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NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem 11.0 - User Guide

Creating a backup strategy

A well-designed backup strategy helps you to recover from the damages caused by failure and resume normal operations as quickly as possible. Before you start backing up your data, ensure that a good strategy is in place that safeguards your data against various failure modes, such as media failure, data corruption, user error, and complete loss of a data center.
Typically, your backup plan should define what backup methods are used, when and at what intervals the backups are performed, how the backups are stored, how long the backups are retained, and how the backup media are re-used.
The following are some example backup sequences to offer you guidelines:
•
Full Backups only: You can choose to perform only Full Backups if the backup size is small, backup window is not an issue, or storage media is not a constraint. In such scenarios, you can schedule Full Backups every night or every N hours depending on the frequency of updates.
If a failure occurs, the plug-in is only required to restore a single saveset.
•
Full and Incremental Backups: For quicker backups and minimum use of storage media, you can include Full and Incremental Backups in your strategy. For example, you can schedule Full Backups every Sunday and Incremental Backups every day or every N hours depending on the frequency of updates.
If a failure occurs, the plug-in is required to restore data from the recent Full Backup and each Incremental Backup in the backup sequence. The restore might take longer if several Incremental savesets have to be restored. For example, if the failure occurs on Saturday, the plug-in is required to restore the Full Backup taken on Sunday and Incremental Backups taken from Monday through Friday.
•
Full and Differential Backups: For quicker restores and reduced media usage, you can include Full and Differential Backups in your strategy. For example, you can schedule Full Backups every Sunday and Differential Backups every day or every N hours depending on the frequency of updates.
If a failure occurs, the plug-in is required to restore data from the recent Full Backup and the last Differential Backup.
•
Windows System State Backups: For System State backups on Windows, you can choose either of the following strategies:
•
Back up only the System State data
•
Back up the C Drive and System State data
Backing up the System State data with C drive has the following advantages:
•
It eliminates duplication of the system files in a saveset. If you run two separate jobs, the system files are included in both savesets.
•
You can use this backup to perform a disaster recovery.
The VSS method is recommended for a consistent backup of the System State data.
•
Policy-based backups: At the enterprise-level, you can create a policy to back up the root directory on Linux and UNIX clients and all fixed drives and System State on Windows clients. For more information about backup policies, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Performing Full Backups

To perform Full Backups
1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Backup Job to start the configuration wizard.
You can also start the wizard from the Guided Configuration link. In the Navigation pane, click Guided Configuration, and then on the NetVault Configuration Wizard page, click Create Backup Jobs.
2
In Job Name, type a name for the job. Assign a descriptive name that allows you to easily identify the job for monitoring its progress or restoring data.
A job name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms.
3
In the Selections list, select an existing Backup Selection Set, or complete the following steps to create a set:
a
Click Create New to open the NetVault Backup Selections page.
b
Open the NetVault Backup machine, and then open File System.
c
Select the data that you want to back up:
•
Back up entire system: On Linux and UNIX systems, select the root node (“/”).
On Windows, select the Fixed Drives node. To back up data on removable drives, select the Removable Drives node.
•
Back up individual items: Open the parent node. Browse through the directory tree, and locate the items that you want to back up.
To include a file or a directory, select the corresponding check box. When you select a parent node, the child items are automatically included in the backup.
•
Exclude child items: To exclude a file or directory within a selected parent node, click the corresponding check box to replace the check mark with a cross.
d
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set. Click Save to close the dialog box.
 
 
*NOTE: A set name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non‑Latin characters. On Linux OS, the names can have a maximum of 200 characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms.
4
In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or complete the following steps to create a set.
a
Click Create New to open the File System Plugin Backup Options page.
b
Select the backup method and backup type.
 
Table 1. Backup type and backup methods for Full Backup
Option
Description
Backup Method
Under Backup Method, select the applicable option:
•
Standard: To perform native file system backups, select the option. On Linux- and UNIX-based systems, you can only use the Standard Backup method.
•
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS): To perform VSS-based backups, select this option. This backup method is only available on Windows-based systems.
The plug-in uses a VSS provider to create snapshots, and uses these copies to perform backups to disk- or tape-based storage devices. You can also use the VSS backup method to create persistent snapshots on supported disk arrays.
For more information about backup methods, see About backup methods.
Backup Type
Under Backup Type, select the Full option.
For more information about backup types, see About backup types.
c
Configure the following backup options.
 
Table 2. Backup options for Full Backup
Option
Description
Check For Files Being Modified During Backup
To mark the files that are being modified during a backup, leave this check box selected. During restore, these files are not restored by default. To restore these files, you must set the option Restore Files Modified During Backup on the Restore Options Set.
If you do not want to check for files that are being updated during backup, clear this check box.
The Check For Files Being Modified During Backup option is disabled for the VSS backup method.
Backup through Mount Points
This check box is only available on Windows. It is selected by default.
If you do not want to back up the data on NTFS mount folders, clear this check box.
Backup through Remote Mounts
This check box is only available on Linux and UNIX. It is not selected by default. If you want to back up the data on mounted file systems, you must select this check box.
NOTE: If you do not select this check box, the plug-in does not back up any remote mount points that are included in the Backup Selection Set. The plug-in excludes the remote mount points and does not provide any error or log messages in the Job Logs.
Check for and Skip Locked Mandatory Locking Files
To check whether mandatory locking is enabled on the system or not, select this check box.
If mandatory locking is enabled, the plug-in tries to lock the file before backing it up. If the plug-in is unable to lock the file, it skips the file. (For example, if the file is locked by some other application, the plug-in cannot lock it for backup, and hence skips the file.)
This check box is only available on Linux and UNIX systems.
Enable Restartable Backup
To add the ability to stop a job and resume it later from that point, select this check box.
When you stop the job, the plug-in generates an index for all items that have been processed up to that point and writes the index to the backup media and NetVault Database. The job status is then set to Job Stopped. If the plug-in is writing a large backup index, the jobs status continues to be reported as “Writing to Media: Storing Backup Index” until the index is written. When you restart the job later, the plug-in runs an Incremental Backup job to back up the remaining files and folders.
You can stop and resume a job from the Job Status page. For more information, see Stopping a job and Restarting a job.
Maximum Concurrent Streams
By default, the plug-in generates a single data stream for a backup job, and backs up the selected items in a sequential manner. You can use this setting to create multiple streams and perform parallel backups of the selected items.
When you configure this option, the Backup Selection Set is divided into logical groups (selection groups) based on the drives, mount points, and network shares within the set. Each selection group is assigned its own child process.
The value configured for the Maximum Concurrent Streams option determines the number of child processes that are started concurrently on the client. For example, if there are six selection groups (five drives and one network share), and this option is set to 4, four child processes are started on the client. After acquiring the backup device and media, a child process generates a backup stream to back up the items within the selection group. When a child process completes its task, another child process is then started to back up the next selection group. This process continues until all selection groups are backed up.
If any child process is unable to acquire the backup device and media, it remains in a “waiting for media” state until the device and media become available. For example, if only two tape devices are available for four child processes, the processes that are able to acquire the device and media start backing up the data immediately, while the other processes remain in a waiting state until the device and media become available.
We recommend that you configure this option according to the capabilities of the client on which the job is running and the number of devices that are available to the job. The inability to acquire device and media can delay the job. In addition, running multiple concurrent processes on systems with a single processor can degrade the system performance.
Note the following:
•
A single stream is used to back up all items in a selection group.
•
If any child process fails to back up the items in a group, the entire job fails.
•
If any child process reports any warnings, the entire job completes with warnings.
•
Restores of multi-stream backups are performed sequentially.
If you set this option to 1, the plug-in uses a single stream to back up the selected items in a sequential manner.
NOTE: The default and user-defined Backup Options Sets created using a pre-11.0 version of the plug-in do not include this option. To enable the multi-stream option for jobs that were created with a pre-11.0 version of the plug-in, edit the job and assign a Backup Options Set that includes the Maximum Concurrent Streams option.
Path to Backup Log
To generate a backup log file, type the filename. The log provides a list of files that are selected for the backup. The files that are backed up successfully are marked with an “o” and the others are marked with an “x.” You can use this option with an Incremental Backup to determine which new or changed files have been backed up. If you specify an existing filename, the plug-in overwrites the file. The log file is created in CSV file format, and includes details such as file size, date modified, and file type.
d
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set. Click Save to close the dialog box.
5
Select or create the Schedule Set, Target Set, and Advanced Options Set. For more information about these sets, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.
 
 
*NOTE: When performing multi-stream backups, do not select the Ensure backup is the first on the target media check box. If you select this check box for multi-stream backups, each data stream targets a separate piece of media to exist as the first backup on the media item. Thus, if a backup generates five streams, the job tries to obtain five blank or new media items.
This option does not apply to disk-based storage devices.
6
To submit the job for scheduling, click Save & Submit. You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page.
To save the job definition without scheduling it, click Save. You can view, edit, or run this job from the Manage Job Definitions page. This job is not displayed on the Job Status page until you submit it.
For more information about Job Status, View Logs, and Manage Job Definitions, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Selection tree icons: Linux and UNIX

 
Table 3. Backup selection tree icons: Linux and UNIX
Icon
Description
Open directory
Closed directory
Open linked directory
Closed linked directory
Open local mount point
Closed local mount point
Open remote mount point
Closed remote mount point
File
Linked file
Socket
Linked socket
FIFO
Linked FIFO
Block device
Linked block device
Character device
Linked character device
Broken link
Link
Files modified during backup

Selection tree icons: Windows

 
Table 4. Backup selection tree icons: Windows
Icon
Description
Fixed drives
Drive
Open directory
Closed directory
File
Compressed file
Hidden file
Executable file
File modified during backup
Removable drives
CDROM
Removable media
Network shares
System state
Active Directory (Windows server only)
Com+ class registration database or registry
Disk quota database
System files
SYSVOL
Remote storage manager database
IIS meta database (Windows server only)
Certificate server (Windows server only)
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