Backup of Celerra CIFS with Avamar

Unfortunately, I do not see these options "check the traverse local and mapped drives."

Damon, What plug-in should I use for the UNC paths?

Under "Source Data", I have the following options:

(1) Enter Explicitly

           (a) Select Plug-In Type:

           (b) Select Files and/or Folders

(2) Select All data for All Local Filesystems

I selected

(1)

(a) Windows File System (I have to select one. Otherwise, it just pick up whatever is currently selected in the box)

(b) I typed the path here for the CIFS

Then clicked on "+" sign

It added the path with a Windows logo on the left before the path.

Clicked OK

This dataset is already added to the group that the server is defined as a member of.

Tried the backup and still just the local drive.

I did the same thing as you did, but I also went to options, selected Windows File System, scrolled down and selected "Traverse fixed-disk and remote network mounts". Then I run the backup, and the files get backed up. One error I do see is Error=1314 (code 1314: A required privilege is not held by the client) which means that the ACLs for the file aren't backed up.

To confirm, here's the service path -> "C:\Program Files\avs\bin\avagent.exe" /ServiceStart "--logfile=C:\Program Files\avs\var\avagent.log"

It was running under "Local System" and I changed it to run with a Domain Admin account.

Stopped and restarted service. Re ran backup, still no go.

Glad this worked.  Im sorry I missed that step.  I was actually testing the process.

ACLs will not get backed up.  They can't be backed up because you are pulling from a remote source.  Another downside to using UNC paths for backing up with Avamar is each time a backup job is initiated, all files will be pulled across the network to the client to be checked and the deduplicated.  Don't expect the time to reduce for the backups either.  To get a proper backup (ACLs, files, etc) and to reduce the actual time to run a backup, you will need an Avamar Accelerator Node.  the node only supports specific NAS devices (EMC Celerra and NetApp for sure, plus some others).

Thank you to both of you!!!!!

I believe I did all of the above. But still don't get this running.

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2012-11-26 10:15:48 avtar Error <0000>: Specified source path "\\cifs1811\sofware\" does not exist; ignored (Log #1)
2012-11-26 10:15:48 avtar Error <8012>: Error in path list: All paths are invalid..  Correct path list before retrying. (Log #1)
2012-11-26 10:15:48 avtar Error <8939>: Errors occurred preparing for backup (exitcode=536870924).   No backup will be created. (Log #1)

I run the agent with a domain admin and not local system account. This user has all right on the cifs share. Restart the service and started anothe backup.

Also checked the traverse local and mapped drives

Also, I would strongly recommend backing up the data at the source if possible. Backing up a CIFS share is supported does work but you will likely have better results if you back it up at the source.

Edit: Support for backing up CIFS shares from a NAS device is best effort only.

If you log into the system where you're backing up the share as the domain admin, are you able to ping cifs1811 by short name? Can you browse to \\cifs1811\software manually (i.e. type the UNC path into a Run box or the search bar and it opens correctly)?

If not, does this test work using the FQDN instead of the short name?

Hi guys!

I've been through with same problem with a customer here in Brazil...he followed all yours tips but in the last part " Now create a group, assign it a dataset and make the client part of that group.”

Which client should I add to the group? Should I mount that CIFS server in a client that is in the VCenter and then add that client to the group?

Hope you can help me!

Cheers!

1. Geraldo.

You could do this and it might work happily ever after.. but please do be aware that Engineering have stated that backing up or restoring CIFS or NFS shares via a regular Avamar client isn't actually supported functionality

Reference:

KB 174435 - Avamar and supportability for CIFS / NFS mapped network shares

Update: I just noticed the second page of replies and I see Ian already warned about the implications for supportability