Installing Backup Exec Remote Agent for Linux/UNIX Systems on Ubuntu
Backup Exec does not have native packages for Debian based systems like Ubuntu, but with just a few extra commands, the RPM packages provided by Symantec work just fine.
Read on for the quick and dirty:
1. Log in to your Ubuntu system and transfer the VRTSralus-<version>.rpm and VRTSvxmsa- <version>.rpm files to your home folder.
2. Install 'alien' from your apt repository (i.e. sudo aptitude install alien)
3. Install 'libstdc++5' from your apt repository (i.e. sudo aptitude install libstdc++5)
4. Use alien to install the packages (i.e. alien -c -i VRTSralus- .rpm & alien -c -i VRTSvxmsa- .rpm)
5. Create a group called 'beoper' using this command "sudo groupadd beoper"
6. Add the 'root' user to the 'beoper' group using the command "sudo usermod -G beoper root"
7. Disable IPv6 as Backup Exec does not load properly when it is in use. Edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/aliases" and comment out the line "alias net-pf-10 ipv6". Then, edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist" and add the line "blacklist ipv6".
8. Restart the server.
9. Start the Backup Exec agent using '/opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init start'
To make sure that the backup agent always starts on boot-up, you can add the init command to the /etc/rc.local script and it will execute after all other init scripts.
Now, that's the quick and dirty... Let's go over those settings in detail.
First, the systems I have tested this on are the 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10 versions of Ubuntu. these earlier systems may have different package names for the libstdc++5 libraries. You should still be able to find the appropriate package by searching with "aptitude search libstdc++".
Second, the "alien" command is run with two options. The first, "-c", tell alien to attempt to execute the scripts contained in the RPM package. This will sometimes not work depending on the package, but with RALUS it does work. The second option "-i" tells alien to not just convert the package to a "deb", but to go ahead and install it in the same step.
Next, the IPv6 support issue is related to how the agent binds to the port 10000. Symantec's implementation is using libstdc++5, which is outdated and does not have proper support for binding to all interfaces ipv4 and ipv6. So, to prevent the Symantec agent from binding to the IPv6 address, we disable IPv6. If you MUST have IPv6 support, your Backup Exec server will also have to be using IPv6 and routing between the systems must be capable of IPv6.
Another important step is to ensure that the agent starts up automatically. I have found that the simplest way to accomplish this is to put the start command into the /etc/rc.local script. The rc.local script is always run directly after all of the other service startup scripts. By putting the "/opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init start" command into the rc.local file, you will ensure that the agent always starts up when the system boots.
Finally, the beoper group is required for the agent to authenticate users properly. From the Backup Exec management program, whatever user you authenticate to the agent with must be a member of the beoper group on the target system.
Read on for the quick and dirty:
1. Log in to your Ubuntu system and transfer the VRTSralus-<version>
2. Install 'alien' from your apt repository (i.e. sudo aptitude install alien)
3. Install 'libstdc++5' from your apt repository (i.e. sudo aptitude install libstdc++5)
4. Use alien to install the packages (i.e. alien -c -i VRTSralus-
5. Create a group called 'beoper' using this command "sudo groupadd beoper"
6. Add the 'root' user to the 'beoper' group using the command "sudo usermod -G beoper root"
7. Disable IPv6 as Backup Exec does not load properly when it is in use. Edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/aliases" and comment out the line "alias net-pf-10 ipv6". Then, edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist" and add the line "blacklist ipv6".
8. Restart the server.
9. Start the Backup Exec agent using '/opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init start'
To make sure that the backup agent always starts on boot-up, you can add the init command to the /etc/rc.local script and it will execute after all other init scripts.
Now, that's the quick and dirty... Let's go over those settings in detail.
First, the systems I have tested this on are the 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10 versions of Ubuntu. these earlier systems may have different package names for the libstdc++5 libraries. You should still be able to find the appropriate package by searching with "aptitude search libstdc++".
Second, the "alien" command is run with two options. The first, "-c", tell alien to attempt to execute the scripts contained in the RPM package. This will sometimes not work depending on the package, but with RALUS it does work. The second option "-i" tells alien to not just convert the package to a "deb", but to go ahead and install it in the same step.
Next, the IPv6 support issue is related to how the agent binds to the port 10000. Symantec's implementation is using libstdc++5, which is outdated and does not have proper support for binding to all interfaces ipv4 and ipv6. So, to prevent the Symantec agent from binding to the IPv6 address, we disable IPv6. If you MUST have IPv6 support, your Backup Exec server will also have to be using IPv6 and routing between the systems must be capable of IPv6.
Another important step is to ensure that the agent starts up automatically. I have found that the simplest way to accomplish this is to put the start command into the /etc/rc.local script. The rc.local script is always run directly after all of the other service startup scripts. By putting the "/opt/VRTSralus/bin/VRTSralus.init start" command into the rc.local file, you will ensure that the agent always starts up when the system boots.
Finally, the beoper group is required for the agent to authenticate users properly. From the Backup Exec management program, whatever user you authenticate to the agent with must be a member of the beoper group on the target system.
Comments
A folder is also created under /etc. The folder is VRTSralus, this folder contains the config file “ralus.cfg”
Here is a sample content of the file:
root@ubuntu:/etc/VRTSralus#: less ralus.cfg
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Agent Browser\TcpIp\AdvertisementPort=6101
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Debug\VXBSAlevel=5
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertise All=1
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertise Now=0
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertised Name Ok List_1=ubuntu.testdomain.ng
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertisement Purge=0
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertising Disabled=0
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Advertising Interval Minutes=10
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Auto Discovery Enabled=1
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Logging\RANT NDMP Debug Level=0
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\Encoder=
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\ShowTSAFS=
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude1=/dev/*.*
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude2=/proc/*.*
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude3=/mnt/nss/pools/
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude4=/mnt/nss/.pools/
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude5=/sys/*.*
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\RALUS\SystemExclude6=/_admin/*.*
ralus.cfg (END)
I edited the file to reduce the Advertisement Interval minute to 10.
Also add this line to the config file to enable ralus detect the Backup Exec media server:
Software\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Agents\Agent Directory List 1=backupserver.domain.com