Installation guide

EMC NetWorker Release 8.1 SP1 Installation Guide

Introduction

Before you install NetWorker on a storage node host, ensure that the operating system

recognizes the devices. NetWorker supports a variety of media types and devices

including:

◆

Disk devices

◆

Stand-alone tape devices

◆

Tape devices in an autochanger or silo tape library

The term

autochanger

refers to a variety of backup devices:

• Autoloader

•Carousel

• Datawheel

•Jukebox

•Library

•Near-line storage

The

NetWorker 7.3 (and Later) Hardware Compatibility Guide

provides the most up-to-date

list of supported devices.

To avoid potential data loss when using tape devices:

◆

Ensure that the block-size mode for the tape devices is variable otherwise, recoveries

can fail. The procedure to set up the device block size varies depending on the

operating system.

◆

Use a nonrewinding tape device. NetWorker writes a file mark on the volume at the

end of each backup. When the next backup occurs, NetWorker appends the data to

the volume based on the position of the file mark. When a device automatically

rewinds the tape, the file mark position is lost and the next backup overwrites existing

data. You cannot recover the data.

Configuring Tape Devices for EMC NetWorker Technical Note

on EMC Online Support Site

provides best practices on how to configure tape devices for use by NetWorker server and

storage nodes.

NetWorker server

The NetWorker server provides services to back up and recover the data of any NetWorker

host in a datazone. The NetWorker server can also act as a storage node and control

multiple remote storage nodes.