nbpipes

nbpipes [internal_arguments]

nbpipes is not a standard, general-purpose Linux command. Instead, it is an executable program integral to Veritas NetBackup software. Its primary function is to manage and control named pipes (FIFOs), which serve as temporary, in-memory buffers for data streams during various NetBackup operations such as backup, restore, or replication.

These pipes are crucial for facilitating efficient and high-performance communication and data transfer between different NetBackup processes. For instance, they can buffer data flowing from a client machine to a media server, or between storage units for optimized duplication. By using named pipes, NetBackup can stream large volumes of data without requiring intermediate disk I/O, thereby improving performance and resource utilization. Users typically do not invoke nbpipes directly; it is invoked and managed internally by NetBackup daemons and processes to ensure reliable data flow within the complex backup architecture.

nbpipes is specific to Veritas NetBackup and is not a part of standard Linux distributions.
It is primarily an internal component of NetBackup and is not intended for direct manual invocation by system administrators.
Improper manual use or manipulation of nbpipes could potentially disrupt NetBackup operations and data transfers.

Within the NetBackup environment, nbpipes handles the creation, management, and removal of temporary named pipes. These pipes act as conduits for data streams between various NetBackup processes (e.g., between the bpcd client daemon and the bptm media server daemon). This allows NetBackup to process data in a streaming fashion, avoiding the overhead of writing data to temporary files on disk, which is essential for large-scale backup and restore operations.

While nbpipes is an executable, it's rarely, if ever, directly invoked by a NetBackup administrator. Its operations are orchestrated by NetBackup's internal logic, policy configurations, and daemon processes. For example, during an optimized duplication or an Auto Image Replication (AIR) operation, NetBackup might leverage named pipes managed by nbpipes to streamline the data movement between different storage locations or NetBackup domains.

nbpipes has been a foundational component of Veritas NetBackup (and its predecessors under Symantec and now Veritas again) for many years. Its existence reflects the software's long-standing design principle of leveraging named pipes for efficient inter-process communication and high-speed data streaming, a crucial requirement for enterprise-level data protection solutions. Its development and usage have evolved alongside NetBackup's architecture, adapting to new data types, storage technologies, and performance demands.

mkfifo(1), rm(1), pipe(7)