NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem 11.0

Additional notes Performing Incremental and Differential Backups Stopping a job Restarting a job Performing Network Share Backups Performing System State Backups

Restoring data

Restoring data using the plug-in Searching for files in savesets Viewing media list Renaming and relocating data during restore Restoring data to an alternate client Restoring System State Backups

About System State restore System State restore considerations Supported restore methods for Active Directory Supported restore methods for SYSVOL Directory Prerequisites Restoring System State data Restoring cluster database on Windows 2008 Additional considerations for domain controllers

Troubleshooting

Common errors

Restarting a job

The Restart method lets you resume a Plug-in for FileSystem backup job from the point the backup was stopped. To have this ability, you must configure the job as restartable. When you restart a job, the plug-in runs an Incremental Backup job to back up the remaining files and folders.


	NOTE: The Stop and Restart methods do not work if you select multiple jobs simultaneously.

To restart a job

In the Navigation pane, click Job Status.

In the list of jobs, select the job, and click Restart.

Performing Network Share Backups

Currently, the support for network share backups is limited to Windows network shares. Several problems might be encountered if you use this feature to back up CIFS-compatible shares, such as Samba, Snap Appliance Filers, or Mac OS X Shares. The problems include the inability to back up files with certain filename encoding or lengths, changing the filename while backing them up, and not restoring the permissions correctly.

The procedure for performing network share backups includes the steps outlined in the following sections:

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Prerequisites

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Configuring a network share

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Configuring a login account for network share

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Backing up network share data

Prerequisites

Before you start a Network Share Backup, verify that the following requirements are met:

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Use the “soft” mount option: When backing up NFS shares, use the “soft” mount option for mount points.

When you use the “soft” mount option, the Plug-in for FileSystem terminates an operation and reports an error when an NFS request is timed out. Thus, if the plug-in is trying to access a stale mount point, the operation is terminated after the request is timed out.

With the “soft” mount option, you can set the timeo=<value> and retrans=n options:

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The retrans option determines the number of times a request is retried before an error is reported. The default value for retrans is three.

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The timeo option specifies the number of seconds to wait before a retransmission is sent. The default value for timeo may vary depending on the OS, but it is typically 600 seconds.

After setting these options, we recommend that you perform a test by browsing a stale mount point (use the command ls <mount point>) to verify that the request is timed out after the specified interval.

For more information about the mount command and the available options, see the relevant OS documentation.

When you use the “hard” mount option, an NFS request is tried indefinitely, causing the plug-in to wait indefinitely.

If you use the “hard” mount option and the machine exporting the NFS share is not on the network, the plug-in job accessing the “stale” mount point stops responding. When this issue occurs, kill the nvfs process using kill -9 or end the process from the Windows Task Manager. The Job Manager Process associated with the job terminates after the timeout period (usually 300 seconds). Until this timeout has elapsed, you cannot use the Run now method to run the job because the instance is considered active until the Job Manager exits.

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Grant “change” privileges for Incremental Backups: When performing Incremental Backups of network shares, the user that has been configured to log on to a particular share must be given “change” permissions to the shared folder. If you do not grant this permission, the job instance repeatedly backs up the modified files because the plug-in is unable to update the file attribute to indicate that the file has been backed up.

Configuring a network share

To back up a shared folder on a non-NetVault Backup Client, you must configure a network share on the NetVault Backup Client from which you want to perform the backup job.

To configure a network share

Start the Backup Job Wizard, and click Create New next to the Selections list.

On the NetVault Backup Selections page, open the applicable client, and then open File System.

Select Network Shares, and in the Actions list, click Add Network Share.

In the Add New Network Share dialog box, specify file path for the shared drive in the following format:

\\<IP Address or Resolvable Network Name>\<Share Name>\

Click Add to add the network share and close the dialog box.

Configuring a login account for network share

To configure a user account to log on to the network share

On the NetVault Backup Selections page, select Network Shares, and in the Actions list, click Connect As.

In the Connection Details dialog box, provide the following information:

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Domain: Type the Windows Domain name for the system that contains the shared folders.

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Username: Type a Domain Administrator user name. The network share backups must be performed using a Domain Administrator account to fully retrieve the file and directory permissions during a restore. A user belonging to the Administrators Group does not have the Domain Administrator privileges.


	NOTE: If a Non-Domain Administrator account is configured for backups, the file and directory permissions must be set manually after a restore.

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Password: Type the password for the user account.

Click OK to save the connection details and close the dialog box.

Backing up network share data

To back up network share data

On the NetVault Backup Selections page, double-click Network Shares.

Select the data that you want to back up.

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Back up all network shares: Select the Network Shares node.

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Back up individual shared folders: Select the check boxes corresponding to the items that you want to back up.

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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, all the child items within the node are automatically included in the backup.

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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.

Click Save to create a Backup Selection Set.

On the Backup Job Wizard page, specify a name for the job.

Complete Step 4 through Step 6 in the section Performing Full Backups.

To perform Incremental or Differential Backups, see Performing Incremental and Differential Backups

Performing System State Backups

To back up System State data

Start the Backup Job Wizard.

In Job Name, specify a name for the job.

Click Create New next to the Selections list, and then on the NetVault Backup Selections page, open System State.

Select the data that you want to back up:

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Back up System State data: To back up only the System State data, select System State.

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Back up for disaster recovery: To use the backup for disaster recovery purposes, select Fixed Drive or C Drive and System State.


	NOTE: The Plug-in for FileSystem lets you select individual System State components, but we recommend that you back up all System State components together.


	IMPORTANT: On Domain Controllers, you must always include C Drive in System State backups and restores. When you include the C Drive, all information about the Group Policy Objects (GPOs) is included during backups and restores. If you back up or restore only the System State data, you cannot edit the GPOs that are restored from the backups. When you try to edit the restored GPO, the following error message is displayed: “Failed to open the Group Policy Object. You may not have appropriate rights.”

Complete Step 4 through Step 6 in the section Performing Full Backups.

System State backups: Additional notes

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Only the SYSVOL and System Files components can be truly included in an Incremental or a Differential Backup. The remaining components are always backed up in full regardless of the backup type you select. Similarly, when you perform a backup consolidation using the Plug-in for Consolidation, the new reference point only applies to the SYSVOL and System Files components.

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On Windows Server 2008 and Windows 2008 R2, a fault in the VSS can cause the plug-in to randomly omit files from a System State Backup. This issue occurs when the ImagePath property for a service entry in the Windows Registry uses a forward slash character (“/”) or a relative path in the file path. This issue may also be observed in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

To resolve this issue, you must identify and correct the invalid entries in the Windows Registry. You can use the Microsoft System Information (Msinfo32.exe) Tool and Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) for this purpose.

To correct the registry entries

Click Start on the taskbar. Point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information.

Alternatively, click Start on the taskbar, and select Run. In the Run window, type msinfo32, and then click OK.

Under System Summary, click Software Environment, and then select Services.

Examine Path on the right-hand pane.

After identifying the invalid entries, open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to edit the ImagePath.

To open the registry editor, click Start on the taskbar, and select Run. In the Run window, type regedit, and then click OK.

In the Registry Editor window, locate the invalid entries. These entries are usually located under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services.


	NOTE: The ImagePath property stores the path to the executable program for a service. The path to the executable program can also be viewed on the General tab of the Services console which can be accessed from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.