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dormi98's avatar
dormi98
Level 3
13 years ago

NDMP - NetApp Incremental Job size

Hello!

I got a Netapp with CIFS Shares (total 700GB at the moment) which is backed up by NDMP

I created two jobs.

Job 1: runs on friday and does a full Backup (Level 0 - full Backup - in the NDMP settings of the job)

Job 2: runs every day (mo -th) and is set to do incremental backups (level 1 -  incremental - in the NDMP settings of the job)

 

Theresults look like this:

 


week 1:
Job 1 (Friday) runs ok with 700GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Monday) runs ok with 50GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Tuesday) runs ok with 52GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Wednesday) runs ok with 52GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Thursday) runs ok with 92GB written to a B2D folder
Job 1 (Friday) runs ok with 700GB written to a B2D folder
week 2:
Job 2 (Monday) runs ok with 97GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Tuesday) runs ok with 115GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Wednesday) runs ok with 116GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Thursday) runs ok with 118GB written to a B2D folder
Job 1 (Friday) runs ok with 7000GB written to a B2D folder
week 3:
Job 2 (Monday) runs ok with 122GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Tuesday) runs ok with 124GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Wednesday) runs ok with 159GB written to a B2D folder
Job 2 (Thursday) runs ok with 264GB written to a B2D folder
Job 1 (Friday) runs ok with 700GB written to a B2D folder


so the problem is that the although Job1 runs fine the incremental Job is getting bigger every day.

Which setting in my jobs could be wrong.

Thanks in advance


 

2010
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    13 years ago

    Level 1 will backup all the new or modified files since the Level 0 (full) backup.  Since you kept using Level 1, you are effectively doing a differential rather than an incremental backup.  If you want to do an incremental backup you should do the following

    Fri - Level 0 (full backup0

    Mon - Level 1 (incr)

    Tue - Level 2 (incr)

    Wed - Level 3 (incr)

    .....

    See the backup method of the document below

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO74004

11 Replies

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  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Do you have 2 separate jobs, or did you use a policy? It's best to use a policy in this case.

    Also, any idea on the rate of change of your data on a daily basis?

    Thanks!

  • dormi98's avatar
    dormi98
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    I created 2 seperate jobs. no policy

    Since there are a lot of pst files in the cifs there is a quite big change of data every day.

    But in any case the amount of bytes backed up on monday must be smaller than on thursday before.

    Let's see what happens this weekend.

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    If it doesn't work, try with a policy and see if there is any difference.

     

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    Level 1 will backup all the new or modified files since the Level 0 (full) backup.  Since you kept using Level 1, you are effectively doing a differential rather than an incremental backup.  If you want to do an incremental backup you should do the following

    Fri - Level 0 (full backup0

    Mon - Level 1 (incr)

    Tue - Level 2 (incr)

    Wed - Level 3 (incr)

    .....

    See the backup method of the document below

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO74004

  • walker_yang's avatar
    walker_yang
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    hell, pkh

    i have a problem that i make a level 0 backup, and then i add some files, then i make a level 1 backup,

    but level 1 backup seems to backup all files contains unchanged/changed files, it looks like a level 0

    (full backup), i don't know howthis happens?

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    OK just using Level 0 and then Multiple Level 1 backups is the equivalent of a differential backup, NOT an Incremental

     

    (As already mentioned by pkh)

    To actually do an Incremental Backup of a NetApp

    The Full is Level 0

    The 1st Incremental is level 1

    The 2nd Incremental is Level 2

    The 3rd Incremental is Level 3

    etc

     

    As such you have to have multiple jobs to achieve an incremental backup sequence.

    This is because of how the NetApp API works and not specifically a BE limitation.

    If you need more info on Levels check with NetApp for documentation.

     

     

  • walker_yang's avatar
    walker_yang
    Level 4
    13 years ago

    hello, Colin Weaver

    Actually i kept using Level 1, it will be differential backup, but the results is not i want. Level 1 backed up

    everything. For example:

    step 1: Level 0 backups files of 300MB.

    step 2: add another files of 200MB

    step 3: Level 1 backups files of 500MB in total as a result.(it's equivelent of full backup)

    i think levle 1 should only backup changed files, that is the new added  files of 200MB.

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Hello walker.yang,

    As mentioned -  " Level 1 backup method backs up new or modified files since the level 0 backup. Level 2 backup method backs up new or modified files since the level 1 backup, and so on. "

    As you can see, not just the modified files, but also the new files since last backup & that is working as expected since the extra new files were added after the first backup..

  • dormi98's avatar
    dormi98
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    I know that doing several Level 1 Backups is equivalent to a differential backup, but that does not answer the question why the level 1 backup on monday is larger then the level 1 backup on thursday the week before.

    Update:

    thursday last week (level1): 390GB
    friday last week (level0): 700GB
    monday this week (level1) 370GB

    so it looks better than the weeks before. Although it is still more than i think it should be, it's a smaller amount of data than last week.

    So I think so far there is no need to look for an any missconfiguration but I keep an eye on it and give you feedback. Let me watch this for 2-3 weeks.

    Thanks for your help.

    Gerald

     

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    You should also check that there are no AV scans or some housekeeping jobs which accesses the file and cause it to marked as modified.  See my blog below for an example of how this kind of things can happen.

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/incremental-backups-become-full-backups

    BE is using some information on your device to back data up.  If this information is incorrect, then there is nothing that BE can do.  You should also check with your drive manufacturer on the cause of the problem.  It may be a drive problem, rather than BE.