Locking Avamar Backups to Store Data Only on a Data Domain

Using Data Domain to store Avamar backup data is going to be the standard implementation whenever the data to be backed up exceed the capacity of a single Avamar node.  This combination allows for a much smoother upgrade as more backup capacity is required.  It does have one major flaw and if you are not careful you can fill the capacity on the Avamar node without ever storing any backup data on the Data Domain.


The issue is that when creating new Data Set Policy you must set each Plugin  used in the DataSet Policy to send the backup data to the Data Domain.  If you do not the default is to put the backup data on the Avamar node.  In most cases by the time it is discovered it is too late to fix.
The solution is to lock the backups to only go to the Data Domain following this procedure.
Procedure to lock down an Avamar – Data Domain integration to only allow Data Domain backups:

Login to the Avamar utility node command line ssh as user "admin" and load proper ssh keys.
Change to directory:
cd /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/
Backup current mcserver.xml file: 
cp -p mcserver.xml x-mcserver.xml-YYYYMMDD
where YYYYMMDD is the current year, month and day
Edit the file:
vi mcserver.xml
Search for the line similar to: 
<entry key="dd_only_mode" value="DATASET" />
Modify the value to "ALL" so that the line now looks like:
<entry key="dd_only_mode" value="ALL" />
Save and exit file.
Restart the MCS:
dpnctl stop mcs
dpnctl start mcs
Verify all services are up and running with:   
dpnctl status
Take a MCS flush or backup:
mcserver.sh --flush
If no errors or issues seen in the flush command, logout of command line.

Evan after setting the lock it is still important to make sure that any new Data Set Policy created is set for each Plugin used in the DataSet Policy to send the backup data to the Data Domain.

In addition you will need to modify all of the Default DataSets Plugins to send the backup data to the Data Domain the same as it were an new DataSet Policy.  If this change is not made any on demand backup performed will fail and report that there is no Data Domain present.