Is there a way to dynamically adjust policy’s “Backup Selection List” just before backup starts

[DWH]

Hello,

I have a configuration question and wanted to get the groups input on this.

We use NetBackup (7.6) to backup data from NetApp filers  and I am trying to configure NetBackup in such way that it could backup data from a netapp snapshot while exact snapshot name is not known beforehand.

I think this essentially boils down to ability to dynamically adjust policy’s “Backup Selection List” just before backup starts.

One possible solution seems to be running bpplinclude utility and modify the list from within bpstart_notify script of the policy which “Backup Selection List” needs to be modified.

A concern I have is that it may not be possible and/or supported to use bpplinclude to modify “Backup Selection List” of a policy from within its own bpstart_notify script and for the change to take effect during the same policy run.

Thank you for your help!

[revarooo]

This would be easy for a standard backup. Build the include_list file dynamically but can't do this (to my knowledge) with NDMP. Would using a wildcard in the backup selection help?

[sdo]

1) Have you seen NetApp VSC?  With VSC, you can get it to call scripts to call backups.  Or the other way around, your backup scripts could make calls to VSC.  And, I think (?), it's free.  And best of all, VSC integrates all the way through from VSC -> VM -> VSS -> snapmirror... so all is consistent.  :)

2) Why is the snapshot name not known at the time of backup?

3) What is triggering the snapshot?

4) I assume you'll be doing NDMP backups - correct?

5) What is in the volumes that are you expecting to backup?   A vFiler?  Qtree/Shares?  Or LUNs?  A mix of these?

6) And I'm sure detailed answers to the above will trigger further questions about ensuring consistency/validity of data... unless you care to comment right away about how you know the that data is consistent before it is passed to NetBackup?

[DWH]

In this particular case volume(s) in question hold Oracle databases. We use our internally developed scripts to put databases into consistent state and then trigger snapshot creation on the filer. This is how we ensure consistency of data which goes into snapshots. Snapshot names are also being generated by the scripts and include date and time as part of the name, which makes it unique and that makes it difficult to construct static path for it in the NBU Policy.  Yes, we are using NDMP backups.

[sdo]

Ok - if you know the name of snapshot... then I think I misread the initial question, in thinking that you wanted to modify the include list after the NetBackup backup job has been initiated... whereas, I now think that what you may want to do is...

...after snapshot creation, and knowing the snaphot name, modify the backup policy and then initiate the backup policy - in which, yes, do-able.

Firstly, the backup client will need to be a 'server' of the master (i.e. place the client name in the master's list of servers).

After this, you should be able to modify the backup policy's include list from the client, and then call bpbackup using the '-i' switch (akak immediate), which is something that only a 'server' in a NetBackup domain can do.

[DWH]

Hi SDO,

Thanks for the reply!!  Yes you read the posting correctly, the Snapshots are created dynamically and I want to modify the policy’s “Backup Selection List” just before backup starts to account for the newly created Snapshot.

[Yasuhisa_Ishika · Accepted solution]

Backup selection can not be modified once job is initiated. When jobs are initiated, backup target is fiexed at that time.

Consider to export snapshot name in your oracle backup script and run bpplinclude immediately. Or run bpplinclude in that script.

[DWH]

Thank you all for your help!!  I have included the bpplincude command in the script and everything seems to have performed as I had hoped!!  Thanks again.