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NDMP - NetApp Incremental Job size

dormi98
Level 3
Partner

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


 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

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

View solution in original post

11 REPLIES 11

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

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
Level 3
Partner

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
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

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

 

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

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
Level 4
Partner

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
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

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
Level 4
Partner

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
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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
Level 3
Partner

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
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

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.

 

walker_yang
Level 4
Partner
I know what Level 1 means. But for my environment, Level 1 backs up everything, which contains new or modified files since the last Level 0 backup, and contains the files that Level 0 backs up. Simply speaking, Level 1 is equal to Level 0, why this happens? I make some tests, and find out some interestring things: If the selection name in the job for Level 1 is not the same as Level 0, even if it exists the same backup objects, Level 1 may be equal to Level 0. 1 create a Level 0 backup job, select files to be backed up,eg:folder A, and set the selection name,eg:xxx 2 add new files to A. 3 create Level 1 backup job, select the files A. if set the selection name to xxx, so Level 1 is ok, but if set the different selection name, the result is that sometimes Level is ok, sometimes Level is equal to Level 0. That's what i find out. I think maybe it's a but in Backup Exec for 2010 R2.