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Perform a Data Protection Operation
Supported Data Protection Features
Supported Storage Policy and Storage Policy Copy Features
Traditionally, the most common way to create an additional copy of protected data was to perform an auxiliary copy operation after a data protection window was completed. Unfortunately, this could cause delays in getting data offsite, as the time taken to create an additional copy could take many hours after the last data protection operation was completed.
The Inline Copy feature allows you to create additional copies of data at the time of your data protection operation, hence eliminating the need to perform a time intensive auxiliary copy operation.
When a data protection operation is initiated of a subclient whose storage policy has an Inline Copy enabled, two copies of the data are automatically created, a primary copy and an inline copy.
A data protection operation that requires a subsequent auxiliary copy operation utilizes a drive thrice, once to write the data to the primary copy, once to read the data from the primary copy, and then once to write the data to the secondary copy. The following example illustrates two operations, the data protection operation of Subclient_A, and then the subsequent auxiliary copy operation.
A data protection operation that creates an Inline Copy uses a drive only twice, once to write the data to the primary copy and once to write the data to the inline copy, hence eliminating the need for the additional read drive utilization time (as needed with auxiliary copy). The following example illustrates this data protection operation:
Data protection operations that create inline copies typically take longer than traditional data protection operations because of the additional use of the drive needed to write data to the inline copy. However, the total drive time is reduced as the added drive time of reading from the primary copy is eliminated.
For example:
Hence, the time taken to create primary and additional copies of the data was a total of eight hours less than the data protection window that did not create inline copies.
To configure to use this feature, Inline Copy must enabled from the
General tab of the
Copy Properties dialog box, of the storage
policy to which the subclient is pointing to.
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Once the Inline Copy is enabled on the storage policy copy, the data protection operation can be initiated. The operation starts in two sets of the same stream. One stream is for the primary copy media, and the other stream is for the Inline Copy media. A maximum of ten additional copies can be created for the same data protection operation. Streams are visible from the (Streams) tab of the Data Protection Job Details dialog box of the running operation. For more information, see View the Details of a Job.
However, if the Job should wait for inline copy resources option is disabled from the Advanced Backup/Migration/Archive Options (Media) dialog box, and at least there are enough resources for the primary copy, the data protection operation will continue to completion, and not wait for resources to be available for the inline copy. In this case, the Auxiliary Copy operation will need to run so that additional copies of the job are created.
| Inline Copy will never interrupt other jobs for resources needed for inline copy. |
If a data protection operation of a subclient whose storage policy has an inline copy enabled does not successfully create an Inline Copy, that data will be copied to a secondary copy the next time an Auxiliary Copy is run.
If alternate data paths are configured, at least one data path from the primary and inline copy must share the same MediaAgent.
All media types are supported.
The recommended media configuration for an inline copy is to use disk media for the primary copy and tape media for the inline copy. The same MediaAgent must be used for both copies.
Inline copy supports all data protection and advanced data protection features. All advanced data protection options that are configured will also apply to any inline copy created.
The following storage policies are not supported:
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If you have a storage policy pointing to a library attached to the NAS File Server, Inline Copy is not supported. |
The following storage policy copy features are not supported:
This feature requires a Feature License to be available in the CommServe® Server.
Review general license requirements included in License Administration. Also, View All Licenses provides step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information.