Unsolved
15 Posts
0
1598
Backup Isilon Cloud Pool using NFS/SMB
Hi all,
I see that we can backup Isilon SmartLink files using NDMP: http://doc.isilon.com/onefs/cloudpools/ifs_c_cloudpools_ndmp_integration.html. But I cannot find a way to differentiate a smartlink file while using SMB/NFS to read the metadata/data.
Is it possible to backup SmartLink files using NFS/SMB?
Peter_Sero
1.2K Posts
0
March 30th, 2020 06:00
NFS and SMB provide no means for the client to choose between reading vendor-specific stubs like SmartLink files "as such" or as linked data content. This is different from the way standard symbolic links are handled: read/write linked data by default, but any management/backup/archive software can choose to treat symbolic links as "stub files" per se.
If you want to avoid recalls from the cloud when backing up through NFS or SMB, the closest you can get is to hide the SmartLink files behind symbolic links, via some script that collects all CloudPool candidate files (according to to your specific criteria) into a dedicated subtree and creates symbolic links in the original places. Then double-check that your backup software doesn't "follow" symbolic links -- which is usually the default. Remains the question how to backup the subtree containing the SmartLinks -- still need to leverage either NDMP or SyncIQ, just with very little capacity needed; while the bulk data present on the cluster goes with the existing NFS or SMB based backup solution.
Makes sense?
-- Peter
amandeepgautam
15 Posts
0
March 30th, 2020 20:00
Yes, it does make sense. One possible implementation can be for Isilon to provide IPs/IP and any read request from these IPs do not hydrate the data. I don't think Isilon has this feature, right?
Peter_Sero
1.2K Posts
0
April 8th, 2020 08:00
Interesting idea. How should the SmartLinks be presented to such dedicated backup agent clients?
-- Peter
amandeepgautam
15 Posts
0
April 13th, 2020 12:00
We can just return whatever is lying on the disk (and not go to the cloud). If you are interested in details, please look at Komprise. They do something similar.
Peter_Sero
1.2K Posts
0
May 13th, 2020 10:00
> We can just return whatever is lying on the disk (and not go to the cloud)
OK, that would make an ordinary file in the backup. Just when you restore it, OneFS would need to inspect the contents and turn it back into a SmartLink file. Sound pretty dangerous to me, but let's see how things evolve on the topic of integrating CloudPools with NFS/SMB based backups.
-- Peter