NetBackup for DFS (non-replicated) environment Query

[Usman_Saeed]

Questions about DFS with no replication and Veritas NetBackup:

A few admins in my environment are concerned that the manner in which we are using DFS is unsupported by NetBackup.

I’ve been asked for something “official” from Veritas concerning that issue.

The fact that some of the servers in our DFS (non-replicated) environment do backup in what appears to be a normal fashion and a couple of servers use the Shadow Copy  Components to backup the data is puzzling.  Can someone explain that?

Is DFS ( Non Replicated mode) even supported by Netbackup? All i see is DFS Replicated documentation Are there plans to support a “non-replicated” DFS environment such as ours?

Please Advise

[Marianne]

If you need 'official' statement from Veritas, you should log a Support call. From fellow user point of view - I have never been asked that question. My suggestion would be to backup the server with ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES and 'Allow multiple data streams ' in Policy Attributes. This way you can see if DFS folders are backed up as part of SCC or under the drive letter.

[sdo]

As to why your configuration is the way it is... well, only those who configured it can tell for sure... but we can guess... may, incompatibilites at the time forced someone to make those choices, lack of experience, maybe it was to be temporary work-around and got forgotten.

Or, for your backup policies which backup the DFS data not using SCC: but instead using plain drive:\folder type, then maybe those backup clients have a "bpstart_notify" script which stops DFS at the start of the backup, and starts DFS service again at the end of the end of the backup using "bpend_notify".

.

What I'm hoping for, is that someone can either confirm or deny that NetBackup is not aware of any difference when it comes to backing-up DFS or DFSR, i,e, that both are saved via SCC:, and so, what this would mean is that we backup admins would then be able use the details from all of the "NetBackup + DFSR" tech notes in our thinking re backups of "NetBackup + DFS".

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

As i understand it all of it is fully supported and DFS backs up like any normal file system.

Only when you add the "R" does it become different and have to backed up via ShadowCopyComponents as it will not backup via the file system.

I have seen nothing to say that either is not supported and it is only different to normal when replication gets involved.

This is a very old tech note that relates to when DFSR first appeared but it does help explian why DFSR is different to DFS:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH53332

Hope this helps

[Usman_Saeed]

Marianne do you agree with MARKS view of the Difference between DFS and DFSR? I had this concept too, popping in the back of my head.

[Marianne]

I agree with Mark. I have never had a request to backup DFS without replication, but my gutfeel is that it will be backed up as normal filesystem. The proof will be in the result of ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES backups with Allow multiple drives.

[Mark_Solutions]

I had a customer in exactly this position.

They had DFS for some time and it backed up fine as a normal file system.

Then they turned replication on without telling anyone .. when they came to do a restore the folders were all empty when browsing the file system in the BAR GUI after the date that replication had been turned on and all data was only captured within the SCC.

I guess a quick backup test on a demo system would prove that if you have the facility.

[Marianne]

Have you had a chance to configure policy as per Mark's suggestion?