ndmpcopy - question on levels 0-9

Question

I'm preparing to copy several file systems to reduce the overall size after they have been deduped.  I've done some testing and ran a full copy level 0, then made some permission changes and created a new file, then ran a level 1.  The new files and permissions also copied over.  I then made additional changes and ran another level 1, again everything including permissions copied over.  I then added a few files, ran a level 4 and then a level 6, everything appears to be copying as expected.  After all these tests, I ran another level 1, which also copied over some change permissions and new files. More than anything, I'm trying to determine the behavior of each level or why there are multiple levels since they all appear to do the same thing, minus level 0 for the initial sync.  I haven't been able to find anything documentation around the EMC supplied ndmpcopy tool, and there seems to be some variation among tools. Anyone have an explanation on this? Thanks in advance for any help. Todd

Rainer_EMC · Accepted Answer

ndmpcopy should work just the same as NDMP backup –see the “Configuring NDMP Backups on VNX” manual

the level concept goes back to the old Unix dump days

see http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19082-01/819-2723/bkupconcepts-3/index.html

so IMHO – for ndmcopy migration more using more levels doesn’t make sense

Also keep in mind that both ndmpcopy and NDMP backup use the same dumpdates file – to if you run both for the same fs they can interfere

Todd-EHI · Answer

Thank you sir.  This is exactly the information I was looking for.

Rainer_EMC · Answer

You’re welcome ndmpcopy isnt magic – its simply doing an NDMP backup over the network to a remote system that does an NDMP restore

Celerra

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