Advanced Backup - NAS iDataAgent

Table of Contents

Full Backup

Incremental Backup

Differential Backup

Performing an On Demand Backup

Scheduling a Backup

Managing Jobs

Restarting Jobs

Controlling Jobs

Additional NAS Features

Backup Quotas

Backup Offline Data

Backup Volumes

Performing Exclusive Backups

Performing Block Backups

Backup from a Snapshot

Backup Snapshots

Setting Snapshot Expiration

Optimizing Backups using Readahead Process

Additional Backup Options

Command Line Backups

Log on to the CommServe

Perform the Backup

Generate the Command Line Script from the CommCell Console

Full Backup

Full backups provide the most comprehensive protection of data.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
  1. Select Full as backup type and Immediate to run the job immediately.
  2. Click OK.

    You can track the progress of the job from the Job Controller. When the backup has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed.

Incremental Backup

An incremental backup contains only data that is new or has changed since the last backup, regardless of the type. On average, incremental backups consume less media and use less resources than full backups. 

The illustration on the right clarifies the nature of full and incremental backups.

Follow steps given below to perform an incremental backup:

 
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
  1. Select Incremental as backup type and Immediate to run the job immediately.
  2. Click OK.

    You can track the progress of the job from the Job Controller.  When the backup has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed.

Differential Backup

A differential backup contains only the data that is new or has changed since the last full backup. Like incremental backups, differential backups also consume less media and use less resources than full backups. Differential backups are cumulative. This means that each differential backup contains all changes accumulated since the last full backup. Each successive differential backup contains all the changes from the previous differential backup.

The illustration on the right demonstrates the nature of differential backups. For simplicity, assume there is a file system that contains six files as represented in the figure.

 
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
  1. Select Differential as a backup type and Immediate to run the job immediately.
  2. Click OK.

    You can track the progress of the backup job from the Job Controller.  When the backup has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed.

Performing an On-Demand Backup

An On-Demand backup provides the flexibility of specifying content each time you perform a backup operation.

Follow the steps given below to perform an On-Demand backup:

  1. From the CommCell Console, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | <On Demand Backup Set>.
  2. Right click the subclient and click Backup.
  3. Click Browse.
  4. Navigate to the Content file (created while configuring the Agent) you want to use.

    See Creating a Content File.

  5. Click OK.
  6. Select Immediate to run the job immediately.
  7. Click OK.

    You can track the progress of the job from the Job Controller.

Command Line Backups

You can perform backups of NAS data from the command line interface.

Command line backups enable you to perform backup operation on multiple clients simultaneously. In order to run the backups from command line, you need an input xml file which contains the parameters for configuring the backup options. This input xml file can be obtained from one of the following ways:

Log on to the Commserve

To run command line operations you must first login to the CommServe as follows:

Perform the Backup

  1. Download the backup_template.xml file and save it on the computer from where the command will be executed.
  2. Execute the saved .xml script using qoperation execute command.

    qoperation execute -af backup_template.xml -policyType DATA_PROTECTION -subclientName xxxxx -clientName xxxxx -backupLevel FULL

  1. Verify the status of the job using the following command:

    qlist job –j JOBID

  2. Once the job completes, logout from the CommServe using the qlogout command.

    qlogout [-cs commserver] [-all] [-tf tokenfile] [-tk token] [-h]

Examples

Performing a Full Backup

qoperation execute -af backup_template.xml -policyType DATA_PROTECTION -subclientName subclient1 -clientName client1 -backupLevel FULL
Performing an Incremental Backup

qoperation execute -af backup_template.xml -policyType DATA_PROTECTION -subclientName subclient1 -clientName client1 -backupLevel INCREMENTAL

Generate the Command Line Script from the CommCell Console

In addition to the parameters provided in the template xml file, if you want to include additional options for the backup, you can do so by selecting the required options from the CommCell Console and generate the command line xml script for the backup. 

Follow the steps given below to generate a script which you can use to perform a backup from the command line interface:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
  1. Select the required backup options which you want to execute using the script.
  2. Click Save as Script.
  1. Enter the location where you want to save the script or click Browse and navigate to the location.

    The script will be saved as a .xml file and a .bat file is created.

    If a file with the same name already exists in the specified location, the .xml file will be created with a timestamp. However, the .bat file will overwrite the existing file.

  2. Enter the username and password for the user account which you want to use to perform the backup.

    By default, the user account which you have used to login to CommCell console is used for performing the backup. However, if the user account does not have access to any application or database, click Use a different account.

  3. Click OK.

Scheduling a Backup

Follow the steps given below to schedule a data protection operation:

1.
  • From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet
  • Right-click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
2.
  • Select the Backup type.
  • Click Schedule to schedule the backup for a specific time.
  • Click Configure to set the schedule for the backup job. The Schedule Details dialog displays.
3. Select the appropriate scheduling options.  For example:
  • Click Weekly.
  • Check the days you want the run the backup job.
  • Change the Start Time to 9:00 PM.
  • Click OK to close the Schedule Details dialog.
  • Click OK to close the Backup Options dialog.

The backup job will execute as per the schedule.

See Scheduling for a comprehensive information on scheduling jobs.

Managing Jobs

Jobs can be managed in a number of ways. See Job Management for a comprehensive information on managing jobs.

The following sections provide information on the different job management options available:

Restarting Jobs

Jobs that fail to complete successfully are automatically restarted based on the job restartability configuration set in the Control Panel. Keep in mind that changes made to this configuration will affect all jobs in the entire CommCell.

To Configure the job restartability for a specific job, you can modify the retry settings for the job. This will override the setting in the Control Panel. It is also possible to override the default CommServe configuration for individual jobs by configuring retry settings when initiating the job. This configuration, however, will apply only to the specific job.

Backup jobs for this Agent are resumed from the point-of-failure.

Configure Job Restartability at the CommServe Level

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Control Panel icon.
  2. Select Job Management.
  3. Click Job Restarts tab and select a Job Type.
    • Select Restartable to make the job restartable.
    • Change the value for Max Restarts to change the maximum number of times the Job Manager will try to restart a job.
    • Change the value for Restart Interval (Mins) to change the time interval between attempts for the Job Manager to restart the job.
  4. Click OK.

Configure Job Restartability for an Individual Job

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right click the <Subclient> and click Backup.
  1. Click Advanced.
  2. In the Advanced Backup Options dialog box, click the Job Retry tab.
  3. Select Enable Total Running Time and specify the maximum elapsed time before a job can be restarted or killed.

    Select Kill Running Jobs When Total Running Time Expires to kill the job after reaching the maximum elapsed time.

  4. Select Enable Number Of Retries and specify the number of retries.
  5. Click OK.
  

Controlling Jobs

The following controls are available for running jobs in the Job Controller window:

Suspend

 Temporarily stops a job. A suspended job is not terminated; it can be restarted at a later time.

Resume

 Resumes a job and returns the status to Waiting, Pending, Queued, or Running. The status depends on the availability of resources, the state of the Operation Windows, or the Activity Control setting.

Kill

 Terminates a job.

Suspending a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Suspend.
  2. The job status may change to Suspend Pending for a few moments while the operation completes. The job status then changes to Suspended.

Resuming a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Resume.
  2. As the Job Manager attempts to restart the job, the job status changes to Waiting, Pending, or Running.

Killing a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Kill.
  2. Click Yes when the confirmation prompt appears if you are sure you want to kill the job. The job status may change to Kill Pending for a few moments while the operation completes. Once completed, the job status will change to Killed and it will be removed from the Job Controller window after five minutes.

Additional NAS Features

The following sections describe the additional NAS features available for different file servers.

Backing Quotas

Feature Description Applies To
Back up Quotas Use this option to backup user and group quota information. This is useful for monitoring and controlling the disk usage.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Back up Quotas checkbox and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 BlueArc, Hitachi

Backup Offline Data

Feature Description Applies To
Back up Offline Data Use this option to include the original archived files in the backup, rather than the stubs created during the archive operation.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Back up offline data checkbox and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 BlueArc, Celerra FileMover

BackUp Volumes

Feature Description Applies To
Volume Based Backup Use this option to perform block level backup of an entire volume. This can be used to facilitate faster full and incremental backups. When using this option, the entire volume will be backed up ignoring any filters specified in the subclient content.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Volume-based backup checkbox and click OK.
    When backing up volumes that are not in read-only mode, ensure you also select the Back up from Snapshot checkbox.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.

You can perform a granular restore of individual files and folders from a volume based back up.

Files that were de-duplicated using the Celerra file system and were later backed up using the Volume-based backup option may fail to be restored individually. To restore these files, you must perform a full destructive restore. See VBB Full Destructive Restore for more information.

 Celerra

Performing Exclusive Backups

Feature Description Applies To
Exclusive Backups Use this option to prevent simultaneous execution of multiple backup or restore operations on the same volume. This is useful as it avoids possible data inconsistency which can be caused by the following operations on the same volume:
  • running a backup operation during restore processing
  • running a restore operation during backup processing
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Exclusive backup checkbox and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 Hitachi

Performing Block Backups

Feature Description Applies To
Block Backup Use this option to read and backup data blocks directly from the disk or volume rather than the directory tree. Using this option improves performance during backup, however the restore operations may become slower. Direct Access Restore operations will be converted to non-Direct Access Restore operation when this is enabled.

For Pillar Data Systems, full backups and restores are supported with this option. The restore operations will overwrite the existing data on the file system.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Block backup checkbox and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 Hitachi, Pillar

Backup from a Snapshot

Feature Description Applies To
Back up from Snapshot Use this option to create a snapshot of the the file server data and then perform a backup from the snapshot.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select Back up from Snapshot checkbox and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 BlueArc, Celerra, Hitachi

BackUp Snapshots

Feature Description Applies To
Snapshots to Back-up Use this option to backup a snapshot. If the snapshot exists, use NDMP_EXISTING_<snapname> format to specify the name of the snapshot. If the snapshot does not exist or the specified name does not start with NDMP_EXISTING_ then a new snapshot will be created during backup.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Enter the snapshot name in Snapshots to Back-up field and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 IBM
Snapshots to Back-up Use this option to backup an existing snapshot.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Enter the snapshot name in Snapshots to Back-up field and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 NetApp

Setting Snapshot Expiration

Feature Description Applies To
Snapshot Expiration Use this option to specify the retention period for the snapshot created during Snapshot to Back-up operation. This setting applies to snapshots created during the backup and not the existing snapshots.

If the snapshot expiration time is reached while the backup is running, the snapshot will not be deleted until the backup completes.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Enter the retention time in the Snapshots Expiration field and click OK.

    Use the following format to specify the values:

    • 60_SEC
    • 60_MIN
    • 12_HOUR
    • 31_DAY
    • 6_MONTH
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 IBM

Optimizing Backups using Readahead Process

Feature Description Applies To
Readahead Process Use this option to specify the number of disk blocks to read ahead during the backup operations.

If you do not specify a value for this option, the default value from the file server will be used.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click NAS Options tab.
  1. Select a value from Readahead Process list and click OK.
  2. Select the backup type and schedule.
  3. Click OK.
 BlueArc

Additional Backup Options

The following table describes the available additional options to further refine your backup operations:

Option Description Related topics
Startup Options

The Startup Options are used by the Job Manager to set priority for resource allocation. This is useful to give higher priority to certain jobs. You can set the priority as follows:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and click Startup tab.
  3. Select the Change Priority checkbox.
  4. Enter a priority number - 0 is the highest priority and 999 is the lowest priority.
  5. Select the Start up in suspended State check box to start the job in a suspended state.
  6. Click OK.
 Refer to Job Priority and Priority Precedence. 
Alerts

This option enables users or user groups to get automatic notification on the status of the data protection job. Follow the steps given below to set up the criteria to raise notifications/alerts:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the Alert tab.
  3. Click Add Alert.
  4. From the Add Alert Wizard dialog box, select the required threshold and notification criteria and click Next.
  5. Select the required notification types and click Next.
  6. Select the recipients and click Next.
  7. Click Finish.
  8. Click OK.
 Refer to Alerts.
Backup Job Summary Report The Backup Job Summary Report provides you with information about all the backup jobs that are run in last 24 hrs for a specific subclient. You can get information such as status, time, data size etc. for each backup job. It is useful to run this report after performing the backup. Follow the steps given below to generate the report:
  1. From the Tools menu in the CommCell Console, click Reports.
  2. Navigate to Reports | Jobs | Job Summary.
  3. Click Data Management on the General tab in the right pane.
  4. Select the Computers tab.
  5. Click Subclient and select the Edit tab.
  6. Navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | BackupSet | Subclient.
  7. Click Run.
 Refer to Backup Job Summary Report.
Command Line Backups Command Line Interface enables you to perform backups or restore from the command line. The commands can be executed from the command line or can be integrated into scripts.

You can also generate command line scripts for specific operations from the CommCell Browser using the Save As Script option.

Refer to Command Line Interface.
CommCell Readiness Report The CommCell Readiness Report provides you with vital information, such as connectivity and readiness of the Client, MediaAgent and CommServe. It is useful to run this report before performing the data protection or recovery job. Follow the steps given below to generate the report:
  1. From the Tools menu in the CommCell Console, click Reports.
  2. Navigate to Reports | CommServe | CommCell Readiness.
  3. Click the Client tab and click the Modify button.
  4. In the Select Computers dialog box, clear the Include All Client Computers and All Client Groups check box.
  5. Select the client from the Exclude list.
  6. Click the Include > button.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click the MediaAgent tab.
  9. Clear the Include All MediaAgents checkbox.
  10. Select the MediaAgent from the Exclude list.
  11. Click Include >.
  12. Click Run.

    The generated report is displayed.

Refer to CommCell Readiness Report.
Create New Index This option accelerates Full or On Demand backups and is enabled by default. When you perform a browse and restore operation, the default browse displays data up to the most recent full backup. To browse and restore older data you have to use the options to browse before or between specific dates.

When disabled, Full or On Demand backups may be slower. However the default browse displays all data in the entire retention period; not just one full backup cycle. Use the following steps to configure this option for specific Full or On Demand backups. This option can also be configured for all subclients at the iDataAgent level.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Select Full as a backup type and click Advanced.
  3. Select the Create new index check box.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Index.
Data Path Options

Data Protection operations use a default Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, and Drive as the Data Path. You can use this option to change the data path if the default data path is not available. Follow the steps given below to change the default data path:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the Data Path tab.
  3. Select the MediaAgent and Library.
  4. Select the Drive Pool and Drive for optical and tape libraries.
  5. Click OK.
 Refer to Change Data Path.
Index Cache Server Index Cache Server provides the facility to automatically continue data protection operations when there are job failures due to loss of connectivity to the index. You can configure the Index Cache Server as follows:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Storage Resources | MediaAgent.
  2. Right-click the <MediaAgent> and click Properties.
  3. Click the Catalog tab and ensure that the Index Cache Server is configured.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced.
  3. Make sure that the Use shared profile if present with transaction logging option is selected.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Index Cache Server for more information.
Start New Media

The Start New Media option enables you to start the data protection operation on a new media. This feature provides control over where the data physically resides. Use the following steps to start the data protection operation on a new media:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the Media tab.
  3. Select the Start New Media check box.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Start New Media. 
Mark Media Full

This option marks the media as full, two minutes after the successful completion of the data protection job. This option prevents another job from writing to this media. Follow the steps given below:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select Media tab.
  3. Select the Mark Media Full on Success check box.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Export Media.
Allow other Schedules to use Media Set

The Allow Other Schedules to use Media Set option allows jobs that are part of the schedule or schedule policy and using the specific storage policy to start a new media. It also prevents other jobs from writing to the same set of media.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the Media tab.
  3. Select the Allow Other Schedules To Use Media Set check box.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Creating an Exportable Media Set.
Extended Data Retention

This option allows you to extend the expiration date of a specific job. This will override the default retention set at the corresponding storage policy copy. Follow the steps given below to extend the expiration date:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the Media tab.
  3. Select one of the following options:
    • Infinite - Select this option to extend the expiration date by infinite number of days
    • Number of day - Select this option to specify the number of days to extend the expiration date and then enter the number of days.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Extended Retention Rules.
Vault Tracker

This feature provides the facility to manage media that is removed from a library and stored in offsite locations. Depending on your VaultTracker setup, select the required options. Use the following steps to access and select the VaultTracker options.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to <Client> | <File Server> NAS NDMP | defaultBackupSet.
  1. Right-click the Subclient in the right pane and click Backup.
  2. Click Advanced and select the VaultTracking tab.
  3. Select the required options.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to VaultTracker  or  VaultTracker Enterprise.