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Sublaner's avatar
Sublaner
Level 4
11 years ago
Solved

Effects of "Full-Copy the files"

I implied but failed to specify that the "Backup Method for Files" selected on the GENERAL tab was "Full-Copy the files" for the occasional USB jobs. To test this I ran the offsite job, ran the policy Daily Diff job, disconnected the USB rive, and restored some files from the Differential. To my surprise the files restored fine, and timestamps on the B2D files and IMG folders show that the DD looked back past the Full Offsite job to the previous successful scheduled Weekly Full backup. The restored files existed in the WF and were not changed for the DD. Undocumented feature of the AVVI?

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  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    11 years ago

    Ideally, the backup method which is data-specific will be applied, i.e the backup method chosen in the VMware tab settings will apply. This is beneficial when you have multiple types of data to be backed up in the same backup definition. I am not really sure what is the impact when you have just one type of data to backup, but have specified different backup methods in the same backup definition.

    The section titled "Configuring backup methods for backup jobs" of the BE 2014 admin guide may be the documentation which you are looking for.

4 Replies

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    11 years ago

    No.  This is not an undocumented feature.  It is the effect of "Full-Copy the files".  As the name of the method implies, it just copy the files.  It does not interfere with the backup sequence by creating a new baseline.

  • Sublaner's avatar
    Sublaner
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    That is confusing due to the interaciton of File and VMware settings, and really what I was trying to figure out. VMware backup type choices are Full, Differential (vSphere only) and Incremental (vSphere only). Backup method for files settings are richer. It's not at all clear how they interact, and I've always assumed that VMware tab settings were effective for VMware/AVVI backups.

    So - if my selections are a single VM, through the vCenter server under the VMware vCenter and ESX Servers tree,

    and - I select Intremental - Using achive bit in <Job> Properties/Settings/General/Backup method for files

    and - I select Full in <Job> Properties/Settings/VMware/Backup method,

    What kind of backup should I get? How about if I pick Full-Using the archive bit on General and Incremental on the VMware tab?

    If you can show me where this is documented, I will be grateful. I know BE2010 is getting long in the tooth, and I've observed that a lot of effort went into the BE2014 interface to avoid confusion.

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Ideally, the backup method which is data-specific will be applied, i.e the backup method chosen in the VMware tab settings will apply. This is beneficial when you have multiple types of data to be backed up in the same backup definition. I am not really sure what is the impact when you have just one type of data to backup, but have specified different backup methods in the same backup definition.

    The section titled "Configuring backup methods for backup jobs" of the BE 2014 admin guide may be the documentation which you are looking for.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    11 years ago

    The Archive Bit method and so on does not apply when you are backing up a VM as VM because you are dealing with the entire vmdk and not individual files.  These settings are in the job because you can mix a file backup with a VM backup in the same job.  

    When you backup a VMware VM, it is backed up by blocks and not by each individual file.  Usually, people will turn on changed block tracking and only the changed blocks would be backed up when you do an incremental backup of a VM.  This is different from an incremental backup of files.