Incremental-by-date, journal-based, and NetApp snapshot
difference are alternatives to full incremental and partial incremental
back methods.
- Incremental-by-date backup
- An incremental-by-date backup takes less time to process than
a full incremental backup and requires less memory.
An incremental-by-date backup might not place exactly the same
backup files into server storage because the incremental-by-date backup:
- Does not expire
backup versions of files that you delete from the workstation.
- Does not rebind backup versions to a new management class if you
change the management class.
- Does not back up files with attributes that change, unless the
modification dates and times also change.
- Ignores the
copy group frequency attribute of management classes (Journal-based
backups also ignore this attribute).
- Journal-based backup
The
memory requirements for an initial journaling environment are the
same as the memory requirements for a full file space incremental,
because journal-based backups must complete the full file space incremental
in order to set the journal database as valid, and to establish the
baseline for journaling.
The memory
requirements for subsequent journal-based backups are much less. Journal
backup sessions run in parallel and are governed by the resourceutilization client option in the same manner as normal backup sessions. The
size of the journal database file reverts to a minimal size (less
than 1 KB) when the last entry has been deleted from the journal.
Since entries are deleted from the journal as they are processed
by the client, the disk size occupied by the journal should be minimal
after a complete journal backup. A full incremental backup with journaling
active takes less time to process than an incremental-by-date backup.
On AIX and Linux, journal-based backup does
have some limitations. See Journal-based backup on AIX and Linux for information.
- NetApp snapshot difference
For NAS and N-Series file servers
that are running ONTAP 7.3.0, or later, you can use the snapdiff option to invoke the snapshot difference backup from NetApp when
running a full-volume incremental backup. Using this option reduces
memory usage and is faster.
Consider
the following restrictions when running a full-volume incremental
backup using the
snapdiff option, to ensure that
data is backed up when it should be.
- A file is excluded due to an exclude rule in the include-exclude
file. Tivoli Storage Manager
runs a backup of the current snapshot with that exclude rule in effect.
This happens when you have not made changes to the file, but you have
removed the rule that excluded the file. NetApp will not detect this
include-exclude change because it only detects file changes between
two snapshots.
- If you added an include statement to the option file, that include
option does not take effect unless NetApp detects that the file has
changed. Tivoli Storage Manager
does not inspect every file on the volume during backup.
- If you used the dsmc delete backup command
to explicitly delete a file from the Tivoli Storage Manager inventory, NetApp cannot detect that
a file was manually deleted from Tivoli Storage Manager. Therefore, the file remains unprotected
in Tivoli Storage Manager
storage until it is changed on the volume and the change is detected
by NetApp, signaling Tivoli Storage Manager to back it up again.
- Policy changes such as changing the policy from mode=modified to mode=absolute are not detected.
- The entire file space is deleted from the Tivoli Storage Manager inventory. This action
causes the snapdiff option to create a new snapshot
to use as the source, and a full incremental backup to be run.
The NetApp software determines what is a changed object, not Tivoli Storage Manager.
If you run a full volume backup
of an NFS-mounted NetApp or N-Series volume, all the snapshots under
the snapshot directory might also be backed up.
If you run a full volume backup of a
CIFS-mapped NetApp or N-Series volume, all the snapshots under the
snapshot directory might also be backed up.
To avoid backing
up all snapshots under the snapshot directory, do one of the following
actions:
- Run NDMP backups
- Run backups using the snapshotroot option
- Run incremental backups using the snapdiff option
Tip: If you run an incremental backup using the snapdiff option
and you schedule periodic incremental backups, use the createnewbase=yes option with the snapdiff option to create a base
snapshot and use it as a source to run an incremental backup.
- Exclude the snapshot directory from backups.
On AIX® and Linux systems, the snapshot directory is in .snapshot. Note: The .snapshot directory is not backed up for some versions of Red Hat Linux, so you are not required to exclude it.
On Windows systems, the snapshot directory is in ~snapshot.