Directive used to skip files

Question

Hello,

I have a few clients that run applications that create several temporary files while running some sort of process. In my backups, I frequently receive errors concerning thes temporary files; (i.e. "Failed to stat /.alt.tmp.x-xxx.mnt: No such file or directory." I believe that when the backup starts, that directory is present but when it goes to backup it is no longer there. No a big deal I don't need to back that up. So, I created a directive that looks like this:

<< / >>

+skip: .alt.tmp.*

I seem to still be getting this error. I even added this:

+skip:*.alt.tmp.*

I still get the failed status with the message. My question is two-fold. 1) Is this directive set up correctly so that it should skip those temp files? 2) Does the skip behave similar to a "skip" in the schedule. As in, even on a skip, NetWorker still tries to identify with this directory in some way?

I don't t know if it will pertain to this question but here is the environment:

NetWorker Master: RHEL 6.x, NetWorker 8.1.1.8

Storage Nodes: RHEL 6.x, NetWorker 8.1.1.8

Client: Solaris

Writes to Tape via SL3000

bingo.1 · Answer

NW does create the 'worklist' at the beginning but it may take some delay between this process and the actual processing of the list. And if the file changed ot disappeared in the meantime, such issues will be 'flagged'.

I am not very good in looking at these (regular) expressions. But my I suggest that you try using

<< / >>

+skip: .alt.tmp.?*

Alan Hodges · Answer

Thanks. I will give it a try and let you know how it turns out.

Alan Hodges · Answer

Alas, the same result. Not sure if there will be a way around this one.

Alan Hodges · Answer

This is an example of the files that get created. /.alt.tmp.b-tn.mnt

crazyrov · Answer

Can you provide an example of the file that you are trying to skip.

crazyrov · Answer

Assuming the '/' in the file name is the root directory and not a part of the file name, so have you tried the following <> +skip: .alt.*

Alan Hodges · Answer

That is correct. / was to represent the root directory. I have not tried that. I am not familiar enough with the dataset for this server to know if that would skip something valid. My hunch is that it wouldn't be a problem but considering I don't own the data I have to be careful. However, if '+skip: .alt.*' would work, doesn't that mean that the skip directive I have in place, '+skip: .alt.tmp.*', should also work?

crazyrov · Answer

Tested it for +skip: .alt.tmp.* and it did work on my test environment. Ensure you dont have any blank space before or after / in the directive.

[root@rov-lnx-backup ~]# savegrp -vv -G Test

90528:savegrp: rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:/tmp level=incr

7236:savegrp: Group will not limit job parallelism

83643:savegrp: rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:savefs started

savefs -s rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com -c rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com -g Test -p -l full -R -v -F /tmp

rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:/tmp level=full, vers=pools, p=12

90491:savegrp: rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:savefs succeeded.

83647:savegrp: Test rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:savefs See the file /nsr/logs/sg/Test/32012 for command output

83643:savegrp: rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com:/tmp started

save -s rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com -g Test -LL -f - -m rov-lnx-backup.crazyrov.com -l full -W 78 -N /tmp /tmp

< <>

+skip: .alt.tmp.*

.

..

[root@rov-lnx-backup ~]# recover

No index was found for /root/. The current working directory is /.

recover> cd /tmp

recover> ls -la

total 8

drwx------ root 19 Feb 19 20:27 .esd-0

drwx------ rovin 6 Feb 19 20:26 .esd-1000

drwx------ gnome-ini 6 Feb 19 19:27 .esd-993

drwxrwxrwt root 6 Aug 02 2014 .font-unix

-r-------- root 3261 Feb 19 20:36 gconsole.jnlp

drwxr-xr-x root 28 Feb 19 20:37 hsperfdata_root

drwxrwxrwt root 39 Feb 19 20:27 .ICE-unix

drwxr-xr-x root 17 Feb 19 20:36 root

drwx------ root 23 Feb 19 20:27 ssh-R2h6pms7QHaw

drwx------ root 16 Jan 30 17:09 systemd-private-A6Jjid

drwx------ root 16 Aug 17 2014 systemd-private-dxLvBs

drwx------ root 16 Oct 20 16:10 systemd-private-gYUds5

drwx------ root 16 Oct 20 16:09 systemd-private-gzDZlj

drwx------ root 16 Nov 28 13:15 systemd-private-gZgzyf

[root@rov-lnx-backup ~]# cd /tmp

[root@rov-lnx-backup tmp]# ls -la

total 20

drwxrwxrwt. 52 root root 4096 Feb 20 11:40 .

drwxr-xr-x. 19 root root 4096 Feb 19 20:29 ..

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Feb 19 19:52 .alt.tmp.b-tn.mnt

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Feb 19 19:52 .alt.tmp.b-tn.mnt1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Feb 19 19:52 .alt.tmp.b-tn.mnt2

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Feb 19 19:52 .alt.tmp.b-tn.mnt3

drwx------. 2 root root 19 Feb 19 20:27 .esd-0

drwx------. 2 rovin rovin 6 Feb 19 20:26 .esd-1000

drwx------. 2 gnome-initial-setup gnome-initial-setup 6 Feb 19 19:27 .esd-993

drwxrwxrwt. 2 root root 6 Aug 2 2014 .font-unix

-r--------. 1 root root 3261 Feb 19 20:36 gconsole.jnlp

drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 28 Feb 19 20:37 hsperfdata_root

drwxrwxrwt. 2 root root 39 Feb 19 20:27 .ICE-unix

drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 17 Feb 19 20:36 root

drwx------. 2 root root 23 Feb 19 20:27 ssh-R2h6pms7QHaw

drwx------. 3 root root 16 Jan 30 17:09 systemd-private-A6Jjid

drwx------. 3 root root 16 Aug 17 2014 systemd-private-dxLvBs

Alan Hodges · Answer

I can give it a try. I think it has more to do with how the files are there at the start of the backup but removed before the backup is done with them. Wasn't a problem until recently, it would fail every once in a while and now it fails all the time with the error.

So, it should look like this?

<>

+skip: .alt.tmp.*

crazyrov · Answer

Yep, that is correct.

Also, can you share the error that you are getting. From what you are saying i understand that the issue actually is that the backups fail because the files by this name are created and deleted quite often.

Alan Hodges · Answer

Sorry it has taken so long to get back. I thas been crazy around here lately. Anyway, while the failures seemed to have slowed, not sure if it was related to adding this directive or not, but we are still getting the failed to stat messages.

crazyrov · Answer

Please share the error message here.

Alan Hodges · Answer

The same error.

* clientserver:/ .alt.tmp.b-GAb.mnt 75170:save: Failed to stat / .alt.tmp.b-GAb.mnt: No such file or directory

* clientserver:/ .alt.tmp.b-GAb.mnt Unable to find any full backups of the save set 'clientserver:/ .alt.tmp.b-GAb.mnt' in the media database. Performing a full backup.

ble1 · Answer

Why simply not use skip directive to skip files which match pattern like *.mnt[0123456789] or *.mnt?

I assume here (bold assumption) that your temporary files end with mnt[1234...9] so if you do skip directive for / (if that is where they are) with above pattern then it should be skipped during uasm walk through file system.

Alan Hodges · Answer

Good Morning, thank you for the replies. The temporary files look just like the message above .alt.tmp.x-XXx.mnt and they are indeed created within the root directory. I think the problem is when a temp file is created and removed during the backup. If it occurs after the uasm walk then it shouldn't be on the list to be backed up correct? But the only thing I can think of is that the file must be created after the walk and deleted before the backup reaches actually backs up this file location. Is there a method, other than directives, that can be employed to ignore these files? An anti-saveset list; if you will?

As far as skipping *.mnt. I think i would still run into the same problem but I don't know if there are files on the client server that end in .mnt that they may want to back up. They only identified the .alt.tmp files as being okay to skip.

NetWorker

Directive used to skip files

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