Automation Tools

What is ZPAT (Zmanda Pro Automation Tool)?

ZPAT is an add-on tool for Zmanda Pro that helps automate crucial bulk operations on your Zmanda Pro Server.

Some of these bulk operations include:

• Registering 1000s of Zmanda Pro agents at once, including creating unique backup users for each system

• Assigning backup user policies

• Renaming Zmanda Pro Client devices in the Zmanda Pro console

• Adding Protected Items

• Triggering backups and restores

• Triggering reindexes for Storage Vaults

• Triggering deletion of Zmanda Pro users

Pre-Requisites

1. A running instance of the Zmanda Pro Server (can be online or offline)

   1. Admin credentials to the server are required to run ZPAT

2. A Linux system to act as the administration host machine. It must satisfy these System Requirements to run ZPAT

   1. The administration host should have connectivity with the Zmanda Pro Server

NOTE:

ZPAT doesn’t require elevated privileges (root on Linux or Administrator on Windows). However, using Ansible or other remote management tools for Zmanda Pro devices will require appropriate privileges on the administration host. For a self-hosted Zmanda Pro deployment, the administrator host must be in the same network as the Zmanda Pro server.

• The administrator host should also be capable of resolving the domain on which the Zmanda Pro server is listening and also trust the certificates presented by the Zmanda Pro server

  • This can be done in two ways:

    • Make an A record entry in your organization’s DNS server for the FQDN (if you’ve setup a self-hosted instance you would’ve already performed this) and use your own HTTPS certificates signed by your organization’s trusted CA. If you’re using [OR]

    • Make an entry for your Zmanda Pro server’s FQDN in the /etc/hosts file of your administration host and install the ca.crt from your Zmanda Pro Setup package if you’re using the default self-signed certificates. Check out How to install certificates on Linux here.

Getting Started

Reach out to a Zmanda Sales Representative to get started with your Zmanda Pro Self-hosted deployment automation with ZPAT

ZPAT configurations

The Zmanda Pro automation tool uses CSV files to configure bulk operations.

CSV files don't naturally support comments. However, in ZPAT configuration files, you can include comments by starting a line with ‘##’ characters.

The following configuration files are available:

1. defaults.conf

2. onboard-devices.csv & onboard-devices-overrides.csv

3. reindex.csv

4. restore-for-devices.csv

5. add-pi.csv

6. add-policies.csv

7. rename-devices.csv

8. delete-users.csv

ZPAT offers an Ansible automation toolkit to remotely manage Zmanda Pro Clients' bulk installation uninstallation, and certificate updates. Alternatively, you can use your own remote management tools to administer your client devices.

The ZPAT Package

Contents

	Item	Description
1	README.md	A detailed usage documentation on ZPAT and it’s available options
2	zpat binary	The Zmanda Pro Automation tool
3	config/*.csv	The bulk operations are configured in their respective CSV files. More information on each of the CSV is available in the respective bulk operations documentation
4	config/defaults.conf	Default parameters which are specified in each run of ZPAT server= : The Zmanda Pro Server URL on which the operations will be performed. Administrator login credentials for this server are required storage= : The Default Storage Option used. The default value will be “<storage>”

Global flags

These flags are available for all ZPAT commands.

	Flag	Description
1	--server OR -s string	Specify the Zmanda Pro Server URL corresponding to the ZPAT operation to be run. NOTE: You will be prompted for the server URL on the first run of ZPAT and must enter the complete FQDN with a leading https://. For subsequent ZPAT operations, the server URL will be saved in the /opt/zmandapro/automations/config/defaults.conf file. Using the flag overrides whatever is present in the defaults.conf file.
2	--config OR -c string	Specify the absolute path to a CSV configuration file for a specific ZPAT operation. Without using the flag, the base bath defaults to /opt/zmandapro/automations/config. ZPAT will look for the configurations within this directory. Using the flag will override the default value.