NDMP backup sub-directory?

[altmiket]

hey all,

time for another stupid question - is it possible to backup just a subdirectory of a volume, when using NDMP back to a NAS device?  (in this case, a netapp GX filer)

i've read that you can NDMP backup qtrees, but i really need to be able to backup random directories in a collection of volumes, and there are no qtrees in ontap GX anyway.

any ideas?

[Stumpr2]

i've read that you can NDMP backup qtrees...

where did you read this?

[Stumpr2]

I went to the book on this one. Wildcards are not supported.

Files

The Backup Selections list must specify directories from the perspective of the NDMP ost.

Two examples:

/home/dir1/

/vol1

The following Backup Selections capabilities are NOT supported for an NDMP policy:

◆ Wildcards in pathnames. For example, /home/* is an invalid entry.

◆ Individual file names. Only directory or volume names are allowed.

◆ Exclude list (because client software is not installed on the NDMP host). You can,

however, exclude files by using the SET keyword as shown under “Using

Environment Variables in Backup Selections list.” The SET option allows you to

exclude files on a backup. The format is vendor dependent; refer to the vendor’s

documentation for more details on which variable can be passed and in what format.

[altmiket]

re: where i read that NDMP will backup qtrees:

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=21&message.id=24462&query.id=112212#M24462

[altmiket]

yeah the docs imply that it should work, but a few posts i've found online imply that it doesn't.

we're giving it a go now, and will report back what we find out.  thanks for the mega-fast reply! 

[altmiket]

hrm.  doesn't work.  NDMP complains that the folder doesn't exist.

maybe some kung-fu with exclude lists instead...

[Stumpr2]

Did you check the date on that link you went to?

2001 Netbackup 3.4 ??

a lot has happened since then, but the best test is to just do it and see what happens. I'm looking forward to your reply.

[Darren_Dunham]

GX may be different (I haven't used it), but I can't see any reason that an NDMP backup on OnTAP would fail for an arbitrary directory.  Remember that for a netapp, the NDMP backup is basically doing a 'dump' on the filer with the output directed to an NDMP device.

So it's easy to test this by doing 'dump 0f null /path/to/directory' on the netapp commandline.  It runs a "subtree" dump (with similar limitations to running a directory backup via 'ufsdump' on a Solaris machine).  Don't run too many of these on the same volume simulateously.  It still requires a volume-wide snapshot, and the first passes have to traverse the entire filesystem, not just the subtree.  However the data transferred to the tape in pass IV should be of just the subtree.

# rsh testfiler dump 0f null /vol/testvol/dir1/dir2
DUMP: creating "/vol/testvol/../snapshot_for_backup.0" snapshot.
DUMP: Using subtree dump
DUMP: Dumping tape file 1 on null
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Wed Aug  8 13:46:07 2007.
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch.
DUMP: Dumping /vol/testvol/dir1/dir2 to null
DUMP: mapping (Pass I)[regular files]
DUMP: mapping (Pass II)[directories]
DUMP: estimated 5 KB.
DUMP: dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: dumping (Pass V) [ACLs]
DUMP: 12296 KB
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
DUMP: Deleting "/vol/testvol/../snapshot_for_backup.0" snapshot.

Note that it estimated 5K (basically the size of the empty directory I created for the test) and dumped 12MB (probably the inode information for the volume).

Poking through my backup logs, it's rare, but I have set up at least one non-qtree backup on the filers here and it's in the catalog.  My current server is 6.0/MP4, but the NDMP stuff shouldn't matter on the NBU server side.

--
Darren