IMG folders not overwriting

[David_Sanz]

Hi guys

I just wanted to post a problem I'm finding with GRT. The IMG folders it creates don't recycle as expected. I've done lots of tests and the OW Protection Period is not followed (I've set it to zero), even always sending overwrite jobs. Also, when I append an incremental, a new IMG folder is creates with the same size as the full backup equivalent! (always tried with Exchange).

And at last, even limiting the backup to disk folder's size, the IMG are not recycled (now I have a folder with 120 MB, whilst its limit is 60 MB).

What is happening? Why IMG's are not treated the same clear way as bkf's?

Thank you

[Sandy_Sandifer]

Hi David,

The new GRT functionality does not use the same ADAMM properties that B2D folders use. It does not currently follow overwrite protection or append protection rules. The IMG folders are expired based on when the drive runs out of space. At that point it looks to expire the oldest image it can find, and continues on.

Please review the following technotes for more information regarding this:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/285753
http://support.veritas.com/docs/286794

Please let us know if this answers your questions, and if not, feel free to write back with any other problems you're having regarding this issue.

Thanks.

Backup Exec for Windows Servers Free E-mail Support
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/email_forms/intro_emailsup.asp

[Eu-Tjin_Gan]

Hi Sandy,

I tried following the article you recommended http://support.veritas.com/docs/286794. I created a new B2D folder, a new media set and a new backup job for AD GRT. I set the Disk space Reserve to 3 GB for the B2D folder, as a test.

I ran 4 backup jobs (each approx. 1.2 GB) and now my folder is 4.96 GB in size. Somehow, Backup Exec has ignored the setting of 3 GB for the disk space reservation.

did i miss anything?

[Nick_Mosley]

Even if all settings are correct as per the KB documents, the IMG's are not overwritten as specified. The low disk space warning comes up and we cannot continue unless we manually erase the IMG's. There appears to be no working automated overwrite no matter what you do. This is not acceptable. Please get a hotfix sorted out for this issue or a working workaround!

[Sandy_Sandifer]

Hi all,

I need to amend one of my statements above. The GRT images do follow the overwrite protection to the extent of that setting expiring the images. From that point on, though, ADAMM properties are not followed the same way that normal backup to disk files or tapes follow them. The image files will expire based on the overwrite protection setting, and then are removed/overwritten (space is reclaimed from the oldest) once the drive runs out of space.

Over the last couple of days, we took the liberty of running a whole bunch of tests to make sure this technote, 286794, was valid. As it turns out, Nick, you are correct. All tests we ran indicated that if you use a disk space reserve, the job will show low disk space and go to paused once it runs out of space. The only way to get out of that is to right click on the device, click pause, and then unpause (once you've manually created space on the drive as Nick suggested). For this reason, we will be modifying this technote in the next day or so to make a statement "not" to do that. The intent initially was to create a way for a user to utilize GRT on the same drive that is being used for other operations without it interfering in a manner that would cause a low disk space issue on the whole drive. This has turned out to not work.

The best recommendation we can give is to have GRT run backups using its own Backup to Disk folder, and preferably its own drive/partition altogether. Don't create disk space reserves, and just let it run in its default manner. Even if you had the Backup to Disk folder that did GRT backups on a drive that was being used for file shares or other data as well, it should still work properly...(assuming all recent hotfixes have been applied).

Sorry for inconvenience guys, but please let us know if there's anything else we can help with. As I said before, we're working on taking that technote down and completely rewriting it.

Thanks.

Backup Exec for Windows Servers Free E-mail Support
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/email_forms/intro_emailsup.asp

[Brian_Hammer_2]

I've had success in having the GRT overwrite. I created a folder specifically for exchange GRT backups. I set the max folder size to 10GB (the database is ~8GB). Created a mediaset with no overwrite protection. I have a job set to only backup exchange to this folder. I then include this folder in my daily backup to tape job that runs after the GRT backup. The IMG folder is automatically overwritten every day. This does not work if you allocate 10gb for the backup as this makes the .bkf file 10gb and the GRT info is stored in the IMG folder. This will result in an out of disk space error. The only size limit you should set is under the Devices, backup to disk folder properties.

[Mark_Willis]

When you say set the max folder size to 10GB where did you do this?

[Sandy_Sandifer]

Mark,

That setting is in the properties of the backup to disk folder. In the Devices tab, if you right click on the backup to disk folder and go to properties, it will be on the General tab.

Thanks.

[Matt_Vaughan]

I'm seeing the same results. My IMG files are not being recycled even though I have limits set for the B2D folder and my OW protection is set for zero.

[Jorgen_Persson]

Is there a planed hot fix for this? I would like to get my backups to run without warnings or interactions from my side.

[Derek_Hill]

The max size setting is ignored by BU Exec and is basically worthless, the only options that the B2D folders adhere to is the Disk Space Reserve under the advanced tab as well as the overwrite protection.

Derek

[Eu-Tjin_Gan]

Derek,

Did setting the Disk Space Reserve value work for you? It hasn't worked for me so far. Did you change any other settings, or did you leave all the other settings at their default values? Thanks!

[Derek_Hill]

Setting the disk space reserve works, but it is a moving target, lets say your users mailboxes increases drastically from one day to the next, the next thing that will happen, your B2D folder will show low disk space and will not work anymore. This does not prevent the B2D folder from taking up all space until the "free disk space" limit is reached. It is backwards, it should be a max size for B2D.

Who writes this stuff?

[Brian_Hammer_2]

I believe this is atleast partially explained in the best practices guides somewhere.  However if you've found this thread first.....  I incorrectly understood the "disk space reserve" as being the amount of disk space to reserve for the backup.  The "disk space reserve" is actually the amount of free space to reserve on the disk.  In other words if you set your reserve at 50GB and a GRT backup job runs that will cause the free space to drop below 50GB, It will overwrite the oldest GRT IMG folder.  If for some reason other programs use the same disk and your free space drops below 50GB before a GRT BK is run then you will get a low disk space error and no backup will run.  Symantec if you are listening, PLEASE FIX THIS!!!  This level of functionality is unacceptable for server grade software!!!! 

[Steve_Mullenix]

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Mark Willis wrote:
When you say set the max folder size to 10GB where did you do this?

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I'm pretty sure you can only set the size of the backup file itself, not the folder via the B2D General tab.  The only way to control folder growth seems to be via the disk reserve.  I know when I first started using B2D I was surprised that it wants to use a tape paradigm if you will instead of more intelligent settings to reflect this new technology.  Where is a DPM-like allocation? Its simple and it works.

[CAM]

I've been having the same issue with the IMG folders.  I thought about removing the old IMG folders but they all seem to get logs added to them from the last Recovery Point.  I thought it was overwriting the folders, thinking that  function actually worked, but it's adding more logs.  I only want to keep a weeks worth, but I have logs in some of the folders that go back to the beginning of May.  Yes, I do have the overwrite on at 1 week, but we all know it doesn't work anyways. Can the old logs be removed to avoid filling up the disk?  I run a continuos backup every 15 mins and a full at night.

Thank you.