Linux client getting 'Not traversing mount point'

Question

I'm starting to tackle my physical Linux hosts and when verifying it was backing up what it needed to back up I noticed a number of root directories were missing; after look at the session logs I noticed below. Anybody knows what causes that and how to get it to backup those directories. I don't have any exclude statements that exclude those directories so I'm stumped. Thanks for any help.

2015-09-16 01:54:43 avtar Info <5113>: Not traversing mount point "/sys"

2015-09-16 01:54:43 avtar Info <5113>: Not traversing mount point "/misc"

2015-09-16 01:54:43 avtar Info <5113>: Not traversing mount point "/dev"

2015-09-16 01:54:43 avtar Info <5113>: Not traversing mount point "/proc"

2015-09-16 01:54:43 avtar Info <5113>: Not traversing mount point "/net"

2015-09-16 02:00:06 avtar Warning <40010>: High memory consumption: Total:1332MB - Base:222MB - Hashcache:3MB - Filecache:48MB = 1059MB (excessive=2048MB)

2015-09-16 02:00:06 avtar Info <10528>: GComMgrQueue=2(0MB) max=15(0MB), Chunker=0(0MB) max=0MB, Pending=0 int + 1 ext msgs, Maxpending=40

2015-09-16 02:00:11 avtar Warning <40010>: High memory consumption: Total:3060MB - Base:222MB - Hashcache:3MB - Filecache:48MB = 2787MB (excessive=2048MB)

2015-09-16 02:00:11 avtar Info <10528>: GComMgrQueue=0(0MB) max=15(0MB), Chunker=0(0MB) max=0MB, Pending=0 int + 1 ext msgs, Maxpending=40

2015-09-16 02:02:53 avtar Info <5286>: 2015-09-16 02:02:53 EDT: Increasing size of hash cache from 131072 to 262144 elements (adding 3,145,728 bytes).

ionthegeek · Answer

The 'sys', 'dev', and 'proc' directories are all directories that make various internal kernel structures available to system administrators (e.g. kernel configuration parameters, raw devices, links to open files, etc.). These should not be backed up. The 'misc' and 'net' directories are used by 'autofs' which is a program for automatically mounting and unmounting removable devices and network locations. These paths should also not be backed up. Are there other directories that are missing?

umichklewis · Answer

A better question would be, are you sure you need to backup those directories?  As in, did you have a request from a customer or are you just doing do diligence?  It would be unusual for application data to reside here, but there's always an exception....

Clarkson14 · Answer

The only other one's I'm seeing, which looks to also make sense I suppose are /selinux, /mnt/cdrom, and /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs. Would you normally exclude these in a dataset or just let Avamar skip them on it's own, since it seems to know to skip them already, seems like it wouldn't matter on the surface.

Also, is there a list somewhere of Linux/Unix directories that it skips by default? I'm not a Linux admin so would be nice to know what directories are going to get skipped, for my own benefit, and also so my Linux admins know ahead of time even though they probably already know those are fine to skip. Thanks for responding!

Clarkson14 · Answer

I talked with my Linux admin and they confirmed said those directories weren't important for backup for the same reason Ian mentioned; not knowing Linux well I got worried when I saw that in the session log that Avamar was skipping things I hadn't put in the Exclude list, since those directories have never been in Exclude lists in Tivoli or Netbackup previously, just wanted to make sure.  So, is it best to put those in an Exclude list in a dataset or just leave Avamar to skip it on it's own?  Thanks again.

umichklewis · Answer

So far, I've never had an issue creating an exclusion list that is the same as the embedded exclude list.  You could test a new dataset and review the logs, to see if you observe any odd errors.

Avamar

Linux client getting "Not traversing mount point"

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