Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Creating a clone action

A clone action creates a copy of one or more save sets. Cloning allows for secure offsite storage, the transfer of data from one location to another, and the verification of backups.

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 Clone.
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 perform cloning:
   • To clone on a specific day, click the Execute icon on the day.
   • To skip a clone on a specific day, click the Skip icon on the day.
   • To check connectivity 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 cloning on this day.
   	Skip	Do not perform cloning on this day.

10. Click Next.
    The Specify the Clone Options page appears.
11. In the Data Movement section, define the volumes and devices to which NetWorker sends the cloned data:
    1. From the Destination Storage Node list, select the storage node with the devices on which to store the cloned save sets.
    2. In the Delete source save sets after clone completes box, select the option to instruct NetWorker to move the data from the source volume to the destination volume after clone operation completes. This is equivalent to staging the save sets.
    3. From the Destination Pool list, select the target media pool for the cloned save sets.
    4. From the Retention list, specify the amount of time to retain the cloned save sets.
       After the retention period expires, the save sets are marked as recyclable during an expiration server maintenance task.
    5. From the Browse list, specify the amount of time to browse the cloned save sets. After the browse period expires, the save sets will not be browsable and the client file indexes are deleted.
12. In the Filters section, define the criteria that NetWorker uses to create the list of eligible save sets to clone. The eligible save sets must match the requirements that are defined in each filter. NetWorker provides the following filter options:
    1. Time filter—In the Time section, specify the time range in which NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in the media database. Use the spin boxes to specify the start time and the end time. The Time filter list includes the following options to define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the time criteria:
       • Do Not Filter—NetWorker inspects the save sets in the media database to create a clone save set list that meets the time filter criteria.
       • Accept—The clone save set list includes save sets that are saved within the time range and meet all the other defined filter criteria.
       • Reject—The clone save set list does not include save sets that are saved within the time range and meet all the other defined filter criteria.
    2. Save Set filter—In the Save Set section, specify whether to include or exclude ProtectPoint and Snapshot save sets, when NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in the media database. The Save Set filter list includes to the following options define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the save set filter criteria:
       • Do Not Filter—NetWorker inspects the save sets in the media database to create a clone save set list that meets the save set filter criteria.
       • Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible ProtectPoint save sets or Snapshot save sets, when you also enable the ProtectPoint checkbox or Snapshot checkbox.
       • Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible ProtectPoint save sets and Snapshot save sets when you also enable the ProtectPoint checkbox or Snapshot checkbox.
       NOTE:For NAS device, only Snapshot save set is applicable.
    3. Clients filter—In the Client section, specify a list of clients to include or exclude, when NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in the media database. The Client filter list includes the following options, which define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the client filter criteria:
       • Do Not Filter—NetWorker inspects the save sets that are associated with the clients in the media database, to create a clone save set list that meets the client filter criteria.
       • Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible save sets for the selected clients.
       • Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible save sets for the selected clients.
    4. Levels filter—In the Levels section, specify a list of backup levels to include or exclude, when NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in the media database. The Levels filter list includes the following options define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the level filter criteria:
       • Do Not Filter—NetWorker inspects the save sets regardless of the level in the media database, to create a clone save set list that meets all the level filter criteria.
       • Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible save sets with the selected backup levels.
       • Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible save sets with the selected backup levels.
       NOTE:For NAS device, only full backup level is applicable.
13. Click Next.
    The Specify the Advanced Options page appears.
14. Configure advanced options, including notifications and schedule overrides.
    NOTE:Although the Retries, Retry Delay, or the Inactivity Timeout options appear, the clone action does not support these options and ignores the values.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. From the Send Notifications list box, select whether to send notifications for the action:
    • To use the notification configuration that is defined in the Policy resource to send the notification, select Set at policy level.
    • To send a notification on completion of the action, select On Completion.
    • To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.
18. In the Send notification attribute, when you select the On Completion option or On failure option, the Command box appears. Use this box to configure how NetWorker sends the notifications. You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file or you can send an email notification.

    The default notification action is to send the information to the policy_notifications.log file. By default, the policy_notifications.log file is located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in the C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.

    Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail application on Windows:

    • To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:

      nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log

    • On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:

      mail -s subject recipient

    • For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following command:

      /usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"

    • On Window, to send a notification email, type the following command:

      smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver recipient2@mailserver...

      where:

      • -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes that the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.

      • -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP email message.

      • recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification. Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

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 the Start Time option, 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 list box:

    • 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.