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NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem 13.1.2 - User Guide

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 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 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 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.

Performing Incremental and Differential Backups

To perform Incremental or Differential Backups:
1
Start the backup job wizard.
2
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that allows you to easily identify the job for monitoring its progress or restoring data. The 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 the Backup Selection Set that was used to perform the Full Backup.
4
In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or complete the following steps to create a new set:
a
Click Create New to open the File System Plugin Backup Options page.
b
Configure the following settings.
 
Option
Description

Backup Method

Under Backup Method, select the applicable option:

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Standard: For native file system backups, select the option. It is the only available method on Linux and UNIX systems.
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Snapshot-Based: On Windows systems that support VSS, select this option to perform a snapshot-based backup.
On Linux and UNIX systems, this option is not available.

For more information about backup methods, see About backup methods.

Backup Type

Under Backup Type, select the applicable option. For more information about backup types, see About backup types.

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Incremental: Select this option to back up files that were created or modified since the last Full, Incremental, or Differential Backup.
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Differential: Select this option to back up files that were created or modified since the last Full Backup.
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Create Dump Type Backup: Select this check box to create Dump Type Incremental or Differential Backups.
With these backups you can only restore those files that were backed up in a particular Incremental or Differential Backup.
NOTE: Regular Incremental Backups are linked to the initial Full Backup and previous Incremental Backups. Before creating a data copy of a regular Incremental Backup, you must have created a copy of the initial Full Backup and the previous Incremental Backups in the backup sequence; otherwise, the Plug-in for Data Copy reports an error.

Dump Type Incremental Backups are standalone Incremental Backups. Such backups can be copied without creating a copy of any other backup in the backup sequence.

Ignore Archive Bit

On Windows, the archive bit helps to determine whether a file has been modified since the last backup. If the file has changed, the archive bit is set to 1, and if the file has not changed, the bit is set to 0. By default, the plug-in backs up a file for which the archive bit is set to 1, and clears the bit after the backup completes.

Regardless of the state of the archive bit, the plug-in backs up a file if certain information, such as the file size or the last modified time, has changed since the previous backup.

NOTE: The archive bit is not a clear indication that a file has changed. It only indicates that the bit has been set. Some applications intentionally modify the archive bit in a way that is not consistent with changes to the file.

To ignore the archive bit settings and use the file size, last update date, and other file attributes to back up a file, select the Ignore Archive Bit check box. This option can be useful in the following events:

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A program running on the system is changing the state of the archive bit, causing the plug-in to back up unnecessary files and folders.
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The plug-in is able to access the files for a backup, but cannot clear the archive bit settings after the backup completes because of access rights violation.

When you select the Ignore Archive Bit check box, the plug-in omits the files and directories for which only the file attributes such as Discretionary Access Control List (DACL), System Access Control List (SACL), and Owner Attribute have changed. If you want to back up such files, do not select this check box.

c
Configure the additional options that you want to use. For more information, see Backup options for Full Backup.
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 Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.
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 Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.

Stopping a job

The NetVault lets you stop a job at any point and resume it later from the same point. To have this ability, you must configure the job as restartable

For more information about this option, see the Performing Full Backups.

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.

 
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NOTE: The Stop and Restart methods do not work if you select multiple job instances simultaneously.
To stop a job:
1
In the Navigation pane, click Job Status.
2
In the list of jobs, select the job, and click Stop.
3
In the confirmation dialog box, click OK.
 
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NOTE: The stop action is not immediate. The job may continue for some time after you confirm that you want to stop backing up.

Multi-stream backups that are in progress may not be affected by the Stop action, as stopping a backup does not interrupt streaming data. Any data submitted to a stream during the backup job continues to back up. After the in-progress stream is complete, no new streams begin.

Restarting a job

The Restart method lets you resume a backup from the point the job 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.

 
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NOTE: The Stop and Restart methods do not work if you select multiple jobs simultaneously.
To restart a job:
1
In the Navigation pane, click Job Status.
2
In the list of jobs, select the job, and click Restart.
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