Description

This document will provide the steps for configuring Dell-EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) for use in Backup Exec 16 and later.  Prior to the steps of this document, it is assumed that the Dell EMC ECS storage platform has been established in the environment. Consult Dell-EMC documentation for more information on deploying and configuring Dell-EMC ECS
 
 
Configuring Cloud Storage in Dell-EMC ECS

Gathering the bucket name and credentials for cloud access.

1. Launch the EMC Elastic Cloud Storage console.
2. Connect with user Name and password.

Once logged in, the Dashboard is displayed:

1. On the left, click on Manage, then click Buckets to display the configured buckets. If a new bucket is desired, it can be created here:

The bucket name must meet the following Backup Exec naming requirements.

• Bucket names can contain lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes (hyphens).
• Bucket names cannot begin with a dash (or a hypen).

1. Make a note of the Bucket Owner, or if desired, a new owner can be assigned by clicking the Edit bucket button on the bucket line
2. The Edit Bucket window will open and a new owner can be assigned:

6. Once the owner of the bucket is established, on the left, click on Manage | Users to view the users. Locate the bucket owner and click Edit on that user line to display the user properties:

 

7. Click on Generate and Add Password to create the S3 password needed for authentication.Make a note of both the Name and S3 password as these will be required for configuring the cloud storage location within Backup Exec.

Creating and configuring the EMC ECS cloud storage in Backup Exec

The below BEMCLI commands provide a way to create a cloud instance:

• New-BECloudInstance
• Get-BECloudInstance
• Set-BECloudInstance
• Remove-BECloudInstance

As shown below, you can launch the BEMCLI interface from Start > App Menu or :\Program Files\Veritas\Backup Exec

From Start menu:



From Windows Explorer or File Explorer:



New-BECloudInstance
Creates and configures a new cloud instance in Backup Exec.

Syntax
New-BECloudInstance [-Name] [] [-Provider] [] [-ServiceHost] [] [-SslMode] {Disabled | AuthenticationOnly | Full} [-HttpsPort []] [-Endpoint []] [-HttpPort []] [-UrlStyle {Unknown | Virtual | Path}] [-Confirm []] [-WhatIf []] []
Parameters (Mandatory) -

• Name: Name of the new cloud instance. Cloud instance name must match the Backup Exec naming requirement.
  • Instance names can contain letters, numbers, and dashes (or hyphens).
  • Instance names cannot begin with a dash (or a hypen).
• Provider: Specifies the provider of the cloud instance. Only private cloud provider name can be specified.
• ServiceHost: Specifies the service host of the cloud instance. ServiceHost should be unique for each cloud instance that is created on the server.
• SslMode:  Specifies the SSL mode that Backup Exec will use for communication with the cloud storage server. The valid values are:
  • Disabled – Do not use ssl.
  • AuthenticationOnly – use ssl for authentication only.
  • Full – use ssl for authentication and data transfer also.

Note: Backup Exec supports only Certificate Authority (CA)-signed certificates while it communicates with cloud storage in the SSL mode. Ensure that the private cloud server has CA-signed certificate. If it does not have the CA-signed certificate, data transfer between Backup Exec and cloud provider may fail in the SSL mode. User may choose to opt out of SSL and set SSLMode as Disabled.
More details on SSL is available in the Admin Guide.
Optional Parameters -

• UrlStyle - Specifies the URL style of the cloud instance. The valid values are :
  • Unknown – do not set any value. Will default to Path.
  • Virtual - In a virtual-hosted–style URL, the bucket name is part of the domain name in the URL. For example: https://bucket.s3.amazonaws.com

If you are providing UrlStyle as Virtual for your cloud instance, ensure that you can ping and resolve the bucket name from a virtual hosted style URL. In a virtual-hosted–style URL, the bucket name is part of the domain name in the URL. For example: https://bucket.s3.amazonaws.com . In such case you should be able to resolve and connect to bucket.s3.amazonaws.com. You may want to add an entry in your DNS to resolve the bucket name in virtual style URL.

• Path - In a path-style URL, the bucket name is not part of the domain (unless you use a region-specific endpoint). For example: US East (N. Virginia) region endpoint, https://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket .

If you are providing UrlStyle as Path for your cloud instance, ensure that you can resolve and connect the service host from your Backup Exec Server. If not, please add an entry in windows host file to resolve the service host from your machine.
Ensure that the URL is getting resolved from media server. Media server is able to resolve and ping the cloud storage server.

• HttpPort - Specifies the http port of the cloud instance. Default port is 80.
• HttpsPort - Specifies the https port of the cloud instance. Default port is 443.
• Endpoint – specifies the service endpoint.

Example:

New-BECloudInstance -Name "myemc" -Provider "emc-ecs" -ServiceHost "store.itdept.a212.company1.com" -SslMode Disabled -UrlStyle Path –HttpPort 9020

This command creates a cloud instance with name myemc of type emc-ecs pointing to service host store.itdept.a212.company1.com. To access the bucket, uses Path style url and ssl mode is set as disabled. Http port is configured as 9020.




Get-BECloudInstance

Gets all of the custom (private) cloud instances configured in Backup Exec. Without parameters, Get-BECloudInstance gets all the private cloud instances configured in Backup Exec. You can also specify a private cloud instance by instance name or pass a private cloud instance object through the pipeline to Get-BECloudInstance.

Parameters (Optional)

• Name: Specifies one or more cloud instances by cloud instance name (wildcards accepted).
• Id: Specifies one or more cloud instances by cloud instance ID (Guid). To specify multiple IDs, use commas to separate the IDs.

Example :
C:\PS> Get-BECloudInstance

This command gets all of the cloud instances and shows the cloud instance created above.



Set-BECloudInstance

Sets the properties for a Backup Exec cloud instance. You can modify all the settings, except the name and provider of an existing cloud instance.

Syntax
Set-BECloudInstance -InputObject [] [-Endpoint []] [-HttpsPort []] [-SslMode {Disabled | AuthenticationOnly | Full}] [-ServiceHost []] [-HttpPort []] [-UrlStyle {Unknown | Virtual | Path}] [-Confirm []] [-WhatIf []] []



Remove-BECloudInstance
Removes a cloud instance configured in Backup Exec. The cloud instance is deleted only if there is no private cloud storage attached to the cloud instance.  If you want to delete the cloud instance, you have to delete the private cloud storage devices associated with the cloud instance on the Backup Exec media Server first and then delete the cloud instance.

Syntax
Remove-BECloudInstance -InputObject [] [-PassThru []] [-Confirm []] [-WhatIf []] []


Example:

C:\PS> Get-BECloudInstance "test1" | Remove-BECloudInstance
This command remove a cloud instance named "test1".



Adding Dell-EMC ECS cloud storage in Backup Exec 16
Prior to adding the cloud storage to Backup Exec, be sure that the time setting for the Backup Exec server is synchronized with the server hosting the Dell-EMC ECS cloud storage platform.

1. Navigate to the Storage tab and click Configure Cloud Storage:.

Note: In Backup Exec 16.0 and prior, click Configure Storage, then Network Storage and select Cloud storage.
 

1. Enter a name and description for the cloud storage:

1. Click S3 to add the Private Cloud storage:

1. Click the dropdown for Cloud storage and select the myemc storage created earlier.

Note in Backup Exec 16.0 and prior, the Cloud storage name would be manually entered instead of the dropdown.

1. For Logon account select or add the user name and password for the bucket:

All the buckets available on the cloud storage server are listed.

1. Select the bucket which you want to use and then click Next.

1. Select the concurrency (typically left as default) Click Next.

A prompt is displayed to restart the Backup Exec services which needs to take place in order to detect the cloud storage location.  Click Yes to restart Backup Exec services.

Cloud storage is now ready for use in Backup Exec.

 

How to configure storage for Dell-EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) with Backup Exec