Exclude non-existing directory in back up.

[kkhoo]

Hi,

I have a policy with backup selections (/home/user1/directory1). This policy has 3 clients on it. However, the other 2 clients does not have /home/user1/directory1.

What i did is to add /home/user1/directory1 in the exclude_list. However, backup is report 71 error code.

Objective is to use the same policy for these 3 clients. The other 2 is using User backup schedule (client triggered). While the other is NBU triggered with defined backup selections.

Please advise what is the right approach.

Thanks.

[RiaanBadenhorst]

The backup selection is per policy, which means you can't have a backup selection per client. So you need to go up more levels in the folder structure, or make another policy for the unique client.

[kkhoo]

Hi Riann,

Thanks for your reply.

Our objective is to have less policy to manage. The clients belong to the same group of same function. Difference is the folder structure. Can we just put in the exclude_list those directories that is not meant to backup in the other client?

[Marianne]

Exclude_list won't help, because the jobs are generated on the master server based on the Backup Selection. 

Next, bpbkar is started on the client (one bpbkar per job/path). At this point the job has already failed with 71. bpbkar now looks at exclude_list for remaining jobs. 
If you have bpbkar log on the client, you will be able to follow the process for each PID. 

There are 2 ways to fix this:
1. Remove 'Allow multiple data streams' from policy attributes.
2. Add client with unique selection to its own policy. 

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Hi

An exclude will only work for something that is not specified in the backup selection i.e.

You can have C:\MyFiles in the list and then exclude C:\MyFiles\Personal, but you can't exclude C:\MyFiles with an exclude cause its in the list which means a stream will be created for it. Once a stream is created, NetBackup will look for it and if it can't find it, it will fail with 71.

Try not be too selective with your backups selection. These days we have dedupe, so you could probably just backup the entire C and it won't hurt anyone :)

[Genericus]

Solution 1. Create a dummy directory1 so no error 71

Solution 2. Have user directed backups command contain the selection - you may have to add the client to the master server bp.conf so they can do this.

Solution 3. Change selection to /home/user1 or /home/user1/* for each client 

[kkhoo]

hi marianne,

Thanks. But "allow multiple data streams" is disabled already.

[kkhoo]

@RiaanBadenhorst, thanks i will try this tonight.

[kkhoo]

@Genericus, thanks. Yes solution 1 will sure work, but this will flood backup history and continue to create an empty backup image.

Solution2, is ideal. We made the backup selection empty and trigger the backup from the client.

Solution3, this will mean create a separate policy.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

@kkhoo

I have just read your opening post again. This is what I see:

1. 3 Clients in Client List
2. Only 1 line in Backup Selection : /home/user1/directory1
3. Only 1 of the 3 clients (Client1) actually has /home/user1/directory1 folder.
4. You do NOT want Client2 and Client3 to run automatic backups  (e.g. Full or incr) for /home/user1/directory1. 
   Client2 and 3 will run user backups under User Schedule in the same policy to backup something totally different (will be specified in bpbackup command).

Is this correct? 

This will not work. Automatic schedules WILL be started for Client1, Client2 and Client3 for whatever is in Backup Selection.
If they do not have the path specified in Backup Selection, the backup will fail with status 71 for those 2 clients. 

If you ONLY want User Backups for Client2 and 3, create a separate policy with those 2 client names, only a User schedule, and nothing in Backup Selection.

Rules for Backup Selection and multiple clients in NBU 7.7 Admin Guide I:

Backup Selections tab

The Backup Selections tab contains a list of what to back up on each client, host, or instance when NetBackup runs an automatic schedule (for example, a full backup). The list does not apply to user backups or archives, where users select the objects to back up before they start the operation.
The backup selections list can contain the following:
■ Paths that identify the location of files or directories
■ Directives,
etc..... 

The list applies to each client (or host, instance, or database) in the policy. Every file on the list does not need to exist on all of the clients. NetBackup backs up the files that it finds that are on the backup selections list. However, each client must contain at least one of the files in the backup selections list.
Otherwise, the backup fails with status code 71 (none of the files in the file list exist).

[kkhoo]

@Marianne, thanks. This is what i know too. Just that someone from the team insisted that this can be skipped by adding the directory in the exclude_list which is not working.

After proving that this method does not work, we have decided to trigger the backup from the client. Does i can remove the backup selections.

Thanks all for your recommendations and inputs.