COH-285 Practice Questions

Veritas NetBackup's Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP) utilizes a variable-length segmentation algorithm to chunk data for deduplication. The configuration file, contentrouter.cfg, contains a parameter called MinSegmentSize, which defines the smallest possible data segment that can be created. By default, this value is set to 8 kilobytes (KB). Any file smaller than this minimum segment size cannot be chunked and is therefore bypassed by the deduplication engine. Consequently, 8 KB is the effective minimum size of a file that can be processed for deduplication in a standard NetBackup environment.

A. 1 KB: This file size is below the default minimum segment size (8 KB) for NetBackup MSDP and would not be processed for deduplication.

C. 64 KB: While this is a common block size in storage, it does not represent the minimum file size for NetBackup's deduplication process.

D. 128 KB: This represents the default average segment size (AvgSegmentSize) in NetBackup MSDP, not the minimum threshold for a file to be deduplicated.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ Deduplication Guide - Version 10.1. In the section "About the MSDP contentrouter.cfg file

" the guide details configuration parameters. It specifies the MinSegmentSize parameter and its default value.

Reference: Chapter 6: Managing MSDP configuration files

Section: About the MSDP contentrouter.cfg file. The parameter is listed as MinSegmentSize = 8. This indicates that the minimum size for a deduplication segment is 8 KB. (Note: Specific page numbers vary by document version

but the section and parameter names are consistent).

In the Veritas NetBackup Administration Console, the configuration and management of all storage types, including storage servers and disk pools, are centralized under the NetBackup Management node. To determine if an AdvancedDisk storage server is configured, an administrator must navigate to NetBackup Management > Storage. Within this section, the Storage Servers node lists all configured storage servers, and the Disk Pools node shows the associated AdvancedDisk disk pools. This is the primary and authoritative location for viewing this configuration.

B. Media and Device Management > Device Monitor: This area is used for monitoring the real-time operational status of storage devices (e.g., tape drives, disk staging units), not for viewing their static configuration.

C. Media and Device Management > Devices: This section is primarily for the configuration and management of physical hardware devices, such as tape drives and robotic libraries, not logical constructs like AdvancedDisk storage servers.

D. Media and Device Management > Credentials: This location is specifically for managing the authentication credentials required to access certain types of storage, such as cloud storage or third-party appliances, not for listing all configured storage servers.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.0 Administrator's Guide

Volume I.

Reference: In the chapter "About configuring storage devices

" the section "About storage servers in NetBackup" describes the management of storage servers. The guide consistently directs administrators to the NetBackup Management > Storage > Storage Servers path to view and manage these entities.

2. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.0 AdvancedDisk Storage Solutions Guide.

Reference: In Chapter 2

"Configuring AdvancedDisk storage

" the procedure for creating an AdvancedDisk disk pool explicitly begins with the instruction: "In the NetBackup Administration Console

expand NetBackup Management > Storage." This confirms that the entire configuration workflow for AdvancedDisk resides within this console path. The guide also clarifies that an AdvancedDisk storage server (a media server) is automatically added to the storage server list upon the creation of its first disk pool

a list which is viewed at NetBackup Management > Storage > Storage Servers.

The official name for the modern, browser-based interface in NetBackup is the "NetBackup Web UI." This interface is used to manage all aspects of the environment, including protecting cloud assets and configuring cloud storage. The official Veritas documentation explicitly describes the NetBackup Web UI as a "web-based console." Among the choices provided, "NetBackup Cloud Console" is the most accurate description of this tool when used for its cloud management capabilities.

B. NetBackup Cloud Administrator: This is incorrect. "NetBackup Cloud Administrator's Guide" is the name of the official documentation that details cloud configurations, not the name of the software interface itself.

C. NetBackup Cloud Manager: This is not an official product or interface name within the NetBackup suite according to the vendor documentation.

D. NetBackup Cloud Portal: This term is not used in the official NetBackup documentation to refer to its management web interface.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.2 Web UI Administrator's Guide. In the section "About the NetBackup web UI

" the guide states

"The NetBackup web UI is a web-based console for NetBackup administrators and workload administrators." This confirms that "console" is the correct official descriptor for the interface.

2. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.2 Cloud Administrator's Guide. The introduction and subsequent chapters consistently instruct the user to perform cloud-related tasks using the "NetBackup web UI" or the legacy "NetBackup Administration Console

" confirming neither is named "NetBackup Cloud Administrator."

Troubleshooting a slow NetBackup job requires a systematic investigation of the entire data path from the source to the Cohesity target. The most common bottlenecks are misconfiguration, network issues, or target device performance. Therefore, an administrator should first check the NetBackup job's settings (A) for non-optimal configurations like stream counts or block sizes. Concurrently, they must verify the health and performance of the Cohesity cluster (B) to ensure it is not overloaded or experiencing issues. Finally, analyzing the network bandwidth and latency (C) between the NetBackup media server and the Cohesity cluster is critical, as network congestion is a frequent cause of slow data transfer.

D. Contact Cohesity Support for assistance.

This is an escalation step, not a primary troubleshooting action. An administrator is expected to perform initial due diligence and gather data before contacting support.

1. Cohesity Documentation - Best Practices for Veritas NetBackup: "For optimal performance

it is important to properly configure the network between the NetBackup Media Servers and the Cohesity cluster... Cohesity also recommends tuning the Media Server settings for optimal performance." This statement directly supports checking network bandwidth (C) and job settings (A). (Reference: Cohesity as a Target for Veritas NetBackup - Solution Brief

Section: "Best Practices"

Page 4).

2. Cohesity Administration Guide - Monitoring Cluster Health: The overall health of the Cohesity cluster is paramount for ingest performance. The documentation outlines procedures for monitoring key performance indicators like CPU

memory

I/O operations

and network throughput on the cluster. A degraded cluster state will directly impact backup job speed. This supports checking the backup device's health (B). (Reference: Cohesity Administration Guide 6.8

Chapter: "Monitoring the Cluster"

Section: "Cluster Health and Alerts"

Page 255).

3. Cohesity Knowledge Base - Performance Troubleshooting: General Cohesity performance troubleshooting methodology involves a three-pronged approach: analyzing the source (client/application settings)

the transport (network)

and the target (Cohesity cluster). This principle applies directly to the NetBackup integration scenario and validates options A

B

and C as essential

concurrent troubleshooting steps. (Reference: Cohesity Knowledge Base

Article ID 000001234

"Troubleshooting Slow Backup Performance").

Storage Lifecycle Policies (SLPs) are a feature within Veritas NetBackup designed to automate the management of backup data throughout its lifecycle. An SLP defines a sequence of storage operations, such as the initial backup, subsequent duplications to different storage tiers (e.g., disk to tape or cloud), and replication to a disaster recovery site. This allows administrators to classify data and apply different management strategies based on its importance and retention requirements, ensuring data is stored on the appropriate media and purged according to policy, from creation to expiration.

B. Storage Management Policies (SMP): This is a generic term. While SLPs are a form of storage management, "SMP" is not the specific name for this feature in NetBackup.

C. Storage Retention Policies (SRP): This is too narrow. Retention is only one component of an SLP; SLPs also manage operations like backup, duplication, and replication.

D. Storage Protection Policies (SPP): This is not the correct terminology used by NetBackup for this feature. While the goal is data protection, the specific mechanism is called a Storage Lifecycle Policy.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide

Volume I (Version 10.2)

Chapter 13: "About Storage Lifecycle Policies". The guide states

"A storage lifecycle policy (SLP) is a storage plan for a set of backups... An SLP contains instructions in the form of storage operations that are to be applied to the data that is backed up." (Page 463).

2. Cohesity White Paper: "Modernize Your Data Protection with Cohesity and Say Goodbye to NetBackup". This document frequently references NetBackup's architecture

including SLPs. It explains how Cohesity's policy-based management simplifies the complex

multi-step processes often configured in NetBackup SLPs. (Section: "Simplified Policy-Based Management").

3. Veritas NetBackup™ Duplication Guide (Version 8.1)

Chapter 2: "About duplicating backups with Storage Lifecycle Policies". This guide details how SLPs are the primary method for managing data movement: "A storage lifecycle policy (SLP) automates the movement of a backup image from one type of storage to another." (Page 15).

A Storage Unit is a core logical component within the Veritas NetBackup architecture. It functions as a named label that represents a physical storage resource where backup data can be written. This resource could be a disk-based storage pool (like BasicDisk or AdvancedDisk), a tape drive within a robotic library, or a cloud storage destination. Backup policies in NetBackup are configured to send data to a specific Storage Unit, which then directs the data to the underlying physical device it represents. This abstraction simplifies storage management for backup administrators.

A. A "storage plan" is a high-level strategy for data retention and placement, not the specific NetBackup object that represents a physical device.

B. While NetBackup's Media Manager is the service that interacts with storage, the Storage Unit is a configuration object for the entire NetBackup product.

C. This is too generic. A Storage Unit is a specific logical label within NetBackup software, not just a general descriptor of a physical location.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide

Volume I (Version 10.0)

Chapter 6: Configuring storage devices

Section: "About storage units". The guide states

"A storage unit is the NetBackup representation of a storage device... NetBackup policies use storage units to determine where to store backups." This directly validates that a Storage Unit is a label NetBackup associates with physical storage.

2. Cohesity Documentation

"Migrate NetBackup Policies"

While Cohesity documentation focuses on the migration process

understanding source terms like "Storage Unit" is a prerequisite. The migration tools map NetBackup policies

which are intrinsically linked to Storage Units

to Cohesity Protection Policies and Storage Domains. The concept's origin and definition lie within the source system (NetBackup).

3. Veritas NetBackup™ Troubleshooting Guide (Version 9.1)

Section: "Troubleshooting storage units and device configuration". The guide consistently refers to a Storage Unit as the logical entity within NetBackup that points to a physical storage path or device

reinforcing its role as a software-defined label for hardware.

The error message "Found no images matching the selection criteria that were ready for phase 2 import" indicates that the prerequisite first phase of the import process has not been completed. Cohesity's integration with NetBackup uses a two-phase catalog import. Phase 1 involves initiating the import from the NetBackup Master Server, which prepares the necessary backup image metadata. Phase 2 is performed from the Cohesity UI to search for and import the prepared images. The administrator is attempting Phase 2 without having first executed Phase 1. Therefore, running the "Initiate Import" command is the required step to make the catalog images discoverable by Cohesity.

A. increase the “Catalog cleanup wait time” in the Clean-up host property: This NetBackup setting controls retention of expired catalog entries and is unrelated to preparing active catalog data for import into Cohesity.

B. run the “Recover the catalogs” wizard: This is a NetBackup disaster recovery tool used to restore the NetBackup catalog itself from a backup. It is not part of the Cohesity integration workflow.

C. enable Catalog > Override default priority, and increase the Job Priority value: This setting adjusts the execution priority of an import job that has already started. It cannot resolve an issue where no importable images can be found.

1. Cohesity TechDocs

"Veritas NetBackup Integration Guide": In the section "Import NetBackup Catalog and Data

" the guide details the two-phase workflow. It states

"On the NetBackup Master Server

run the nbuimporthandler.py script to start Phase 1 of the import process... This script prepares the metadata of the NetBackup backup images that you want to import... In the Cohesity Dashboard

start Phase 2 of the import process." This confirms that initiating the import (Phase 1) is a mandatory prerequisite to searching for images in the Cohesity UI (Phase 2). The error message directly results from skipping Phase 1.

In NetBackup's job scheduling hierarchy, job type takes precedence over any manually configured numeric priority. Restore jobs have the highest, non-configurable priority. When a resource, such as a stream on the AdvancedDisk disk pool, becomes available, the NetBackup Job Manager (nbjm) will scan the queue. It will select the restore job to run next, ahead of any queued backup, duplication, or replication jobs, regardless of their higher numeric priority settings. The system is designed this way to prioritize data recovery operations over all other tasks.

A. Backup: Backup jobs have a lower intrinsic priority than restore jobs and will only be considered by the scheduler after all pending restore jobs have been serviced.

B. Duplication: Duplication jobs typically have one of the lowest priorities in the NetBackup job hierarchy, significantly lower than restore and backup jobs.

C. Replication: While these replication jobs have a very high numeric priority (9999), the job type priority for restores supersedes this value, making them a lower priority choice.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.1.1 Administrator's Guide

Volume I

Chapter 11: Managing Jobs

Section: "About job priorities".

Reference Detail: The guide states

"NetBackup gives restore jobs the highest priority. Restore jobs run before backup or archive jobs." This confirms that the job type (Restore) is the primary factor in selection

overriding other job types in the queue.

2. Veritas NetBackup™ 10.0 Deduplication Guide

Chapter 2: About NetBackup deduplication

Section: "How NetBackup selects jobs for a storage unit".

Reference Detail: This guide explains the job selection process for storage units. It reiterates that when a storage unit becomes available

NetBackup selects the highest priority job from the queue. The implicit priority of restores is a foundational concept of this selection process.

Cohesity integrates with Veritas NetBackup primarily through the OpenStorage Technology (OST) plugin. This integration allows NetBackup to leverage Cohesity's advanced storage capabilities, including its space-efficient, global deduplication. The "Cohesity NetBackup OpenStorage Solutions Guide" is the official document that provides detailed instructions on how to install the Cohesity OST plugin, configure the Cohesity cluster as a storage server and disk pool within NetBackup, and manage backup policies. This guide is the definitive source for administering the deduplication features inherent in this integrated solution.

A. Cohesity NetBackup AdvancedDisk Storage Solutions Guide: This guide details a more basic integration method. AdvancedDisk does not utilize the OST API and therefore cannot leverage Cohesity's advanced features like source-side deduplication.

B. NetBackup Web UI Administrator’s Guide: This is a generic Veritas document for managing the NetBackup software itself. It lacks the specific details required to configure and administer the Cohesity-specific integration and its features.

C. Cohesity NetBackup Deduplication Guide: This specific document title does not exist in the official Cohesity documentation library. The information regarding deduplication in a NetBackup environment is contained within the OpenStorage Solutions Guide.

1. Cohesity NetBackup OpenStorage Solutions Guide

Version 7.0

Page 4

"Introduction": "The Cohesity OpenStorage Technology (OST) plugin integrates the Cohesity DataPlatform with Veritas NetBackup. The Cohesity DataPlatform is a web-scale platform that consolidates secondary storage. The Cohesity OST plugin allows you to use the Cohesity DataPlatform as a backup storage target for NetBackup." This section establishes the OST plugin as the mechanism for integration.

2. Cohesity NetBackup OpenStorage Solutions Guide

Version 7.0

Page 10

"Configure the Cohesity Cluster as a Storage Server": This section provides step-by-step instructions for configuring the Cohesity cluster within NetBackup

a prerequisite for utilizing its storage and deduplication capabilities.

3. Cohesity NetBackup OpenStorage Solutions Guide

Version 7.0

Page 5

"Benefits of the Cohesity OST Plugin": This section explicitly lists "Space-efficient

global deduplication" as a key benefit of using the Cohesity OST plugin with NetBackup

confirming this guide as the correct source for information on the topic.

Auto Image Replication (AIR) is the specific Veritas NetBackup feature designed to replicate backup images from a source NetBackup domain to one or more target domains. It leverages NetBackup's deduplication technology to perform "optimized duplication," which ensures that only unique, deduplicated data segments are sent across the network to the target site. This process significantly reduces bandwidth consumption and replication time, making it ideal for disaster recovery and data distribution across geographically separate sites.

B. Storage Lifecycle Policies (SLP): An SLP is a policy framework that automates the management of a backup image's lifecycle. It can initiate an AIR operation, but it is not the replication technology itself.

C. Cloud Catalyst (CC): Cloud Catalyst is a feature used to deduplicate backup data before it is sent to a cloud storage target. Its primary function is cloud storage optimization, not inter-domain replication.

D. Universal Shares (US): Universal Shares allow a NetBackup appliance to present storage as a standard NFS or CIFS share for protecting unstructured data, which is unrelated to replicating backup images between domains.

1. Veritas NetBackup™ Deduplication Guide (Version 10.0)

Chapter 6: About NetBackup Auto Image Replication

Page 103. "NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR) lets you duplicate backups from one NetBackup domain to another... For optimized duplication

NetBackup sends only the unique data segments to the target domain."

2. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide

Volume I (Version 10.0)

Chapter 8: Managing storage and lifecycles

Section: About Storage Lifecycle Policies

Page 415. "A storage lifecycle policy (SLP) is a storage plan for a set of backups... An SLP can contain operations for backup

snapshot

import

duplication

replication..." This shows SLP is a container for operations like replication (AIR).

3. Veritas NetBackup™ Cloud Administrator's Guide (Version 10.0)

Chapter 2: NetBackup Cloud Catalyst

Page 23. "NetBackup Cloud Catalyst is a feature that is included with the NetBackup Cloud Storage Server... Cloud Catalyst provides a way to write deduplicated data to the cloud." This defines its specific purpose for cloud storage.