A while ago EMC engineering updated the venerable nsradmin utility to include automated checking options, with an initial focus on checks for NetWorker clients. As a NetWorker administrator I would have crawled over hot coals for this functionality, and as an integrator I found myself writing Perl scripts from company to company to do similar checks.
As of NetWorker 8.2.1.6, the checks have been expanded a little, with a few new enhancements:
- Client check now performs Client/Server time synchronisation checking
- Client check now does a ping test against configured Data Domains
- Storage node check has been added.
I currently don’t have a Data Domain in my lab, but I’ll show you want the time synchronisation check looks like at least. As always, for client checks in nsradmin, the command sequence is:
# nsradmin -C query
Where query is a valid NetWorker query targeting clients. In my case in my lab, I used:
# nsradmin -C "NSR client"
The output from this included:
In the example output, I’ve highlighted the new time synchronisation check. With this included, the nsradmin client check utility expands yet again in usefulness.
Moving on to the Storage Node option, we can now have NetWorker verify connectivity list the devices associated with each storage node. As you might imagine, the command for this is:
# nsradmin -C "NSR storage node"
The output in my lab resembles the following:
As I mentioned at the start – these have been added into NetWorker 8.2.1.6. If you’re running an earlier release, service pack or cumulative release than that exact version, you won’t find the new features in your installation.