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4 Posts
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2044
March 30th, 2012 06:00
How to exclude Celerra/VNX checkpoints from NDMP backups
Hi,
At a customer, we have a VNX data mover with multiple file systems either directly on the physical data mover (server_2) or via VDM's (Virtual Data Movers). To keep it simple, we configure NDMP backups with save set field set to "All" in client resource. Everything worked as expected until few checkpoints were scheduled to run. Now, we are wondering how to exclude checkpoints from all saveset backups via exclude without requiring to specifically indicating which file system to backup.
Maybe an example will tell more than a long explanation. So, let's imagine that we have a data mover (server_2) with two virtual data movers (vdm_1 and vdm_2) with the following file systems hierarchy:
- /fs1
- /fs2
- /root_vdm_1/fs3
- /root_vdm_1/fs4
- /root_vdm_1/fs5
- /root_vdm_1/fs6
With save set field set to "All" in client resource, all file systems would be backed up as expected. However, activating sheduled checkpoints - for instance - on fs4 would modify file systems hierarchy as follows:
- /fs1
- /fs2
- /root_vdm_1/fs3
- /root_vdm_1/ckpt_timestamp_xxx
- /root_vdm_1/fs4
- /root_vdm_1/fs5
- /root_vdm_1/fs6
Note that we would have a ckpt_timestamp_xxx for each scheduled checkpoints. To exclude checkpoints, we first thought about using EMC_EDIRxx, but it did not work as ckpt_timestamp are indeed not directories under file systems. However, it is rather at the same level in hierarchy as file systems.
The only solution that we found up to now was to specify each file system in the save set field instead of "All". Should customer create a new file system, he must not forget to add it in save set field, otherwise it would not be backed up. As far as customer is concerned, it is not such a convenient solution.
Does anybody think about a better solution?
Best regards, Olivier
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steinwehe
4 Posts
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April 15th, 2012 00:00
Hi Ajmed,
Sorry not having answer to you before. Howeer, my customer contact was on holiday and I had no opportunity to retest before. In fact exclusion did not work. As explained, they are not within a filesystem, but rather at the same level withn the tree.
So, we follow your recommendation and specified each filesystem rather that All in the saveset field. Now, everything is working as expected.
Kind regards, Olivier
Sent from my iPad
Bebo2k
544 Posts
0
March 30th, 2012 15:00
Hi Olivier,
I remember one of considerations for backing up Celerra is to specify the filesystems in the saveset instead of ALL , here is it from the NetWorker Admin guide:
Instead of specifying a save set of All for an Celerra backup operation, the separate file systems should be named in the save set definition, excluding the root, or “/” file system. Including the root file system causes the client index to fail.
Regarding exclusion, i think you can use the EMC_EDIRxx= to exclude the directory of checkpint using the wildcard character which is accepted as the last character. As an example :
EMC_EDIR01=/root_vdm_1/ckpt*
Which will exclude all directories that begin with "ckpt" under /root_vdm_1 directory
Note that it is case sensitive , so keep in mind in specifying it correctly.
Multiple directories can be included by incrementing the number (EMC_EDIR02 , EMC_EDIR03 , .... )
Also note that this variable is supported with Celerra version 5.5 and greater.
Actually i didnt try this solution before, so i will be waiting your updates on how it works with you
Thanks,
Ahmed Bahaa