Converting a Linux MediaAgent to a File Recovery Enabler (FREL)

A Linux MediaAgent can be installed as a guest agent on a virtual or physical machine to provide backup services for Linux virtual machines. To enable extended file system support, a Linux MediaAgent running on a supported Linux guest operating system can be transformed into a File Recovery Enabler for Linux. This enables the Linux MediaAgent to mount virtual machine backup data for Live Browse and Live Recovery operations, without requiring that granular recovery metadata be collected during backups.

A File Recovery Enabler for Linux can be used with any of the hypervisors supported by the Virtual Server Agent.

For hypervisors that support Linux proxies, the Virtual Server Agent role can also be enabled on the MediaAgent.

Note

UNIX virtual or physical machines running one of the operating system and kernels listed in System Requirements for Block-Level Backup for UNIX can be automatically configured as File Recovery Enablers for Linux, without the need to perform a manual conversion.
If the virtual machine where a File Recovery Enabler for Linux is installed is based on the same VM template or image as the guest virtual machines or instances that the FREL is browsing, then live browse of files and folders on the guest VMs might fail as a result of UUID conflicts with physical volumes (PVs) on the FREL. For more information, see the Troubleshooting information in Automatic Configuration of a MediaAgent as a Linux File Recovery Enabler (FREL).

Before You Begin

The machine must have both MediaAgent and Virtual Server Agent packages installed.
To deploy this solution on a new Linux machine, install the Linux MediaAgent and Virtual Server Agent in restore only mode as described in Installing Restore Only Agents.
Ensure that RPC services are running (for example, rpcbind).
Do not deploy a File Recovery Enabler on a virtual machine that was created from the same VM template as VMs being backed up, or that was cloned from the same VM.
The Logical Volume Management (LVM) package must be installed on the File Recovery Enabler MediaAgent to enable browsing files and folders on UNIX VMs.
For OpenStack, the following packages must be installed on MediaAgents that are converted to act as File Recovery Enablers. These packages are included with the template that is used to deploy a new File Recovery Enabler for OpenStack.
- QEMU disk image utility (qemu-img)
- libguestfs
- libguestfs-tools
- Logical Volume Management (lvm)

Operating System Support

This solution is supported for a Linux MediaAgent on a virtual or physical machine running any of the following operating systems:
- CentOS 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, or 7.9
- Oracle Linux 8.x or 9.x
- Oracle Linux 7.x with kernel 3.8.13.x (Intel Pentium or compatible minimum required)
- Oracle Linux 7.x with kernel 3.8.13.x (x64)
- Oracle Linux 6 Update 6 with kernel 3.8.13-68.1.3.el6uek.x86_64 (Intel Pentium or compatible minimum required)
- Oracle Linux 6 Update 6 with kernel 3.8.13-68.1.3.el6uek.x86_64 (x64)
- Oracle Linux 6 Update 4 with kernel 2.6.39-400 (Intel Pentium or compatible minimum required)
- Oracle Linux 6 Update 4 with kernel 2.6.39-400 (x64)
- Oracle Linux 6 Update 4 (OEL6U4) Red Hat Compatible Kernel
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.x, or 9.x
  
  Note: To use a RHEL 8.x or 9.x or Oracle Linux machine that is configured to use the UEFI Secure Boot method as a File Recovery Enabler for Linux (FREL), you must enroll Commvault keys with the UEFI MOK (Machine Owned Key) list on the VM. For more information, see Use Commvault Driver Modules on a Linux Computer with UEFI Secure Boot Option Enabled.
- Rocky Linux 8.x or 9.x

File System Support

The File Recovery Enabler supports live browse and file recovery for the following file systems:

ext2
ext3
ext4
XFS
JFS
HFS
HFS Plus
Btrfs

Notes

Live browse and file recovery operations are not supported for XFS realtime subvolumes.
Live browse and recovery is supported for subvolumes of Btrfs file systems.

Procedure

Download and install XFS file system packages on the machine where the Linux MediaAgent is installed.
Add a disk or volume with the XFS file system and create the following mount point for cache data:
- For FBR cache: 40 GB minimum
Stop Commvault services.
Add the following required registry keys to configure FBR mount paths:
- For /etc/CommVaultRegistry/Galaxy/Instance001/Session/.properties:
  
  nFBRDELAYEDINIT
  
  1
  
  nFBRSkipFsck
  
  1
  
  dFBRDIR
  
  Path for the FBR cache mount point
  
  sLNFBR
  
  /opt/commvault/Base/libCvBlkFBR.so (if not already present)
  
  Note
  
  Do not set the path for the FBR cache mount point to the root directory or to the Commvault ransomware protection-enabled directory.
Start Commvault services.
Run the following script to validate the configuration and settings:
```
/opt/commvault/Base/cvfbr_validate.sh
```
When prompted, provide administrator management user login credentials for the CommCell Console.

Results

After validating the configurations, the script marks the Linux MediaAgent as a File Recovery Enabler for Linux, and the MediaAgent can be used for Live Browse and Live Recovery operations.

What to Do Next

For Linux <MediaAgents>s with the Arm architecture, ntfs-3g might not be present in the system by default. In this case, live browse of Windows VMs using a Linux <MediaAgents> might not work. So you must manually download the rpm package for ntfs-3g (and dependent packages) and install them on the Linux <MediaAgents> using the following command:

rpm -i package_name

nFBRDELAYEDINIT	1
nFBRSkipFsck	1
dFBRDIR	Path for the FBR cache mount point
sLNFBR	/opt/commvault/Base/libCvBlkFBR.so (if not already present)