Author : Sanjeev Gupta

This AppNote aims to provide a step by step procedure to install and configure Novell Archive and Version services on a OES 2 SP1 server. Additionally this AppNote provides steps to configure NetStorage and utilize it to access Archive and Version client features using a web browser.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Hardware and Software Requirements
3. Installing Archive and Version, and NetStorage Software on OES 2 SP1
4. Configuring Archive and Version, and NetStorage Services
4.1 Configuring Archive and Version, and NetStorage using YaST2
4.2 Creating NSS Pool and Volumes for Archive Server
4.3 Creating an Archive Job for Archive Server
4.4 Creating and Archiving a Test File and Versions of it
4.5 Configuring NetStorage for User-Data Volume
5. Logging into NetStorage Server
6. Installing and using "Archive and Version" Client
6.1 Installing "Archive and Version" Client
6.2 Basics of How to Use the Client

1. Introduction

Archive and Version: Novell Archive and Version Services 2.1 for Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 Linux (OES 2 Linux) provides a convenient and cost-effective way for individual users to instantly restore previous versions of modified, renamed, or deleted network files. It helps to minimize the user’s unproductive time and frees you to focus on other critical IT issues. The user simply views a list of previous interval-based versions of source files, selects the file needed, then recovers it. The user can recover any of the available versions. If users work in a collaborative environment, a user can determine which version to choose based on who modified a document and when.

Archive and Version Services is available for Novell Open Enterprise Server to archive user network files that are stored on Novell Storage Services volumes on OES 2 Linux servers

NetStorage: Novell NetStorage acts as a bridge between a company's protected Novell network and the Internet, providing protected file access from any Internet location. Files and folders on Novell Open Enterprise Server can be accessed using either a browser or via Network Neighborhood and Microsoft Web Folders; no Novell Client software is required. Users can securely access files from any IP-enabled machine via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS).

2. Hardware and Software Requirements

Hardware Requirements

• At least one server machine which meet the minimum hardware requirement specifications of SLES 10 SP2 and OES 2 SP1.

Software Requirements

• Above machine installed with SLES 10 SP2 and OES 2 SP1.

• Novell eDirectory, iManager, and NSS installed and configured on the server.

• Server should have at least two hard-disks to utilize functionality of NSS on the server.

3. Installing Archive and Version, NetStorage Software on OES 2 SP1

1. To start the installation of Archive & Version and NetStorage software on the OES2 SP1 server, open a terminal window as root user on the machine and launch "yast2 sw_single".

• From the "filter" drop down list, select Patterns.

• From the "OES Services" section, select "Novell Archive and Version Services" and "Novell NetStorage" for installation and click the "Accept" button.
  

  #  yast2 sw_single

  
  
  
  

  

  
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• YaST will ask for confirmation if you wish to install additional dependendencies. Click the "Continue" button to accept and continue installation.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Installation of the software will start and may take some time to complete.

• After installation of software is complete, YaST will confirm installation of more packages. Click "No" to complete and finish the installation.

4. Configuring Archive and Version, and NetStorage Services

Novell Archive and Version Service has the functionality to archive a local as well as remote NSS volume. For the purpose of this article we are considering a local NSS volume.

4.1 Configuring Archive and Version, and NetStorage using YaST2

1. On our test machine, login as root user and launch YaST2. Search for "OES install and configuration". Click on the OES install and configuration icon.

• Click on the Continue button to start configuration of OES services.

• You will be taken to the "Novell Open Enterprise Server Configuration" page.

• Roll down below to see a message with NetStorage and Archive and Version Services. The message informs that the services are not configured yet and they need to be configured.

• Click on Archive and Version Services to start the Archive and Version Services configuration wizard.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Enter the password of the eDirectory admin user and click OK to authenticate.

• On the Archive and Version Services configuration window, provide a port to be used for the archive database, a database user and password for that user. All the fields except password should be filled with default values. It’s recommended to accept the default values and just enter the password for "arkuser". After entering values in all the fields, click the Next button.
  
  
  

  

  
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• You will be taken back to the Novell OES configuration screen.

• Roll down to find NetStorage and click on the link to start the NetStorage configuration.

• Accept the default values or change as required and accept.

• You will be taken back to the Novell OES configuration screen.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Click next to accept this configuration and click the Finish button on the "installation finished" screen to finish the installation.

• Your basic configuration of Netstorage and A&V is now complete.

• To start the Archive and Versioning Service, type "rcnovell-ark start" on the terminal screen. You can check the status of the service by running "rcnovell-ark status" and it should be in running state.
  

  # rcnovell-ark status
  # rcnovell-ark start
  #rcnovell-ark status
  
  

  
  
  
  

  

  
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4.2 Creating NSS Pool and Volumes for Archive Server

Archive server requires a NSS volume to keep archived data and can monitor several NSS volumes parallel for archival of files.

1. Login to the machine as root user and in a terminal window type nssmu to launch the NSS Management Utility.

• Select Pools from the Main menu and press the Enter key.

• Press the Insert key to create a new pool.

• Enter the Pool name, e.g "ark_pool" and press the Enter key.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Select a device with free space.

• Specify the size of the pool and press Enter. To create the pool.

• Press the Esc key to come back to the main menu of NSS Management Utility.

• We will need to create two volumes on the above pool. One for the archived data and one for our data volume. The data volume and ark volume can be on different pools or on different servers in the same tree

• On the main main menu of NSS Management Utility, select Volumes from the main menu and press Enter.

• Press the Insert key.

• Enter a name for the volume e.g : "ark" and press enter to create it.

• On the Encrypt Volume? Message, type N to choose not to encrypt this volume. You can choose Y if you wish to enable encryption for this NSS volume.

• Repeat the above steps 9-12 to create another volume for user data e.g data.
  
  
  

  

  
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4.3 Creating an Archive Job for Archive Server

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   1. Launch iManager by entering "https://<server i.p>/nps" on the same server or a machine on network.
   
   
2. Provide eDir admin username, password and tree / machine i.p on the login screen.
   
   
   

   

   
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• After logging into iManager click on the "Archive Server Properties" link under "Archive Versioning" to reach the archive server properties page.

• On the "archive server properties" page, use the browse button to search and select our test server from eDirectory. After clicking OK, the server should get entered in the Server field.

• As our server is already configured for archive versioning service, you should see the port number and database user details in the authentication section of the page.

• For the volume path field, enter the name of NSS volume and a folder on the volume, where you wish archive server to store the archived data. For our test machine it is "Ark" volume and a folder "archive" on the "Ark"volume.

1. Click OK to save the changes.
   
   
   

   

   
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• The above step configures the basic setup of archive server. We need to create a job for archive server to enable it to monitor a volume and archive user files according to a policy.

• Click "archive jobs" under "Archive Versioning" on iManager and use the browse button to search and select the machine where the archive server is installed and running.

• Click on "new" to start creation of a new archive job. This will take you to the job creation page.

• Enter a name for your archive job for easy identification and in the sever information section, click browse button to search for the server in eDirectory which holds the NSS volume you wish to archive. As we are using a single machine setup, our user data (DATA) volume resides on the same server as archive server.

• From mount point drop-down list, select the volume for archive, e.g "data" in our case.

• From run schedule section, choose the frequency of this job. For this setup, we are choosing "1 day". With this setting, the archive server will check for all the changed files every day and archive them.

• You can choose a delete policy according to your requirement. We are not creating a delete policy for this job.

• Click Ok to save the job.
  
  
  

  

  
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4.4 Creating and Archiving a Test File and a few versions of it

For our test, lets create a test file on our data volume and let the archive server take a few versions of the file.

1. On our client machine, start "Novell Client" and map the data volume we have configured for archival on our archive server.

• Create a test file "testfile.txt" on the volume and save it.

• In the iManager window, select the archive job we just created and from the actions menu, choose "run now" to run the task manually and archive the newly created the file.

• Open the "testfile.txt" and add few characters it save it. Again in iManager, select the job we just created and from actions menu, choose "run now" to rerun the task manually and archive the changed file.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Repeat the above step a few times to create a few versions of the test file in ark server.

4.5 Configuring NetStorage for User-Data Volume

1. In the iManager window, click on "Net storage location" under "File Access (Netstorage)".

• This will launch the Storage options : new object window.

• Enter a object name, display name, directory location, context of the volume in eDir and a comment in the required fields. ( See figure below for sample)
  
  Note: Directory location is the location of directory which you wish to access using Netstorage. The name should be in the format below.
  
  

  Ncp://<i.p address of server>/volume name /folder name

  
  

• As we wish to access the whole volume using NetStorage, do not enter the name of folder on the volume.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Click the "create" button to create this location.

• Now click on "assign storage location to object" to reach "Storage location: Assign storage location" page. Use the browse button and select a user / user group / or a container in eDir who you wish to assign rights on a storage location. We are choosing the admin user for this setup and assigning him access rights on the storage location and click the OK button.
  
  
  

  

  
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• On the next page "Create / Modify Storage Location List" use browse to search for the storage location object created above in step-5 i.e data.

• Click ok to accept it in "storage location objects" field.
  
  
  

  

  
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5. Logging into NetStorage Server

NetStorage provides a secure web browser based access to files and folder on NSS volumes. By default, NetStorage can be accessed by loading http://<i.p address of server/netstorage>.

For our setup, we will need to open http://164.99.182.191/netstorage/ to access the service.

1. Open a web browser window on a machine on the network and open "http://<i.p address of server/netstorage>".

• NetStorage open a "Authentication Required" window and will ask to authenticate as user by typing username and password of a user in the provided fields.

• Provide username and password of a authorized user and click "OK" to login. We are using eDir "admin" in this setup.
  
  
  

  

  
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• After logging into NetStorage, use the "folders" section in the left side of window and click on the "Volume Name" you had configured above for archival by "Archive and Version" service. In our setup, the volume is data and we had assigned it the name "Data volume".

• When you click on the volume name, you will be displayed all the files on the volume in right side of the window, you can click on the folders to reach sub-folders and files.

• To see versions of our test file "testfile.txt", right click on the file "testfile.txt" on right side of windows and choose option "Archive…" from the displayed right click menu.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Clicking on the "Archive…" option will open a "File Versions" window and will display the details of versions available for the particular file. "testfile.txt" in our case.

• Details of versions include the size of file when the particular version of file was archived and the time when the version was taken.

• You can select a version of file from the list and click on "view" button to view the contents of the file.

• After verifying the file, if you are sure that this is the version you want, you can click the "Download" button to download the file on your desktop. If you wish to restore the file on a NSS volume, Enter the location / path of NSS volume in "Restore to" field below and click "Restore" button. By default, clicking on "Restore" will overwrite the current file on the volume.
  
  
  

  

  
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• This completes our basic setup of "Archive and Version" service and "NetStorage". For detailed setup information on this you can read the "Archive and Version" admin guide available at the location below. http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/backup.html#b175ergj

6. Installing and using "Archive and Version" Client

Archive and Version provides an easy way to use the application for multiple versions of Linux and Windows operating systems. The application can be installed on desktops and provides an easy to use interface with more functionality than NetStorage plugin.

6.1 Installing "Archive and Version Client

1. To get the "Archive and Version" client software, load http://<i.p address of server> to reach the home page on the server.

• Click on "Client Software" to see list of "Archive Versioning" clients.
  
  
  

  

  
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• Download the version of the client which suits your desktop operating system. You can choose from 32 an 64 bit versions of Linux and Windows operating systems.

• If you are installing the client on Linux, make sure that you have latest version of the Novell Client already installed on the machine. The client software is available as an easy to install rpm package.

• On Windows, double click the package after downloading to start the installation. Ensure that you have the latest version of the "Novell Client" installed on the machine before you start the installation of the "Archive and Version" client software.

• Restart the machine after "Novell Client" and "Archive and Version" client are installed on the machine.

6.2 Basics of How to Use the Archive and Version Client

1. Map the "Data" volume on your desktop using "Novell Client". In our case the path of volume is \\164.99.182.191\data.
   
   
   

   

   
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• After mapping the volume, the drive window should open automatically and display the files on the volume according to your access rights.

• Right click the file on the volume and click on "Restore Archived Versions" to load "Archive version" client with versions of the chosen file.

• From the window, select the version of the file you wish to access and use "View" or "Restore" button to carry out required operation on the file. You can use the "Delete all versions" button to delete all the versions from archive database and ark volume for the file. The original file on the user volume would be left intact.

• To read in detail about features of the client, please visit the link mentioned below. http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/backup.html#b175ergj
  
  
  

  

  
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