Network Requirements

Overview

Domain Name Server (DNS) environment

• Multi-Homed CommCell^® Computers

WINS or other Non-DNS Environment

Internet Protocols

• Important Considerations

Overview

All CommCell^® computers (i.e., CommServe, MediaAgent, and Client computers) must be connected via a network configured with TCP/IP protocol. To ensure each computer can resolve the names of other CommCell computer members and therefore communicate, we offer the following guidelines.

Domain Name Server (DNS) environment

A DNS environment provides a centralized means of resolving computer names with their corresponding IP addresses. Refer to your operating system documentation for information on how to establish and manage DNS.

Multi-Homed CommCell^® Computers

A multi-homed computer is one that has two or more network interface cards (NICs). To ensure proper name/IP address resolution within the CommCell computer, it is necessary to uniquely name each NIC in the DNS. For example, assume there is a computer whose computer name is amber and fully qualified host names are amber1.company.com and amber2.company.com respectively. This computer has two NICs with the following IP addresses:

• First NIC: 150.128.4.78
• Second NIC: 150.128.6.32

To ensure that both interfaces can be resolved, define unique names within DNS, such as:

• amber1.company.com 150.128.4.78
• amber2.company.com 150.128 6.32

WINS or other Non-DNS Environment

If your network does not have DNS lookup or some other name resolution facility, the CommServe^® manager will provide the names and IP addresses of all the members in the CommCell^® group. The fully qualified computer name and IP address of the CommServe manager is stored in the hosts file of each CommCell member. The hosts file in the CommServe computer, in turn, stores the fully qualified computer name and IP addresses of all the members in the CommCell, thereby providing the lookup facility to all the members in the CommCell group. Depending on the operating system on your computer, the hosts file is located in one of the following directories:

• On a Windows computer, the hosts file is located in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc directory. (%SystemRoot% is the Windows installation directory on your system.)
• On a computer with a Unix operating system, the hosts file is located in the /etc/inet directory.

During installation of each CommCell member, the install program attempts to resolve the name of the CommServe manager to an IP address. If the resolution fails, the installation prompts you to enter the IP address of the CommServe computer.

Internet Protocols

CommCell^® computers can operate on the following Internet Protocol (IP) versions:

• IPv4 on all Windows, Unix, and Novell client computers.
• IPv6 on the following Windows and Unix computers (See Support below for more information.)

Important Considerations

The CommServe^® computer requires IPv4 to obtain permanent licenses. However, the CommServe^® computer can have both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled using multiple NIC cards. If the client computers in the CommCell^® use the IPv6 protocol, the CommServe and MediaAgent must also use the IPv6 protocol.

Configuration

To enable CommCell^® functionality for Windows computers on an IPv6 network, you must use the following registry keys:

• nOverridePreferredIPFamily - This key provides the capability to install CommCell components on computers in an IPv6 environment. This key must be manually created on each computer in the CommCell group prior to installing any software components.

  Note that this key only provides IPv6 support for the duration of the software installation.

• nPreferredIPFamily - This key is provided with the software and allows you to operate CommCell components in an IPv6 environment beyond the software installation process. This key must be configured on each computer in the CommCell group after the software has been installed.

To enable CommCell functionality for Unix computers on an IPv6 network, you must perform the following:

• Add the following to the cvpkgadd command:

  -display-interface-family [nPreferredIPFamily]

  For example, if you wish to apply both IPv4 and IPv6 support, you would add the following to the cvpkgadd command:

  -display-interface-family 0

  Note that this key only provides IPv6 support for the duration of the software installation.

• nPreferredIPFamily - This key is provided with the software and allows you to operate CommCell components in an IPv6 environment beyond the software installation process. This key must be configured on each computer in the CommCell group after the software has been installed.

CommCell Console Considerations

• If a CommServe server has both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols enabled, the CommCell^® Console will always obtain an IPv4 address. If you wish to obtain and connect with an IPv6 address, the following parameter must be added to the java/javaw command:

  -Djava.net.preferIPv6Addresses=true

  For example:

  "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0\bin\javaw.exe" -jar cv.jar cranberry 8401 -oemid=1 -Djava.net.preferIPv6Addresses=true

  Note that this configuration is supported for the CommCell Console as a stand-alone application only. If you are running the CommCell Console as a remote web-based application, you will always obtain an IPv4 address.

• To run the CommCell Console as a Remote Web-Based Application in an IPv6 environment, the web alias must include either the IPv6 address or a host name that resolves to the IPv6 address.

Macintosh File System Considerations

• By default, the software installation program will not display IP addresses that are not reverse-resolvable to the a host name in the interface list. To display such IP addresses, create the following empty file:

  /tmp/cvpkgadd_unlock_ipaddress

Outlook Add-In Considerations

• To perform stub recalls using the Outlook Add-In in an IPv6 environment, the ipfamilypref registry key must be configured to accept the IPv6 protocol. This key must be configured on each computer on which Outlook Add-In is installed.

File Archiver Considerations

• It has been seen that a Windows computer may crash with a blue screen when accessing a file under the following conditions:
  • the file resides on a Celerra file server
  • the file has offline attributes set
  • the services handling offline file restores is disabled or shut down
  • the client Windows computer has IPv6 installed and enabled

  Therefore, it is recommended that the services handling stub file restores are running before accessing offline stub files on a Celerra file server from a Windows computer with IPv6 enabled.

• FPolicy with NetApp ONTAP is not supported with IPv6 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platforms.
• If the File Archiver Agent is installed on a computer using the IPv4 protocol and the client computer is using the IPv6 protocol, it is recommended that the nPreferredIPFamily registry key be created on the client computer with the value set to 1. This will ensure connections between the two computers are not disrupted during stub recalls.

Support

IPv6 is not supported for the following:

• 1-Touch client recoveries
• Command Line Interface
• Content Indexing and Search
• Data Classification on Unix platforms
• NDMP Remote Servers
• NetWare MediaAgent
• NetWare File System iDataAgent
• Novell Directory Services (NDS) iDataAgent
• Novell GroupWise iDataAgent
• Unix computers running HP-UX 11.00

Additionally, consider the following:

• IPv6 support for AIX 5.3 and above may require use the of /etc/hosts for IPv6 name resolution.
• IPv6 support for Tru64 OSF1 Release 5.1A requires the use of /etc/ipnodes for IPv6 name resolution.
• IPv6 support for HP-UX 11.11 requires the installation of the Transport Optional Upgrade Release (TOUR) 2.5 and OS patch PHCO29328.
• For Linux computers, only varieties with a glibc of 2.3 or 2.4 are supported with IPv6.
• For Solaris computers, only Solaris 9 and above are supported with IPv6.
• For Windows computers, only Microsoft Windows Server 2003 varieties and above are supported with IPv6.
• The Optimize for Concurrent LAN Backups option is not supported for AIX MediaAgents using the IPv6 protocol.

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