Forum Discussion

RonCaplinger's avatar
RonCaplinger
Level 6
12 years ago
Solved

Using both FlashBackup-Windows and MS-Windows policies on same client

I'm sure someone else here has encountered this and can save me hours of testing all the various combinations of exclude/include lists:

I have an H: drive on a Windows client that has millions of small files and can only be successfully backed up using a FlashBackup-Windows policy.  However, I also need to back up the rest of the System State/Drive letters (C:, E:, F:, G:), too.  This will obviously require two policies, but if I specify the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive in the MS-Windows policy, it's going to try to back up the H: drive in that policy, which I don't want.  And I can't specify ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES in the FlashBackup policy.

Even though the admin guide indicated it would not work, I still tried adding "H:\" to the exclude list on the client, then added an include of "H:" specifying the FlashBackup policy, but the Flashbackup just sits at 0 bytes backed up and never seems to actually do anything, although the CPU usage on the client goes up and the bpbkar process seems to use varying amounts of CPU, which suggests that the backup is still examining the file system but is excluding the entire drive.

 

Any suggestions on backing up the rest of the client?

Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Features
NetBackup
Tip-How to
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • rookie11's avatar
    rookie11
    12 years ago

    Ron 

    go to host properties -- clients-- open client ,please exclude H:\ from by ading in exclude list ,according to policy.

    i think u hav added H:\ in exclude list but for selected under ALL_POLICIES

6 Replies

  • Nate_D1's avatar
    Nate_D1
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    I am able to specify 'ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES' in my flashbackup-windows policy that I use for hundreds of VM's and it works just like you are saying it should...what version of netbackup are you running?

    I also have done some testing on VM's that host millions of files like this, I have an SVN server that has millions of small files as well, and we tried various backup policies to increase the backup times and found that the client based backup, and the flashbackup, both seemed to take roughly the same amount of time for incrementals and fulls. I dont know if this helps your situation, but as an FYI!

  • MKT's avatar
    MKT
    Level 5
    12 years ago

     

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC5165

    The policy’s Backup Selections must not contain the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES entry (except for VMware).

     

    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support the backup of Windows system-protected files (the System State, such as the Registry and Active Directory).

    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support the backup of Windows OS partitions that contain the Windows system files (usually C:).

    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support the backup of Windows System database files (such as RSM Database and Terminal Services Database).

    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support "include" lists (exceptions to client "exclude" lists).

    With that, I'd create the Windows policy with:

    Shadow Copy Components:\

    C:

    E:

    F:

    G:

    And create your flashbackup policy with H:.  Only risk is if someone adds a new Drive it won't get picked up automatically but that is your only option here I think.

     

  • RonCaplinger's avatar
    RonCaplinger
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Running 7.5.0.5. 

    In order to back up a client using FlashBackup, you have to specify the Backup Selection as "\\.\H:".  And according to page 89 of the NBU Snapshotclient Admin guide:

    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support the backup of Windows system-protected files (the System State, such as the Registry and Active Directory).
    • FlashBackup-Windows policies do not support the backup of Windows OS partitions that contain the Windows system files (usually C:).

    On page 92 of that guide:

    On the Backup Selections tab, specify the drive letter or mounted volume
(Windows) or the raw disk partition (UNIX) containing the files to back up.
For Windows
\\.\E:
\\.\E:\mounted_volume\
where:
■ \\.\E:is a Windows disk volume mounted on a drive
letter.
■ \\.\E:\mounted_volume\ (note the trailing backslash)
is a Windows disk volume without a drive letter
mounted on a directory (Windows reparse point).
The drive must be designated exactly as shown (E:\
is not correct). Backing up the drive containing the
Windows system files (usually the C drive) is not
supported.

    So I don't understand what I'm missing here.  You are saying you use the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive for a FlashBackup, but the manual says the drive has to be specified as above, and the C: drive and System State are not backed up using FlashBackup.  Hmmmm...

  • Nate_D1's avatar
    Nate_D1
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    I had not seen this and will take a look into it. I had never seen that! We are also using 7.5.0.3 with vmware 5.1. I dont backup any specialized servers that I would want AD, etc. from, just standard webservers etc. If I am doing something wrong, I havent noticed it. I have done a handful of complete VM restores, I have restored into a new VM, and I am able to restore single items from their disk.  It might be worth just giving it a test if you have the time to do it.  I should have asked if you were using VMware first (per MKT's comment). I dont see any of the system state or shadowcopy components in the BAR window when I try to do a restore.

     

    Outside of this funkyness, what MKT says is probably best, just make a policy for the H: drive seperately, and then all the rest of the drives, and then just be mindful if you add a drive.

  • rookie11's avatar
    rookie11
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    Ron 

    go to host properties -- clients-- open client ,please exclude H:\ from by ading in exclude list ,according to policy.

    i think u hav added H:\ in exclude list but for selected under ALL_POLICIES

  • RonCaplinger's avatar
    RonCaplinger
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    That's it!  I knew there was an easier way.

    I have added the client to a regular MS-Windows policy that uses ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES in the Backup Selection, and added the drive letter for the FlashBackup drive to the client's Exclude List for this specific MS-Windows policy (all schedules) using the normal filespec (in this case, "H:\").  This causes all of the other drive letters and the Shadow Copy to be backed up, but skips the backup of the H: drive.

    I then added the FlashBackup policy, specifying the drive using the Raw Partition filespec "\\.\H:" to be used with the FlashBackup.

    I've run test backups of both policies and both are backing up data as expected.  The FlashBackup is backing up the H: drive at 55MB/sec, pretty good compared to the previous backup speed of that same drive letter at >1MB/sec using the regular backup policy.