NDMP Backup (desktop interface only)

DPX backs up and restores data from NAS appliances that use NDMP, an industry-standard protocol co-developed by NetApp. NDMP enables the communication of backup and restore commands between NDMP-compliant software, such as DPX and NDMP appliances.

You do not need to know much about the inner workings of NDMP because DPX handles all the details. Basically, NDMP creates data streams by reading data from either tape or disk. These data streams are then written to either tape or disk. Most backup and restore functions are implemented from within the management console.

NDMP is a control protocol, not a data format. Hardware vendors supporting NDMP interfaces write and read data in proprietary formats specific to their platform. For this reason, DPX cannot restore data between different vendor NDMP implementations. To restore data through NDMP, the destination NDMP appliance must be a device compatible with the data source device, typically from the same vendor.

Note that NDMP is not an appropriate method to back up the Catalog. To protect the Catalog, see Catalog Backup.

Beginning with DPX release 4.5.2, NDMP backup and recoveries to Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) media are supported. To enable WORM support for NDMP backup, you must add the option -worm to SSNDMPC on the NDMP proxy server.

Catalogic DPX supports both generic and NetApp-specific NDMP:

Note. The term generic NDMP in DPX documentation refers to core NDMP capabilities shared by non-NetApp and NetApp implementations.

• DPX includes generic NDMP control logic, which supports a wide variety of vendor devices. For details, see the DPX 4.11 Compatibility Matrix.

  For data protection with generic NDMP, see the following topics:

  • Backup and Restore with Generic NDMP in the DPX 4.9 Reference Guide;

  • Restoring with Generic NDMP in the DPX 4.9 Reference Guide.

• DPX includes specialized logic for NetApp Data ONTAP to interface with extended NDMP capabilities and to support DPX block-level client backup to tape. For NetApp-specific information, see the following topics:

  • DPX with NetApp Data ONTAP 7-Mode in the DPX 4.9 Reference Guide;

  • DPX with NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP in the DPX 4.9 Reference Guide;

  • NetApp NDMP Hardware Encryption in the DPX 4.9 Reference Guide.