NetWorker 19.7 Snapshot Management Integration Guide

Creating a probe action

A probe action runs a user-defined script on a NetWorker client before the start of a backup. A user-defined script is any program that passes a return code. If the return code is 0 (zero), then a client backup is required. If the return code is 1, then a client backup is not required. In-built commands from NetWorker should be avoided as probe command.

1. In the expanded left pane, select the policy's workflow, and then perform one of the following tasks in the right pane to start the Policy Action wizard:
   • If the action is the first action in the workflow, select Create a new action.
   • If the workflow has other actions, right-click an empty area of the Actions pane, and then select New.
   The Policy Action wizard opens on the Specify the Action Information page.
2. In the Name field, type the name of the action.
   The maximum number of characters for the action name is 64.

   • Legal Characters: _ - + = # , . % @
   • Illegal Characters: /\*:?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}
3. In the Comment field, type a description for the action.
4. To ensure that the action runs when the policy or workflow that contains the action is started, in the Enabled box, select the option. To prevent the action from running when the policy or workflow that contains the action is started, clear this option.
   NOTE When you clear the Enabled option, actions that occur after a disabled action do not start, even if the subsequent options are enabled.
5. From the Action Type list, select Probe.
6. If you create the action as part of the workflow configuration, the workflow appears automatically in the Workflow box and the box is dimmed.
7. Specify the order of the action in relation to other actions in the workflow:
   • If the action is part of a sequence of actions in a workflow path, in the Previous box, select the action that should precede this action.
   • If the action should run concurrently with an action, in the Previous box, select the concurrent action, and then select the Concurrent checkbox.
8. Specify a weekly, monthly, or reference schedule for the action:

   • To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Define option under Select Schedule and period as Weekly by day.

   • To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Define option under Select Schedule and period as Monthly by day.
   • To specify a customized schedule to the action, select Select option under Select Schedule and choose a customized schedule using the drop-down menu that is already created under NSR schedule resource.
9. Specify the days to probe the client:
   • To perform a probe action on a specific day, click the Execute icon on the day.
   • To skip a probe action, click the Skip icon on the day.
   • To perform a probe action every day, select Execute from the list, and then click Make All.

   The following table provides details on the icons.

   Table 1. Schedule iconsThis table describes schedule icons.

   Icon	Label	Description
   	Execute	Perform the probe on this day.
   	Skip	Do not perform a probe on this day.

10. Click Next.
    The Specify the Probe Options page appears.
11. Specify when to start the subsequent backup action:
    • To start the backup action only if all the probes associated with client resources in the assigned group succeed, select the Start backup only after all probes succeed checkbox
    • To start the backup action if any of the probes associated with a client resource in the assigned group succeed, clear the Start backup only after all probes succeed checkbox.
12. Click Next.
    The Specify the Advanced Options page appears.
13. In the Retries field, specify the number of times that NetWorker should retry a failed probe or backup action, before NetWorker considers the action as failed. When the Retries value is 0, NetWorker does not retry a failed probe or backup action.
    NOTE The Retries option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. If you specify a value for this option for other actions, NetWorker ignores the values.
14. In the Retry Delay field, specify a delay in seconds to wait before retrying a failed probe or backup action. When the Retry Delay value is 0, NetWorker retries the failed probe or backup action immediately.
    NOTE The Retry Delay option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. When you specify a value for this option in other actions, NetWorker ignores the values.
15. In the Inactivity Timeout field, specify the maximum number of minutes that a job that is run by an action can try to respond to the server.

    If the job does not respond within the specified time, the server considers the job a failure and NetWorker retries the job immediately to ensures that no time is lost due to failures.

    Increase the timeout value if a backup consistently stops due to inactivity. Inactivity might occur for backups of large save sets, backups of save sets with large sparse files, and incremental backups of many small static files.

    NOTE The Inactivity Timeout option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. If you specify a value for this option in other actions, NetWorker ignores the value.
16. In the Parallelism field, specify the maximum number of concurrent operations for the clone action.The default value is 0 and the maximum value is 1000.
17. From the Failure Impact list, specify what to do when a job fails:
    • To continue the workflow when there are job failures, select Continue.
    • To stop the current action if there is a failure with one of the jobs, but continue with subsequent actions in the workflow, select Abort action.
      NOTE The Abort action option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types.
    • To stop the entire workflow if there is a failure with one of the jobs in the action, select Abort workflow.
    NOTE If any of the actions fail in the workflow, the workflow status does not appear as interrupted or canceled. NetWorker reports the workflow status as failed.
18. Do not change the default selections for the Notification group box. NetWorker does not support notifications for probe actions and ignores and specified values.
19. From the Soft Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the initiation of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
20. From the Hard Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
21. (Optional) In Start Time specify the time to start the action.
    Use the spin boxes to set the hour and minute values, and select one of the following options from the drop-down list:

    • Disabled—Do not enforce an action start time. The action will start at the time defined by the workflow.
    • Absolute—Start the action at the time specified by the values in the spin boxes.
    • Relative—Start the action after the period of time defined in the spin boxes has elapsed after the start of the workflow.
22. (Optional) Configure overrides for the task that is scheduled on a specific day.
    To specify the month, use the navigation buttons and the month list box. To specify the year, use the spin boxes. You can set an override in the following ways:

    • Select the day in the calendar, which changes the action task for the specific day.
    • Use the action task list to select the task, and then perform one of the following steps:
      • To define an override that occurs on a specific day of the week, every week, select Specified day, and then use the lists. Click Add Rules based override.
      • To define an override that occurs on the last day of the calendar month, select Last day of the month. Click Add Rules based override.
      NOTE

      • You can edit or add the rules in the Override field.
      • To remove an override, delete the entry from the Override field.
      • If a schedule is associated to an action, then override option is disabled.
23. Click Next.
    The Action Configuration Summary page appears.
24. Review the settings that you specified for the action, and then click Configure.