Forum Discussion

gkman's avatar
gkman
Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

NDMP - how does it work? (file level or block level)

Hi

theoretical question here-

I always thought that NDMP was a communication protocol in the basic form of: backup server request files in X path for backup and NDMP host passing these files. in case of a incremental backup request the NDMP host sends only files that have changed since the last backup (file level backup only- meaning the NDMP host itself does the inventory check \ block level comparison etc- but in the end result sends the entire file to the backup server)

I am now told that NDMP does enable in fact real block level backups.

I wasn't able to find anywhere a conclusive answer to how NDMP works (if it's a block-level backup or file-level backup)

can anyone help please? (I would like an official document of some sort of backup or storage vendor if possible)

thanks in advance for the help.

4 Replies

Sort By
    • gkman's avatar
      gkman
      Level 5
      8 years ago

      Hi Marianne.

       

       

      I didn't understand your reply (specifically your question)

      I am "going back to basics" on NDMP protocol itself (as I have obviously missed a few lessons.) regardless of the different techniques used by Netbackup to speed up the process. 

      I know about how the protocol work communication wise (the host, client and controller)
      but I never learned about the types of ndmp backups.

      from the second link you have sent I read "Accelerator for NDMP supports only the DUMP format"
      what other formats are there?       are they block level or file level?
      up until now I thought that ndmp was just like copying files over the network with smb (from the data passed (file level) point of view)

      thanks again for the help