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NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem 13.0 - User Guide

Inclusion list considerations

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The maximum size of an inclusion list depends on how much memory is available to the backup process while it is running. It also depends on the system load at the time of backup. The list can still contain tens of thousands of entries on a small system to hundreds of thousands of entries on a 64-bit system with large memory configuration.
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Provide the full file path for the file or directory that you want to include in a backup. An inclusion list does not support wildcards.
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Specify one inclusion per line.
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Inclusion lists cannot contain files or paths with non-ASCII characters. Such entries can cause a job to fail.
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Inclusion list is not supported for Off-host backup.

Adding an inclusion list

To add an inclusion list:
1
On the NetVault Selections page, open the NetVault Client to which you want to add the inclusion list.
2
In the list of plug-ins, select File System, and click Show inclusion lists.
3
Open the Inclusion Lists node.
4
Use one of the following methods to add the inclusion list:
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Select the file from the directory tree:
a
Open Browse for inclusion files.
b
Open the applicable nodes to display the directory that contains the inclusion list.
c
Select the check box corresponding to the Inclusion List.
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Specify the file path:
a
Select Specify inclusion files and click Add inclusion file.
b
In the Enter path to inclusion file dialog box, type the file path for the inclusion list.
c
Click OK.
5
Save the Selection Set.

Removing an inclusion list

To remove an inclusion list:
1
On the NetVault Selections page, open the applicable NetVault machine.
2
In the list of plug-ins, select File System, and click Show inclusion lists.
3
Open the Inclusion Lists node.
4
Depending on the method used to add the Inclusion List, open Browse for inclusion files or Specify inclusion files. Open the directory tree, if applicable, and clear the check box corresponding to the Inclusion List.
5
Save the Selection Set.

Additional notes

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Backup file path length limitations: The maximum length of a backup file path depends on the operating system and the file system the data resides on.
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On Windows, the maximum length for a path is 260 characters. It includes a drive letter, colon, backslash, components separated by backslashes, and a terminating null character (for example, D:\<256 chars>NUL). Windows also supports extended-length path of up to of 32,767 characters. It includes components separated by backslashes, each up to 255 characters in length (for example, “\\?\D:\very long path”).
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On Linux and UNIX platforms, the maximum length for a path is 1024 characters, including the target filename and path. The path can consist of a maximum of 255 elements. An element here refers to individual directory named in the path as well as the target filename. Restores of data to platforms or file systems with different namespace support may result in truncation of some path elements. These limitations do not apply to all UNIX file systems, particularly ZFS.
For backups of Linux and UNIX clients, NetVault uses the cpio tape format that does not impose these limitations. However, OS imposed limitations do apply. For more information about the OS imposed limitations, see the relevant OS documentation.
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Hard links on Linux- and UNIX-based clients: Various instances of hard-linked files on the Linux and UNIX clients are considered separate entities. The NetVault Plug‑in for FileSystem backs up the complete file and the link information for each selected hard-linked file. To back up all instances of a hard-linked file, include each instance in the selection.
For example, if a file /usr/data1/a.txt is hard-linked to the file /usr/data2/b.txt, selecting /usr/data1/a.txt backs up only this file (with the link information). To back up /usr/data2/b.txt, you must include this file in the backup.
 
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NOTE: To maintain synchronization between the files, you must back up and restore all instances of hard-linked files together.
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Symbolic links on Linux- and UNIX-based clients: When a symbolic link is explicitly selected for a backup, only the link information is backed up. The plug-in does not back up the file or directory the link points to.
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Solaris zones partitioning: On systems using the Solaris Zones Partitioning Technology, the non‑global zones share files with the global zone using loopback file system read-only mounts, usually /usr, /lib, /sbin, and /platform. When the global zone (that is, “/”) is selected for a file system backup, these directories are backed up for the global zone and for each zone configured on the system. For example, if four zones are configured on the system and root is selected for a file system backup, the plug-in backs up five copies of the global zone directories. To avoid multiple backups of the directories during the global zone backup, de-select them individually, or create an exclusion list
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Special mount points: The NetVault Plug‑in for FileSystem treats certain file system types as special mount points, and does recurse into these mount points. However, the mount point itself, which is a directory, is backed up.
Consider a Linux client on which the proc file system is mounted as follows:
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /var/named/chroot/proc type proc (rw)
When you perform a backup of the entire system, the directories /proc and /var/named/chroot/proc are included in the backup. The plug-in tries to back up the files in the directory /var/named/chroot/proc if it is configured Bind on Linux. However, the backup job completes with warnings. To avoid this issue, you can add the directory /var/named/chroot/proc to the exclusion list.
The special mount points on various operating systems are listed in the following table.
 
Table 5. Special mount points of various operating systems
Operating system
File system type

Linux and HP-UX
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proc
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swap
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sysfs

FreeBSD and Mac OS X
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procfs
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kernfs
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swap
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devfs
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fdesc
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volfs

NCR
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proc
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stats

OSF
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procfs

Solaris
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proc
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stats
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mntfs
In addition, the following file systems are also treated as special mount points:
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bind
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rbind
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Special files: On Solaris, doors are not backed up. On Linux and UNIX, sockets are not backed up.
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Windows registry keys: On Windows, the files listed under the following registry keys are not backed up:
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HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup
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HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist
If a directory included in a Backup Selection Set is changed to a mount point, the subsequent Incremental Backups using the same set are performed as Full Backups. This issue occurs even if an intervening Full Backup is performed using the same set. To correct this issue, you must re-create or edit the Backup Selection Set.
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Distributed File System (DFS) paths: If a user account configured to access the root node in the DFS tree does not have access to the shared folders, a symbolic link icon accompanies the shares instead of a folder icon. If the user does not have necessary privileges, a backup completes with warnings.
The NetVault Plug‑in for FileSystem only backs up the DFS files and directories; it does not back up the DFS tree. If the tree structure does not exist during restore, the data is restored to the local file system.
To back up the DFS tree, you can run a backup pre-script on the client that contains the DFS root to write the tree structure to a file that is included in the backup. Alternatively, you can back up the DFS structure external to NetVault. For example, you can use the Windows tool dfscmd with the “batch” option to write the DFS structure to a “.bat” file:
dfscmd /view <\\rootservername\namespace /batch > <path\filename.bat>
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Extended attributes on NSS volumes: To back up and restore the novell.metadata extended attributes on NSS volumes, install the attr package, and enable ListXattrNWMetadata and CtimeIsMetadataModTime switches. The following example illustrates how to enable these switches from the NSS Console (NSSCON):
1
Start a terminal session.
2
Log in as root.
3
Type the following commands:
nss /ListXattrNWMetadata
nss /CtimeIsMetadataModTime
These settings temporary and not saved when you reboot the machine.
To set these switches permanently across reboots, open the “nssstart.cfg” file (located in the “/etc/opt/novell/nss/” directory), and add the following lines:
/ListXattrNWMetadata
/CtimeIsMetadataModTime
Verify that the switches are spelled correctly and do not have any spaces after the forward slash character (“/”). If the switch names are specified incorrectly in the “nssstart.cfg” file, parsing errors can prevent the NSS pool from mounting.
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Cluster data: While backing up cluster data using a virtual client, only the LUNs owned by the active node are backed up; LUNs owned by passive nodes are not backed up.
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