Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Starting a workflow from a command prompt

You can start all actions that are contained in one workflow in a policy, or start all actions for one client in a workflow.

• To start all actions in a specific workflow in a Policy resource, type the following command: nsrpolicy start --policy_name "policy_name" --workflow_name "workflow_name"
  NOTE:You cannot start another instance of a workflow that is already running.
• To start all actions for a specific client in a workflow, type the following command: nsrpolicy start --policy_name "policy_name" --workflow_name "workflow_name" --client_list client_list
  NOTE:You can use this command to start actions for failed clients in a workflow that is currently running.

where:

• "policy_name" is the name of the Policy resource that contains the workflow that you want to start.
• "workflow_name" is the name of the Workflow resource that you want to start.
• client_list is a comma-separated list of host names for the clients in the workflow whose actions you want to start.

Stopping all actions in a workflow from a command prompt

To stop all actions in a specific workflow in a policy, type the following command: nsrpolicy stop --policy_name "policy_name" --workflow_name "workflow_name"

where:

• "policy_name" is the name of the Policy resource that contains the workflow that you want to stop.
• "workflow_name" is the name of the Workflow resource that you want to stop.

Restarting a workflow from a command prompt

where:

• "policy_name" is the name of the Policy resource that contains the workflow that you want to restart.
• "workflow_name" is the name of the Workflow resource that you want to restart.

Running a workflow with action overrides

Before an action starts NetWorker defines how to run the action by reviewing the attributes values of the policy, workflow, and action resources. The nsrworkflow command line option -A enables you to override attribute values that NetWorker uses to run the action. Actions which support override values are: traditional and snapshot backups, probe, and clone.

Specify the -A option in the format -A "action_name cmd_line_flags", where:

• action_name—Specifies the name of the action resource.
• cmd_line_flags—Defines a list of command line flags and the new parameter value. For more options, refer to savegrp command.

Use escaped double quotes or single quotes for action names or parameters that contain spaces or special characters. For example: -A "\"action name\" -l full" or -A "'action name' -l full"

For example, to specify an override on the level of a backup action and the retention time of the backup and clone actions in the workflow, type the following command:

nsrworkflow -p Backup -w workflow_name -A "action_name -l level -y \"retention_period\"" -A "action_name -y \"retention_period\""

To specify a backup level override of 3 and a retention period of 3 years for the backup and clone actions for a workflow named fs_backup_clone, an backup action named backup and a clone action named clone, type the following command:

nsrworkflow -p Backup -w fs_backup_clone -A "backup -l 3 -y \"3 years\"" -A "clone -y \"3 years\""

Running an adhoc workflow outside of the backup schedule

The nsrworkflow -a flag, which allows you to override a backup schedule and run an adhoc backup.

The following list describes workflow changes in adhoc mode:

• The action start time setting for all actions in a workflow (if set) is ignored.
• The action schedule activity of 'skip' is converted to the default schedule activity for the action. This conversion to the default action allows adhoc execution of workflows on days where the schedule is configured to level 'skip'. You can use the -A option to specify a different schedule activity if the action supports it. The following list describes the default schedule activity for various actions:
  • Database-level backup actions: 'incr'
  • Server-level backup actions: '1' (cumulative incremental)
  • All other actions: 'exec'

The following example commands use the nsrworkflow -a flag, the -A flag to specify the schedule activity, and the backup-level override flag:

• Single saveset backup:

  nsrworkflow -p <Policy> -w <Workflow> -A "backup -l full -c 10.63.101.77:<file_path>" -a

• Virtual machine backup: /

  nsrworkflow -p "VM Backup" -w "2-Weekly VMCluster1" -c "vm:client1,vm:client2" -A "'backup' -L full" -a