After reading the design spec for this, I have a couple of questions related to how the NDMP server would work for shared disk filesystems. For instance it seams that some of the metadata for NDMP is stored on a local host that may not have the same sharing as a filesystem like shared QFS or CFS from Symantec may have. Does this have any side effects, or does it just mean that to the NDMP protocol shared file systems on different nodes are just unrelated data that happens to look very similar? And on a related topic is there a way for a clustering product to enhance this protocol by some means, such as wrapping the daemon in a HA agent that would be able to fail over the daemon, or maybe just he TCP/IP endpoint and build an HA agent for backing up a shared filesystem? Lastly, is the hostname embedded in the metadata files or protocol? If this service is on a multihomed network, is there any issue with what interface the connection comes in on? Is there an issue if the network interface is a "logical" interface that moves from node to node.
-Charles Michael Shapiro wrote: > I'm sponsoring the following fast-track for Reza Sabdar to introduce the NDMP > Service into Solaris. The binding is intended for a Micro release. > The timer is set to expire on Friday the 13th (cue spooky music). > > NDMP is a backup protocol that is commonly used by storage devices in the > industry. More information is found at http://www.ndmp.org. In simplest > terms NDMP is a standard control protocol that permits a backup application > to instruct a server to do a backup: the data part of the protocol is left > up the server that is being asked to do the backup or restore. NDMP's > control protocol is a relatively simple XDR-RPC implementation. > > The proposed NDMP implementation would permit Solaris systems to receive > such instructions and backup any filesystem using the tar format. We could > extend our implementation later to support other formats as required. > > Since this is relatively straightforward implementation of a relatively small > industry-standard protocol, my present inclination is that this is just at > the line for a fast-track rather than full project review since fundamentally > we're not reviewing the protocol or the output format (standard Solaris tar), > but instead just a set of simple command-line utilities. If after looking > at the materials people feel a full review is needed we can of course do > that, or alternatively extend the fast-track timer for more questions. > > The inception.materials/ directory has these files, which I've listed > in the suggested reading order with a brief synopsis: > > ndmp_20questions.txt - PSARC 20questions > ndmpd.1.txt - draft ndmpd man page > ndmpadm.1m.txt - draft ndmpadm man page > ndmpstat.1m.txt - draft ndmpstat man page > ndmp_design.pdf - design document for ndmpd > > Additional background reading: > > ndmp_one_pager.txt - one-pager explaining the project overview > ndmpadm_design.pdf - details of ndmpadm(1M)'s internal design > draft-skardal-ndmp4-04.txt - IETF protocol info for NDMP > > -Mike > >
