Networker Features and Functions

Networker uses the terms backup and recovery in the standard definitions.  It uses tracking as a sort of meta data that keeps track of where data is stored.  Aging is how long the backup is available in the media, and is similar to retention in other products such as Data Domain and Avamar.  Cloning is copying one save set to another volume, and staging is moving a save set from one volume to another.

Multi-tenancy facility is handled by Restricted Data Zones (RDZ).  In this configuration, many tenants can share a system since there is isolation between their data and separation of users that can be configured to administer each zone.  This is a standard feature as of version 8.0 and requires no additional license.

Security is handled by access control of users.  Traffic is encrypted with SSL and self-signed certificates.  Data can be encrypted both in transit and at rest.  Starting with Networker 8.0, there is an audit log feature, and data zone pass-phrases are stored using RSA libraries.

Authentication is handled either using nsrauth, which uses SSL to encrypt the transmission, or using oldauth for backward compatibility.

Licensing can be done by the client or by capacity, with capacity licensing being the most popular since there is an unlimited number of clients that can be attached adn you get all features and functions.  The capacity license is based on the quantity of all source data pre-deduplication.  The EMC AMP program is used to track utilization and compliance for capacity licensed systems.

Client licensing comes in 4 sets, Power, Network, Workgroup and Business.  The Power and Network versions are expandable with the Power including 12 client connections and the Network including 10.  Both can have clients added, and the Network version allows half the streams the Power version allows.  The Workgroup and Business versions both offer 8 client connections.

Terms:

• save is the program that writes data and runs on the client
• save set - data backup set
• save stream - save set being written
• resources - configured on Networker server, clients, media servers, etc
• schedule - what days and what type of backup is run (full, incremental, etc)
• group - what time the backup is run
• A schedule + group defines when and what type of backup would happen
• volume - media
• pool - collection of volumes