storage Appliance 180 50

FDS SA634 Storage Appliance 240 50

FDS SA645 Storage Appliance 260 60

FDS SA657 Storage Appliance 260 60

FDS SA668 Storage Appliance 390 80

FDS GA700F Gateway Appliance 390 80

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FDS User Guide

Index
A Rescan 49
Active Directory 31 Domain mode 30
Activity Log 57 Configuration 30
Administrator Group IDs 36
Management 50 User IDs 35
Types 50
Authentication E
Domain mode 30 Email Alerts 101
Share mode 30 Configuration 101
Auto Save 57 Modifying properties 106
System log check 105
B Triggers 103, 107
Backup software Customize email 107
Symantec Backup Exec 76 Event Log 51
Veritas NetBackup 75 Export 52
Bond IP 47 Filter information 51
Bonding NICs 98 Print 52
Change IP address 100 Sort information 51
Exclude
C Folders 74
Configuration 11 Hours, days, months 22, 69
Configuration database 45 Exclusions 21
Mirror 62
Configuration wizard 13 F
Connectivity test 44 FDS
Console Components 3
Administrator Management 50 Concepts 3
Connect to FDS server 11 How it works 2
Discover servers 12 Overview 1
Install 11 FDS Console
Objects in tree 44 Log 46
Rescan devices 49 FDS devices
Run 11 Configure 17
Server FDS resources 45
Properties 57 Create 24
Set options 46 Mirror 62
System maintenance 47 fdsconsole.log 46
Web-based Firewall ports 108
Launch 11 Folders 18

D H
Deduplication Halt server 48
Add repository resources 73 Hostname 15
Reclaim disk space 66 Change 48
Schedule 21 How FDS works 2
Devices

FDS User Guide 110


Index

I Path switching 96
Index 18
Install N
FDS server software 10 Network configuration 14
Integration example Network information 9
Symantec Backup Exec 76 NFS client
Veritas NetBackup 75 Add 41
Integrity check 67 Mount share 39
Change properties 72 NIC port bonding 98
Disable 72 Change IP address 100
Enable 67
Run 71 O
Status 71 OpenStorage resources 45
Introduction 1 Create 24
IPMI 47 Mirror 62
Config 47 Operating system installation 8
Filter 48 Manually install 8
Monitor 47
P
J Passwords
Jumbo frames 15 Add/delete administrator password 50
Change administrator password 50
L Default 12
License keycodes 13 Patch
Location 58 Apply 60
Logs 46 Rollback 60
Performance
M Data streams 109
Map share Physical appliance
Windows client 38 Connect to storage network 5
Messages Delivered components 5
SNMP 61 Mount appliance 5
Mirror 62 Ports 5
Add 62 Setup 5
Fix minor disk failure 64 Ports 5
Monitor 62
Rebuild 64 R
Replace disk in active configuration 64 Reboot server 48
Replace failed disk 63 Reclamation 66
Resume 64 Replication 86
Status 63 Change properties 92
Suspend 64 Configure ingoing 86
Swap 64 Configure outgoing 87
Mount share Include/exclude 92
NFS client 39 Recover files 91
MTU 15 Reports 53
Multipathing 95 Resume 94
Load distribution 96 Statistics 77
Path management 96 Status 90

FDS User Guide 111


Index

Suspend 94 Restart FDS 48


Reports 53 Restart network 48
Change schedule 54 Set hostname 48
Create 53 System requirements 7
Delete 54 System security 108
Export data 54
Print 54 T
Refresh 54 Traps 61
View 54
Repository resources 45 U
Mirror 62 User name
Rescan Default 12
Devices 49
W
S Windows client
Schedule 21 Map share 38
Security mode 30
Domain mode 30
Share mode 30
Server
Location 58
Properties 57
Setup
Physical appliance 5
Share mode 30
Shares
Create 27
Map 38
Mount 39
SNMP 61
Traps 57
Software updates
Add patch 60
Rollback patch 60
Statistics
Aggregate 81
Deduplication 77
Deduplication & replication 82
FDS resources 77
General 80
Replication 77
Repository 83
Resource-level 79
Share and folder level 80
System maintenance 47
Bond IP 47
Halt 48
IPMI 47
Reboot 48

FDS User Guide 112

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