You are absolutely correct, Terry. Personally I have been using and
implementing for others staging and file type devices for over two years
now, including NetWorker 6.1.1. It works well for slow WAN backups, as well
as in citations where speed of recovery is crucial.
All is needed is to create a directory(ies) and specify default capacity
size. It can be any size you like and any number of them (but no more then
your license allows, each one will be treated as a single device) and they
can be located on the same logical drive, as long as a actual directory(ies)
created (/backup/001 etc.). You can not change the size of the file device
in NetWorker once it was created, without deleting it from a list of devices
first. But it is easy enough to delete it and recreate with a required size
which does not have to be the size of partition.
Cheers,
George Lavrov, MCSE, LCNA
Email: glavrov AT mail DOT com
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Lemons [mailto:lemons_terry AT EMC DOT COM]
Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 12:16 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Staging in Networker?
Hi Calvin
Thanks for all of this great information!
You mentioned, "When you create a file device, Networker sets the size of
the device to the true total size of the partition it is installed on. You
CAN NOT change the size of the file device in Networker." That said, I
didn't think (though I may be wrong) that you had to use the entire
partition for the file type device. If you specify the size of the file
type device (in the Volume Default Capacity field), I believe that you can
specify multiple file type devices in a single partition. I did this, and
it has worked fine for months in a plain backup-to-disk environment; I
haven't been staging these savesets to disk, however.
tl
-----Original Message-----
From: Calvin Thomas [mailto:calvin.thomas AT nacalogistics DOT com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 3:35 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Staging in Networker?
I am currently working on this.
I asked the same question(s) previously and got some good info from this
group. Here is what I have found out so far.
1. Do NOT use a single file device. If you do, this is what happens. When
the file device is full, it will stop the backup, and stage off to tape. If
you have a single large file device this will take a long time, and your
backup job will fail. Not Acceptable. 2. Create 2 or more partitions, and a
file device in each. I am setting up 5 - 35 GB devices as I write this.
Then you total up the amount of space that will give you (175GB in my case),
figure out the largest backup you will need to do (78 GB in my case), and
set the high water mark of all the devices to ensure that you always have
enough space for your largest backup ( 80GB for me). 3. When you backup to
one file device and the file device gets full, it is marked read only, and
the save job continues on the next file device. 4. When one file device is
stageing off to tape, a different file device is accepting data for your
backup job. 5. A file device can either Read, or Write, but NOT both at the
same time. Hence the need for multiple devices. 6. When you set up a staging
policy in networker, be SURE and include all the file devices in your pool
in the same stageing policy. This insures the staging policy can transfer
the complete save sets from hard drive to tape without leaving part of a
save set on a hard drive that staging can't control.
One caveat about file devices in Networker (6.1.1).
When you create a file device, Networker sets the size of the device to the
true total size of the partition it is installed on. You CAN NOT change the
size of the file device in Networker. There is a line in the GUI for it,
and you can change it, but Networker will ignore this setting, and use the
remembered size of the partition it found when you created it. That is why
you must create the partitions in the size you want, and then create the
file devices inside of these partitions. Do NOT create two file devices on
a single partition. Each will think it has the total partition to use, when
it doesn't.
Other than these two issues, I have found it to be a fast, simple and
beneficial change. One of the things I have found is that I can increase
the number of sessions (to 32) on the hard drive, and backup all my servers
to it at the same time. This has allowed me to reduce my pools from 9 to 4.
I now have a "Nightly backup with clones" , and "Nightly backup without
clones" pools.
Another advantage is that each save set is a different file on the hard
drive, so there is no multiplexing of data to worry about. When it clones
or stages to tape, each save set is stored sequentially instead of in
parallel.
If anyone cares to add to this info, Please respond to the group.
Calvin E. Thomas
UNIX System Administrator
NACA Logistics
----- Original Message -----
From: "David W. Loveless" <duke AT UWO DOT CA>
To: <NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 10:35 AM
Subject: [Networker] Staging in Networker?
> Are you using the staging features of Legato Networker to push backups
> first to disk and later to tape? If you are, we'd like to hear about
> your experiences. What problems have you had? What disks are you
> using? Have you purchased any add-on software from Legato to help the
> staging process.
>
> We're currently running Networker 6.1.1 on Solaris 8 and are actively
> exploring this feature.
>
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> --
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