How to backup NFS file systems using Avamar

Thanks IAN, the source is at the array level, on the file side of the VNX. We will try what you have suggested.

Admingirl

Best practice is to back up NFS mounts and other remote filesystems at the source if possible.

Failing that, you can force the client to traverse NFS mounts by changing the "File System Traversal" option for the dataset from "Traverse fixed-disk mounts" to "Traverse fixed-disk and remote network mounts". Make sure you've selected the correct plug-in from the "Select Plug-In Type" dropdown.

not every NFS export is an appliance that supports NDMP, not providing support is crazy. Same applies to CIFS shares ?

Admingirl.

A good place to start is always the documentation which is actually quite good for Avamar.

Checkout Admin guide around Pg-593 that discusses the various FS type that can be configured to be traversed during the backup.

I believe NFS is not traversed by default.

Force traversal of specified file system type(s)

Accepts a comma-separated list of one or more file system types (for example, nfs, ext2, jfs, xfs) that should be traversed during the backup.

regards,

Adam

I can't say why it's not supported -- I'd only be speculating. Decisions about supported / unsupported configurations are normally made by product management and / or support management.

Keep in mind that "not supported" doesn't necessarily mean "doesn't work". The support team may be able to provide best effort support but can't escalate to Engineering, or they may not be able to help at all depending on the nature of the problem. I don't know offhand which category an issue with backing up a remote mount point would fall into.

If the NFS export is from a file server, it's recommended to back it up at the source instead. If the export is from an appliance that doesn't support NDMP, the only real alternative is a remote mount point, unfortunately. The same applies to CIFS shares.

It's especially important to back up filesystems that are both CIFS and NFS shares at the source because otherwise you'll lose the ACLs from one side or the other during the backup.

For VNX file data, NDMP is the preferred backup method. One of my colleagues reminded me that backing up remote mount points isn't supported so the support team may not be able to help with issues you might encounter backing up the remote mounts.

You would almost certainly get a nice speed boost from using NDMP as well. The client doesn't have to "stat" every file during NDMP backups -- we ask the VNX for a list of the files that have changed instead. You'd need an NDMP accelerator node if you wanted to run Avamar NDMP backups. It's possible to configure a virtual NDMP accelerator if you have an approved RPQ (Request for Product Qualification) -- your account team would be able to get the ball rolling if you wanted to pursue that option.

One challenge you will most likely encounter with backing up CIFS are exceptions resulting from open files, this is not an issue with NFS.

regards,

Adam

we have security appliances that need to be backed up but they do not support loading any agents nor do they support NDMP ..yet they need to be backed up. Every vendor supports backups of NFS mounted file systems, even TSM ..and that's saying a lot for IBM support.  SMH

You can modify the dataset (recommended) or use includes / excludes as with other mountpoints.

this will backup all NFS mounts on that host, is there a way to specify individual NFS mounts ?

No problem Dynamox! Glad to be reading more threads about this! We are Avamar newbies and all the comments are quite helpful.

Admingirl

Ian,

include statement in addition to --forcefs=nfs  (sorry have not messed with params in avatar.cmd much yet.) I guess more of a general question.

1) Who wins between dataset and avatar.cmd. If dataset is set to backup /oracle and then i configure avtar.cmd and tell it to exclude /oracle ..does avtar.cmd win ?

2) If dataset is set to backup /oracle and then avtar.cmd is set to include /oracle_archivelogs ..both directories will be backed up ?

Thank you,  Sorry admingirl  don't mean to hijack your discussion