cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Differential incremental backs up more data than full

carloslb2
Level 3

Hi!

I have an environment with NetBackup server 7.7.2 on SLES 12 SP1 and about 35 clients.

All clients are VMs running on VMware 6.0 and there are different OS running on them but most are Windows Server. There are also SLES 11, Oracle Linux 6.4 and some others.

There are two main policies: one of them stores the backups in a disk unit (in the NetBackup server) to make staging to tape later, and the other one stores directly in tape (TS3100). Both policies are VMware type and the VMs backed up by one are not backed up by the other policy.

So here comes the problem (idk if it's really a problem but I want to understand if it's not):

The differential incremental backups always bring more or slightly less data than full backups.

It doesn't make much sense to me because I think differential incremental backup should only transfer the changed files (blocks if we talk about the .vmdk, right?), and there are two VMs (Windows, one in disk and one in tape policy) that makes differential incremental correctly, as you can see in the screenshot.

So I want to know if this is a normal behaviour for VMware policies, a bug, bad config or something.

Regards.

Screenshot from 2017-11-21 16-03-49.png

Screenshot from 2017-11-21 16-12-11.png

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Have a look at this TN:

VMware Backups with Block Level Incremental or Changed Block Tracking can return incorrect changed sectors in ESXi 6.0

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100000460

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

RB-Infinitely
Level 4

Please post the output of bppllist <policy-name> -L

Here:

bppllist VMWARE30D -L

Policy Name:       VMWARE30D
Options:           0x0
template:          FALSE
audit_reason:         ?
Names:             (none)
Policy Type:       VMware (40)
Active:            yes
Effective date:    11/18/2016 11:00:00
File Restore Raw:  yes
Block Incremental: yes
Application Consistent:  yes
Mult. Data Stream: no
Perform Snapshot Backup:   yes
Snapshot Method:           VMware_v2
Snapshot Method Arguments: file_system_optimization=1,rTO=0,snapact=2,drive_selection=0,Virtual_machine_backup=2,enable_vCloud=0,multi_org=0,rHz=10,rLim=10,nameuse=1,disable_quiesce=1,ignore_irvm=1,exclude_swap=1,skipnodisk=0,tags_unset=0,post_events=1,trantype=hotadd:nbd:nbdssl:san
Perform Offhost Backup:    yes
Backup Copy:               0
Use Data Mover:            no
Data Mover Type:           2
Use Alternate Client:      no
Alternate Client Name:     MEDIA_SERVER
Use Virtual Machine:      1
Hyper-V Server Name:     (none)
Enable Instant Recovery:   no
Policy Priority:   1000
Max Jobs/Policy:   Unlimited
Disaster Recovery: 0
Collect BMR Info:  no
Keyword:           (none specified)
Data Classification:       -
Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:    no
Client Encrypt:    no
Checkpoint:        no
Residence:         LocalDisk
Volume Pool:       DataStore
Server Group:      *ANY*
Granular Restore Info:  no
Exchange Source attributes:              no
Exchange DAG Preferred Server: (none defined)
Application Discovery:      yes
Discovery Lifetime:      28800 seconds
ASC Application and attributes: (none defined)
Generation:      20
Ignore Client Direct:  no
Use Accelerator:  no
Client/HW/OS/Pri/CIT:  MEDIA_SERVER VMware VMware 0 0 0 ?
Include:           vmware:/?filter=Displayname Equal "vDeskW7-Parent2" OR (Annotation Contains "Backup_30D" AND Powerstate Equal poweredOn)
Schedule:              Full
  Type:                FULL (0)
  Frequency:           7 day(s) (604800 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
      No specific exclude dates entered
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     1 (2 weeks)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
  Alt Read Host:       (none defined)
  Max Frag Size:       0 MB
  PFI Recovery:        0
  Maximum MPX:         1
  Number Copies:       1
  Fail on Error:       0
  Residence:           (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:         (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:        (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:         0
  Daily Windows:
   Day         Open       Close       W-Open     W-Close
   Sunday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Monday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Tuesday     000:00:00  000:00:00
   Wednesday   000:00:00  000:00:00
   Thursday    000:00:00  000:00:00
   Friday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Saturday    018:00:00  056:00:00   162:00:00  200:00:00 032:00:00
Schedule:              Differential-Inc
  Type:                INCR (1)
  Frequency:           1 day(s) (86400 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
    EXCLUDE DATE 0 - 12/02/2016
    EXCLUDE DATE 1 - 12/03/2016
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     0 (1 week)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
  Alt Read Host:       (none defined)
  Max Frag Size:       0 MB
  PFI Recovery:        0
  Maximum MPX:         1
  Number Copies:       1
  Fail on Error:       0
  Residence:           (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:         (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:        (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:         0
  Daily Windows:
   Day         Open       Close       W-Open     W-Close
   Sunday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Monday      018:00:00  032:00:00   042:00:00  056:00:00  
   Tuesday     018:00:00  032:00:00   066:00:00  080:00:00  
   Wednesday   018:00:00  032:00:00   090:00:00  104:00:00  
   Thursday    018:00:00  032:00:00   114:00:00  128:00:00  
   Friday      018:00:00  032:00:00   138:00:00  152:00:00  
   Saturday    000:00:00  000:00:00

 

 

bppllist VMWARE30D-Tape -L

Policy Name:       VMWARE30D-Tape
Options:           0x0
template:          FALSE
audit_reason:         ?
Names:             (none)
Policy Type:       VMware (40)
Active:            yes
Effective date:    11/18/2016 11:00:00
File Restore Raw:  yes
Block Incremental: yes
Application Consistent:  yes
Mult. Data Stream: no
Perform Snapshot Backup:   yes
Snapshot Method:           VMware_v2
Snapshot Method Arguments: file_system_optimization=1,rTO=0,snapact=2,drive_selection=0,Virtual_machine_backup=2,enable_vCloud=0,multi_org=0,rHz=10,rLim=10,nameuse=1,disable_quiesce=1,ignore_irvm=1,exclude_swap=1,skipnodisk=0,tags_unset=0,post_events=1,trantype=hotadd:nbd:nbdssl:san
Perform Offhost Backup:    yes
Backup Copy:               0
Use Data Mover:            no
Data Mover Type:           2
Use Alternate Client:      no
Alternate Client Name:     MEDIA_SERVER
Use Virtual Machine:      1
Hyper-V Server Name:     (none)
Enable Instant Recovery:   no
Policy Priority:   1000
Max Jobs/Policy:   Unlimited
Disaster Recovery: 0
Collect BMR Info:  no
Keyword:           (none specified)
Data Classification:       -
Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:    no
Client Encrypt:    no
Checkpoint:        no
Residence:         TS3100
Volume Pool:       DataStore
Server Group:      *ANY*
Granular Restore Info:  no
Exchange Source attributes:              no
Exchange DAG Preferred Server: (none defined)
Application Discovery:      yes
Discovery Lifetime:      28800 seconds
ASC Application and attributes: (none defined)
Generation:      25
Ignore Client Direct:  no
Use Accelerator:  no
Client/HW/OS/Pri/CIT:  MEDIA_SERVER VMware VMware 0 0 0 ?
Include:           vmware:/?filter=Annotation Contains "Tape_30D" AND Powerstate Equal poweredOn
Schedule:              Full
  Type:                FULL (0)
  Frequency:           7 day(s) (604800 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
      No specific exclude dates entered
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     1 (2 weeks)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
  Alt Read Host:       (none defined)
  Max Frag Size:       0 MB
  PFI Recovery:        0
  Maximum MPX:         1
  Number Copies:       1
  Fail on Error:       0
  Residence:           (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:         (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:        (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:         0
  Daily Windows:
   Day         Open       Close       W-Open     W-Close
   Sunday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Monday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Tuesday     000:00:00  000:00:00
   Wednesday   000:00:00  000:00:00
   Thursday    000:00:00  000:00:00
   Friday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Saturday    017:00:00  056:00:00   161:00:00  200:00:00 032:00:00
Schedule:              Differential-Inc
  Type:                INCR (1)
  Frequency:           1 day(s) (86400 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
      No specific exclude dates entered
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     0 (1 week)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
  Alt Read Host:       (none defined)
  Max Frag Size:       0 MB
  PFI Recovery:        0
  Maximum MPX:         1
  Number Copies:       1
  Fail on Error:       0
  Residence:           (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:         (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:        (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:         0
  Daily Windows:
   Day         Open       Close       W-Open     W-Close
   Sunday      000:00:00  000:00:00
   Monday      017:00:00  034:00:00   041:00:00  058:00:00  
   Tuesday     017:00:00  034:00:00   065:00:00  082:00:00  
   Wednesday   017:00:00  034:00:00   089:00:00  106:00:00  
   Thursday    017:00:00  034:00:00   113:00:00  130:00:00  
   Friday      017:00:00  034:00:00   137:00:00  154:00:00  
   Saturday    000:00:00  000:00:00

It might be that its is not getting the correct CBT information from the VMware environment. Can you compare the amount of files backed up in addition to the kbytes?

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Have a look at this TN:

VMware Backups with Block Level Incremental or Changed Block Tracking can return incorrect changed sectors in ESXi 6.0

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100000460

>>The differential incremental backups always bring more or slightly less data than full backups.

Resetting Changed Block Tracking for VMware vSphere virtual machines (2139574)

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2139574