NDMP with wildcard seems to be backing up too much data.

[jim_dalton]

Master:7601, Solaris.

Data: Netapp NAS

Backup: NDMP

Hi folks

I'm trying to figure why my ndmp backups (incrementals) are not doing what I expect.

I'm leveraging the wildcard option in 7601, the whole reason for my upgrade.

I'm backing up a bunch of snapshotted dumps with a simple wildcard selection in policy:

 /vol/sp01gendb/q_sp01gendb/.snapshot/sqlsnap__*

/vol/sp01genlog/q_sp01genlog/.snapshot/sqlsnap__*

But I notice it appears to be backing up the same data repeatedly:

01/28/2014 23:15:16 - Info ndmpagent (pid=27034) ladon: DUMP: Using inowalk incremental dump algorithm for qtree
01/28/2014 23:16:03 - Info ndmpagent (pid=27034) ladon: DUMP: Date of this level 2 dump: Sun Jan 26 18:07:37 2014.
01/28/2014 23:16:03 - Info ndmpagent (pid=27034) ladon: DUMP: Date of last level 1 dump: Fri Jan 24 18:18:10 2014.

01/28/2014 23:23:13 - Info ndmpagent (pid=27034) NDMP backup successfully completed, path = /vol/sp01genlog/q_sp01genlog/.snapshot/sqlsnap__spsqlprodclus01_01-26-2014_18.04.38/
01/28/2014 23:23:29 - Info bptm (pid=27035) EXITING with status 0 <----------

01/29/2014 22:58:19 - Info ndmpagent (pid=23624) ladon: DUMP: Using inowalk incremental dump algorithm for qtree
01/29/2014 22:59:02 - Info ndmpagent (pid=23624) ladon: DUMP: Date of this level 3 dump: Sun Jan 26 18:07:37 2014.
01/29/2014 22:59:02 - Info ndmpagent (pid=23624) ladon: DUMP: Date of last level 1 dump: Fri Jan 24 18:18:10 2014.

01/29/2014 23:10:08 - Info ndmpagent (pid=23624) NDMP backup successfully completed, path = /vol/sp01genlog/q_sp01genlog/.snapshot/sqlsnap__spsqlprodclus01_01-26-2014_18.04.38/
01/29/2014 23:10:23 - Info bptm (pid=23625) EXITING with status 0 <----------

This directory has one file in it.

So I'm curious about a couple of features: why does it say 'the date of this level x' dump is Sun 26th' ? The date of THIS dump is the date, no?

Is it referring to the data on disk? 

 Via BAR it says the file modified 26 01, 18:07

And why does it mention level 2 and 1 and then 3 and 1 ? As an incremental the only thing that matters is the backup on the 28th..it was an incremental, it was successful. The next incremental on the 29th should have ignored the data since it hadnt appeared after the previous incremental.  

 Your thoughts appreciated.

Jim

[Marianne]

Differential Inc or Cummulative Inc?

Seems for a Diff, it will do last level + 1.

See http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH143455

[jim_dalton]

Differential.

Jim

[Andy_Welburn]

Can you try the underlying volume as opposed to the .snapshot?

Just wondering if it's interfering at all with the 'incremental' aspect of it - it *will* create a new snapshot when the backup starts (& delete after)

[jim_dalton]

 It does look like Cumulative Diff from its behaviour, but it isnt...

Schedule:              Daily-Incremental
  Type:                INCR (1)
  Frequency:           1 day(s) (86400 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
      No specific exclude dates entered
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     4 (4 weeks)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
 

By comparison a simialr NDMP doing cumulative shows:

Schedule:              Daily-Inc
  Type:                CINC (4)
 

Jim

[jim_dalton]

Interesting point Andy, as if somehow the .snapshot  in the structure and the actual snapshotting activity of NDMP is confusing it...certainly worth exploring.

Jim

[Andy_Welburn]

Unfortunately we don't do NDMP backups anymore (don't do much of anything anymore truth be told!) otherwise I'd test it myself.

[jim_dalton]

I can see theres a snapshot active but beyond that theres nothing standing out

(it is different data)

  8% ( 0%)    4% ( 0%)  Jan 28 18:04  sqlsnap__spsqlprodclus01_01-28-2014_18.03.53 (busy,backup[0],dump)

amongst a bunch of others for this vol, all of which have been backed up more than once.

Jim

[jim_dalton]

I've raised a call. Could be a long wait.

Jim

[jim_dalton]

These data arent considered as files in the accepted sense from Netbackups point of view. They are data structures, encapsulated from SMSP.

This means the concept of an incremental does not apply. Netbackup can only do everything as a result.

Jim