In order for Quota Server to deliver hard locking quotas and file blocking capabilities on EMC Unity, a number of pre-requisites must be in place. A successful integration with EMC's CEPA framework is mandatory for this integration to work as intended.

There are three major components involved in this type of integration:

1. EMC CEPP
   
   • This is a service that runs on the EMC Unity system. The service is responsible of sending real-time file events (preevents) to the designated EMC CEPA-servers.
2. EMC CEPA (Common Event Publishing Agent):
   
   • This is a framework that comes with the EMC CEE (EMC Common Event Enabler) software. The features within this framework are utilized by Content Quota Management Applications (such as NSS Quota Server) to provide folder locking and file blocking functionality.
   • The server hosting the CEPA framework is referred to as a CEPA-server. The CEPA server retrieves the preevents sent by the CEPP service on the EMC Unity system and redirects them to the active Quota Server(s) in the environment where the events are processed and responded to.
3. NSS Quota Server (the CQM application):
   
   • This the Content Management application that automatically reacts and responds to the file events retrieved from the CEPA-server. The responses to the CEPA-server and actions that are carried out are based on the configured quota/file blocking policies defined in the Quota Server application.

The configuration process for this integration is divided into four different sections that should be completed in the following order:

1. Overall preparation
2. Configure EMC Unity to send events to CEPA
3. Install & Configure the EMC CEE Framework (CEPA-server configuration)
4. Configure Quota Server

Fully functional quota locking, file blocking and real-time updating on EMC Unity.

1. Overall preparation

1. Define and configure a service account to be used by NSS and by the EMC CEE framework. 
   • On the NSS Server, this account should have Administrator rights.
   • On the CEPA server, the account running CQM applications (the NSS service account) should belong to the local Administrator group.
   • On the Unity CIFS server, the NSS service account should belong to the Backup Operators, Power Users, and Administrator local groups.
2. Note IP Addresses
   
   • Note IP address of each NSS Server.
   • Note IP address of each CEPA Server.
     
     

2. Configure EMC Unity to send events to CEPA

1. Start a browser and connect to the EMC Unisphere interface.
   
   
2. Once logged on, select 'File' under the 'Storage'-section in the left-sided menu and then go to the first tab named 'File Systems'.
   


3. Select the file system that you would like to enable CEPA on and click on the Pen-icon (marked with a red circle in the screenshot below) to enable the Properties window.
   
   
   
   
4. Go to the 'Advanced'-tab and make sure that 'Enable SMB Events Publishing'-checkbox under 'Events Notifications' is checked. Click on Apply on and close the Properties window to go back to the Storage\File-section.
   
   
5. Select the 'NAS Servers'-tab in the upper menu and modify the same NAS server that you enabled SMB Events Publishing in the previous step (by clicking on the pen-icon).
   
   
   
   
6. In the properties window, select the tab named 'Protection & Events' and then click on the 'Events Publishing'-option in the left-sided menu. Mark the 'Event Publishing Pool' in the list to edit and clic on the pen icon to modify it.
   
   
   
   
7. When inside the CEPA properties window, add a CEPA server by either adding its name or its IP-address. A CEPA server is a server that has (or will have) the EMC CEE-framework installed and configured (see section 3 in this guide for more information).
   
   The CEPA-server to add is most commonly the NSS Quota Server, but it can also be other Windows Application Servers in the network depending on the preferred setup. Once the server/servers have been added, click on 'Configure'  in the Pre Events-section under Events Configuration to specify the events that CEPA should send out.
   
   
   
   
8. In the Configuration page for PreEvents, select the following events and save the changes:
   
   • CloseModified
   • CreateDir
   • CreateFile
   • DeleteDir
   • DeleteFile
   • OpenFileWrite
   • RenameDir
   • RenameFile
   • SetAclFile
   
   

3. Install & Configure the EMC CEE Framework (CEPA-server configuration)

The EMC CEE/VEE (Common Event Enabler) Framework is the framework that includes CEPA and the EMC CAVA service. This framework needs to be installed on the NSS Server or on one or several Windows servers dedicated to hosting the CEPA-features. The EMC CEE tool can be downloaded from EMC's own customer portal.

Quota Server communicates to the CEPA-server(s) and utilizes the features within the framework to distribute hard locking to quotas, real-time quota usage tracking and blocks on specific file extensions.

Follow the steps beflow on all CEPA-servers in scope to ensure that the EMC CEE (CEPA) can send events to NSS Quota Server:

1. Install EMC_CEE_Pack.exe on the CEPA Server(s) that are to talk to NSS
   
   
2. Go through installer selecting default settings
   
   
3. Configure the EMC CAVA service to run under the NSS Service Account. The EMC CAVA service is the main service for CEPA.
   
   
4. Set Endpoint in the Windows registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\Celerra Event Enabler\CEPP\CQM\Configuration
   
   
   The endpoint name is "Northern@<ip address of NSS server>".  If the CEPA server is also the NSS host, the endpoint is simply "Northern".
   
   If the environment has multiple endpoints (meaning multiple NSS Servers), list each endpoint separated by a semicolon. For example, Northern@128.199.5.10;Northern@128.199.5.12;Northern@128.199.20.12.

4. Configure NSS Quota Server

Follow the steps below to ensure that NSS Quota Server is correctly configured for the EMC Unity integration:

1. Log on as an Administrator to the Windows Server where Quota Server is running and make sure that the NSS Quota Server service runs with the NSS Service Account. This account needs to have administrative access to the EMC Unity CIFS-server(s) to manage (as prepared in section 1).
   
   
2. Open up Windows Registry.
   


3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Northern\Settings and ensure that the parameter named NQS::USECHANGENOTIF_VNX is set to 1.
   
   
   
   This is required in order for Quota Server to utilize the CEPA-events instead of CIFS notifications for the real-time quota updating. In NSS version 9.7 and later, the default value for this parameter is set to 1.
   
   
4. Open up Quota Server and navigate to System\Quota Servers in the left-sided menu. Select your Quota Server in the list located in the middle frame, right-click and select 'Modify'.
   
   
   
   This enables the Settings-menu at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
5. Click on the EMC Settings tab.
   
   
   
   
6. Specify the name of your NAS Server(s) and hit Enter to apply the changes. Multiple NAS Servers are separated with a semi colon.
   
   


7. The EMC Unity NAS Server is now visible as a NAS-resource alongside the Quota Server in left-sided connections list.
   
   
   
   In order to change the connections list appearance to the one above, right-click anywhere in the list and select 'Show only connected servers'.

1. Create an Object quota, selecting EMC Unified Storage as the quota platform, assign a locking action to a threshold.  Suggested value: 'Lock dir'


2. Copy files to the quota path, to push the folder over the locking threshold.  Use a network client for the copy action.


3. The first file passing through the quota activates the associated action, but it will be allowed to be saved. The next attempt to copy should be blocked if the settings are correct.


4. Login to the NetApp Cluster Command Prompt and check if the FPolicy server object has been created and registered by typing vserver fpolicy show

For advanced troubleshooting, please contact the Technical Support team at Northern (support@northern.net).