The Catalogic DPX Client is a component of the Catalogic DPX data protection solution. DPX Clients are installed on systems that need to be backed up. They allow users to define and run backup, copy, and restore jobs for these systems. DPX Client installed on destination machines also provides features for controlling tape devices, managing reports and logs, and performing maintenance tasks on the Catalog.

You can install the DPX Client on Microsoft Windows and Linux machines. There are separate releases of the DPX Client application for Windows and Linux operating systems. Before installing, make sure all necessary software and hardware requirements are met.

For details concerning the installation procedures for a specific operation system, see the appropriate sections below.

To install the DPX Client for Windows, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Catalogic MySupport website and log in.

2. Navigate to the product page and go to Software Download > New installations or deployments > Client Software Installation.

3. Download the installation program (full or client-only) of the DPX Client for Windows.

4. Copy the installation program to the Windows system you want to protect.

5. Close all programs and ensure that the Windows Installer service is active.

6. Right-click the installation program and select Run as administrator.

7. Follow the instructions in the installation dialog window, including accepting the Software License Agreement.

8. If you are using the full version installer, you can select and install additional components, such as the Virtualization Proxy Server application or OSS Server.

9. In the Add Node to Enterprise page, select Yes, add this node to the Enterprise checkbox to register this client node to the Enterprise and thus make it visible for the DPX Master Server. If you are installing on a cluster node, note that each cluster requires a dedicated node group. Add a cluster node to its dedicated node group. Add only cluster nodes to a cluster node group. If you do not want to add the node to the Enterprise, clear the checked option. You can always add the node later from the Master Server interface. See Adding a Client Node from the Master Server Level.

   Leave the Logical Node Name which is the computer name of this Microsoft Windows system by default. Or, you can rename the logical node name in the input field.

   Leave the Node Group Name field DefaultGroup which is the default node group. Or enter a different node group name either to create a new node group in the Enterprise or to specify an existing node group with the same name. Click Next to proceed.

10. On the Master Server page, enter the Master Server Hostname. This is the resolvable name of the master server. Optionally, you can enter the Master Server IP address. Click Next.

1. Click Install to start the installation.

2. (Optional) If you are installing on a SharePoint node, a message alerts you to later complete the configuration of the SharePoint node by using the Configure function of the management console.

3. (Optional) If you are installing the DPX Client on a cluster node, the Cluster Setup dialog appears. A cluster dry run should be executed to run a test of the cluster configuration. Enter a Virtual Cluster IP and the appropriate Subnet IP. Cluster Dry Run. Enter the required information to define the cluster node.

   • Domain Administrator. Populate all information for the cluster domain administrator.

   • Cluster Name. Enter a unique name, up to 15 characters, for the virtual resource. This is the DNS name of the virtual node. This name must not be the Windows cluster name that appears under the field.

   • Physical Node IP. Select the IP address for the node.

   • Virtual Node IP. Enter the IP address for the virtual resource. This must be an available public network address different from the cluster IP address. When you install on other nodes in the cluster, supply this same IP for each node. This IP cannot be the Windows cluster IP or IP used by any other cluster service.

   • Subnet mask. Enter the subnet mask for the virtual resource. This field is enabled only for the final cluster node.

   • Cluster Network. Select the local network name to use. This field is enabled only for the final cluster node. Click Next.

4. In the Ready to Install Program dialog, click Install to start installing the DPX Client for Microsoft Windows. You may be warned that you do not have enough disk space to successfully install the software.

5. After the installation completes, the Completion dialog appears. Select the Read additional requirements and install summary check box. This instructs InstallShield to display a summary of the file instNote.txt, which can be found in the logs directory. This file and the summary contain important information about your installation, including any non-fatal errors during installation. Leave it checked and click Finish.

6. The file instNote.txt appears, along with a prompt to reboot the machine. Click Yes to restart Microsoft Windows immediately or No to restart later.

Take the following steps to uninstall DPX for Linux or UNIX:

1. Log in to a shell session of the Linux system that has DPX to remove, typically, by using an SSH client.

2. Run the uninstall script from <product-directory>/uninstall/uninstall_DPX with a root privilege. Typically, run the following shell command:

The product version is now uninstalled.

For Windows non-clustered nodes, you can install DPX client software from a single point in your Enterprise rather than by running the installation program from the installation image on each remote machine. This single-point installation procedure is referred to as remote deployment.

Remote deployment automatically adds installed nodes to the Enterprise, with each node in a separate node group.

For database servers, you can install remotely, but you must install database support locally. For this reason, you may want to install locally for such servers just before installing the database support.

If you have Windows 10 clients, be aware of the following. The administrative account on Windows 10 is inactive by default and needs to be enabled before DPX can be installed via Remote Deployment. Therefore, if you run Remote Deployment from the master server, some Windows 10 client nodes might fail with “Access Denied” error. In that case, log into each of the Windows 10 client nodes that fail and enable the Administrator Account. Then rerun Remote Deployment from the master server.

There are two versions of the Catalogic DPX Client installer for Microsoft Windows: the client-only version and the full version.

In most cases, the client-only version suffices. To protect VMs in a VMware virtual environment, deploy the Catalogic DPX Proxy Server virtual appliance in the same VMware environment. See .

Instead of deploying the Catalogic DPX Proxy Server virtual appliance, you can install the proxy server as an application along with the Catalogic DPX Client on the same Microsoft Windows machine. In other words, if you are planning to deploy the proxy server virtual appliance in the VMware environment or if you are not using the VMware solution at all, use the client-only version.

Prerequisites

For the installation of the DPX Client application, the minimum recommended version of Windows is Microsoft Windows 2012 R2. For details, see the DPX 4.10 .

The minimum hardware requirements are as follows:

Before installing the DPX Client for Microsoft Windows, review the following prerequisites:

• The “Windows Installer” service must be available. Go to the Start menu, search for the application called “Services” and open it. Ensure that “Windows Installer” is available on the list of local services and that the status of this service is either “Manual” or “Automatic”.

• Allow all required ports for the Catalogic DPX Client:

  • TCP: 3260, 6123, 6124, 9104, 9202, 10000, 10001, 10566, and 15660

  • UDP: 6123 and 6124.

Install the DPX Client on your client machines and register these client nodes with the DPX Master Server so that DPX will be able to protect data in these client nodes. Refer to this section to install the DPX Client on either one of the following UNIX and UNIX-like systems:

• Linux

• Novell (Micro Focus) Open Enterprise Server (OES)

• IBM AIX

For Microsoft Windows, see DPX Client for Microsoft Windows.

Prerequisites

Before installing the DPX Client on Linux, review the following prerequisites:

• The minimum hardware requirements are as follows:

• Ensure your client system is included in the DPX 4.10 .

• The system resources and configurations of your client machine must meet the requirements as shown on the DPX product web page.

• Your client system must have the libnss3 plug-in. For example, you can install the libnss3 plug-in package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or supported variants of it by using the following command:

• Your client system must have the iSCSI packages for the Instant Access (IA) mapping which is one of the features for the Block Backup of DPX. The package name and installation steps may vary. For example, you can install the iSCSI packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or supported variants of it by using the following command:

• Allow all required ports for the Catalogic DPX Client:

• TCP: 3260, 6123, 6124, 9104, 9202, 10000, 10001, 10566, and 15660.

• UDP: 6123 and 6124.

Additional prerequisites

• The storage volume to install the DPX Client for Linux must be part of an LVM group.

• The physical extent (PE) of the LVM volume group to install the DPX Client for Linux must have free PE of at least 10%.

To uninstall the Catalogic DPX Client from your Microsoft Windows system, click Start in the taskbar, locate the program group for Catalogic DPX, click Uninstall, and follow the instructions in the subsequent dialog boxes.

To install the DPX Client for Linux, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Catalogic MySupport website and log in.

2. Navigate to the product page and go to Software Download > New Installations or deployments > Client Software Installation.

3. Download the Linux ISO file to your workstation.

4. Copy the ISO image file to the client system, say, the home directory (~).

5. Verify the MD5 checksum value of the ISO image file by comparing it with the value on the product web page:

   Copy

   $ sudo md5sum ~/DPX_r410_linux.iso

6. Mount the ISO image file in the client system and go to this disk image. For example, use the following commands:

   Copy

   $ sudo mkdir /media/dpxclient/
   
   $ sudo mount ~/DPX_r410_linux.iso /media/dpxclient/

7. Run the installation program with the root privilege:

   Copy

   $ sudo /media/dpxclient/DPX-4.10.0-linux-installer.bin

1. The installation program prompts you to read the Software License Agreement; proceed to the next step if you agree.

2. Follow the instructions to set up the configurations:

   • Product directory to install the DPX Client application (default: /opt/DPX/)

   • DPX virtualization proxy server for VMware. Enter Y if you are using DPX on the VMware environment and you want to install this proxy server program on the client machine. (default: Do not install the proxy server.)

   • Logical node name (default: the hostname of the client system)

   • Host name or the IPv4 address of the client node (default: the IPv4 address of the client system)

   • Group name. Enter the name of an existing node group to add this client node to the node group. Or, enter a new node group name so that DPX creates a new node group with this name and adds the client node to this new node group. (default: DefaultGroup)

   • Registering this client node with the DPX Master Server as part of an Enterprise. If you answer 1 for Yes, enter the hostname of the DPX Master Server. (Default: Yes). You will need to provide the following node configuration details:

     • Logical Node name (specify the name of your choice);

     • Hostname or IP address of your machine;

     • Group name for the node: enter a name of an existing node group to add this client node to the node group. Or, enter a new node group name so that DPX creates a new node group with this name and adds the client node to this new node group. (default: DefaultGroup);

     • Hostname of master server (default: localhost);

     • Registering this client node with the DPX Master Server as part of an Enterprise. If you answer 1 for Yes, enter the hostname of the DPX Master Server. (Default: Yes)

   • For Micro Focus Open Enterprise Server: enter the root password, eDirectory user name, and eDirectory password. Enter the eDirectory distinguished user name and password which contain the context of the user object.

   • Block Data Protection to create block-level snapshot backups on this client node. (default: Enable)

Complete the installation. If you have not added the client node to the DPX Master Server, you can add the client node later from the Master Server interface (web or desktop), following the instructions in Adding a Client Node from the Master Server Level.

Once installed and properly configured, the DPX Client does not require any further actions, such as logging in. If you have added your DPX Client as a node to the DPX Master Server during the installation process, you are ready to create your first backup job. If you do not have any client nodes added to your DPX Master Server yet, you can do it through the DPX web interface (recommended) or DPX desktop interface.

To launch the Master Server web (HTML5-based) interface, do the following:

1. Open your web browser and go to your Master Server’s IP address.

2. In the login box, enter the username and password for the Catalogic DPX Master Server.

1. Click the Login button. The DPX Master Server Dashboard will appear.

To launch the Master Server desktop (java-based) interface, do the following:

1. Ensure you have a Java environment on your computer to be able to run .jnlp files. If not, download Java or Open Web Start (recommended) and install the environment on your machine, following the provider’s instructions.

1. Open your web browser and go to your Master Server’s IP address.

2. At the bottom of the login box, click Run the DPX Java User Interface. This will download the dpx.jnlp file.

1. Run the downloaded dpx.jnlp file. The Connect to DPX dialog box will appear:

1. Make sure the Server Name or IP of your master server is correct, then provide the master server credentials to log in. The Catalogic DPX desktop interface opens.

From here, you have access to most Catalogic DPX functionalities, as described further.