{"id":9789,"date":"2020-11-25T05:13:48","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T19:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/?p=9789"},"modified":"2020-11-25T14:54:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T04:54:41","slug":"basics-retiring-clients-in-networker-19-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/2020\/11\/25\/basics-retiring-clients-in-networker-19-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Basics \u2013 Retiring Clients in NetWorker 19.4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the new features introduced in NetWorker 19.4 is the concept of a NetWorker client <em>state<\/em>. A client can either be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Active<\/li><li>Retired, or<\/li><li>Decommissioned<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>An active client is one which continues to receive regular backups. That means, when you start your NetWorker services, or run certain checks, NetWorker will perform DNS polling against the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s all fine, but some environments have policies where hosts are removed from DNS once they&#8217;re decommissioned. However, traditionally, if a client doesn&#8217;t have a DNS entry, there&#8217;ll be a delay of a few seconds during startup and some other checks when NetWorker tries to resolve the hostname. If over time you end up with hundreds or thousands of unresolvable clients you never backup any more but need to recover from, you can get delayed startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good thing is, NetWorker 19.4 has introduced an update to handle this. The client states refer to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Active<\/strong>: Host receiving ongoing backups<\/li><li><strong>Retired<\/strong>: Host is no longer backed up, but still has recoverable backups<\/li><li><strong>Decommissioned<\/strong>: Host is no longer backed up and has no recoverable backups<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s see where to find the client state, and change it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see below, the client state is visible through the client &#8220;Globals (2 of 2)&#8221; configuration panel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1840\" height=\"1321\" src=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View.png\" alt=\"Using the NWUI to view the Client State\" class=\"wp-image-9791\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View.png 1840w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View-300x215.png 300w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View-1024x735.png 1024w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View-768x551.png 768w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-State-View-1536x1103.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1840px) 100vw, 1840px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>Using the NWUI to view the Client State<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the NetWorker User Interface, click (1) Protection > Clients, then find the client (2) you want to inspect in the list. Select the client, then (3) click the &#8220;Globals (2 of 2)&#8221; section in the right-hand details pane. You&#8217;ll see the current client state (4) in this section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Edit: It&#8217;s been pointed out to me that State is in fact a column in the display, even in the screen-grab I posted. Sometimes, you don&#8217;t notice that which is directly in front of your eyes!]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, you <em>don&#8217;t<\/em> decommission clients. NetWorker will automatically decommission clients that have been retired and no longer have any recoverable backups. So, if you want to remove the client from startup and other checks, you&#8217;ll want to edit and <em>retire<\/em> the client:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1840\" height=\"1321\" src=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2.png\" alt=\"Editing the client\" class=\"wp-image-9792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2.png 1840w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2-300x215.png 300w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2-1024x735.png 1024w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2-768x551.png 768w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Switch-to-Globals-2-of-2-1536x1103.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1840px) 100vw, 1840px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>Editing the client<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After you select the client and click the Edit button, you&#8217;ll be shown the General edit window for the client. The client State, as we observed, is in the &#8220;Globals (2 of 2)&#8221; area, so (1) click the ellipses and (2) choose &#8220;Globals (2 of 2)&#8221; from the drop-down. This will give you a view such as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1840\" height=\"1321\" src=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired.png\" alt=\"Changing the Client State to Retired\" class=\"wp-image-9793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired.png 1840w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired-300x215.png 300w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired-1024x735.png 1024w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired-768x551.png 768w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Edit-Change-State-to-Retired-1536x1103.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1840px) 100vw, 1840px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>Changing the Client State to Retired<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the circled <em>State<\/em> area, you can can click the drop-down and change the state to retired. Now, before you do this, make sure the client isn&#8217;t part of any group! Otherwise, when you click Save, you&#8217;ll get the following alert:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1479\" height=\"165\" src=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Cant-Retire-when-Its-In-a-Group.png\" alt=\"You can't retire a client that still has group membership\" class=\"wp-image-9794\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Cant-Retire-when-Its-In-a-Group.png 1479w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Cant-Retire-when-Its-In-a-Group-300x33.png 300w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Cant-Retire-when-Its-In-a-Group-1024x114.png 1024w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-Cant-Retire-when-Its-In-a-Group-768x86.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1479px) 100vw, 1479px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>You can&#8217;t retire a client that still has group membership<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A reminder \u2013 if you simply want to exclude the client from backups for a while, you&#8217;re probably looking for the <em>Scheduled Backup<\/em> option, in the General tab:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"489\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-use-Scheduled-Backup-Instead-for-Disabling.png\" alt=\"Changing the scheduled backup option is not the same as retiring the client\" class=\"wp-image-9795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-use-Scheduled-Backup-Instead-for-Disabling.png 489w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-use-Scheduled-Backup-Instead-for-Disabling-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-use-Scheduled-Backup-Instead-for-Disabling-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NW-Client-use-Scheduled-Backup-Instead-for-Disabling-144x144.png 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>Changing the scheduled backup option is not the same as retiring the client<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s really all there is to retiring clients!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the new features introduced in NetWorker 19.4 is the concept of a NetWorker client state. A client can&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[220,296,1587,1588],"class_list":["post-9789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basics","category-networker","tag-client","tag-decommission","tag-retire","tag-retiring"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bigStock-Old-Computer-PET-Retired.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pKpIN-2xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9789"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9803,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789\/revisions\/9803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsrd.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}