Networker

Re: [Networker] RFE for cloning - your opinion, please

2003-03-19 21:19:43
Subject: Re: [Networker] RFE for cloning - your opinion, please
From: pt_work <kizzmit66 AT HOTMAIL DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 21:19:43 -0500
Hi Terry,
Check the FAQ on NetWorker Operations, question 5 and 6.
http://web1.legato.com/infodev/publications/lmgt/operations/lmnwop_1.0/lm_n
etworker_operations_faq.pdf

The deferred cloning option seems to hit several of your points.
By default it will clone by pool for a time you specify, but I think there
was an undocumented feature that allowed you to narrow it to either group
or client (can't remember which). I'll try to check that tomorrow.

pt

On Wed, 19 Mar 2003 17:11:40 -0500, Terry Lemons <lemons_terry AT EMC DOT COM>
wrote:

>Hi
>
>I'm considering submitting a Request for Enhancement (RFE) to Legato for
>NetWorker's cloning function.  Several years ago, I ended up writing a
>rather complex script to handle our group's cloning needs.  At the time
(and
>now), I thought that this could (maybe should) be built into the standard
>NetWorker product.
>
>Our group did backups of ~160 servers into a single backup pool (the
Default
>pool, in fact).  We used a single pool for the obvious reasons of
>simplifying our NetWorker setup, ensuring the best utilization of the tape
>media (if you have multiple pools, you have a greater chance of one pool
>running out of media, while another pool had plenty, etc).
>
>Our site had a data retention strategy that dictated 5 different retention
>periods (1 year, 2 year, 5 year, 7 year, and 10 year, I think), based on
the
>criticality of the data, legal, governmental, and corporate requirements,
>etc.  So, we could not use NetWorker's automatic cloning mechanism,
because
>it places all savesets in the same backup clone pool.  In almost all
cases,
>the retention period for all data backed up from any one system was the
>same.
>
>Our cloning strategy was to clone all full backups, and to clone these
full
>backup savesets to clone pool media that matched the retention period.
>Because of the volume of data saved and the price of media, we decided it
>wasn't cost-effective to clone all data and send it away for 10 years (the
>maximum retention period), since most of the data would expire after 1 to
2
>years.
>
>So, if system FOO's data needed to be saved for 2 years, then we would
clone
>FOO's full savesets to the '2_Year' backup clone pool.
>
>Also, we didn't want to have any more machinery than necessary (tables
>outside of NetWorker, self-modifying scripts, etc.).
>
>So, here's what the script that I wrote did:
>
>*       created backup clone pools called '1_Year', '2_Year', '5_Year',
>'7_Year' and '10_Year', and labeled media into them;
>*       created savegroups with the same names as the backup clone pools
>above.  These savegroups were never executed; rather, they were just
>''markers' we used to assign a backup clone pool name to a client.
>*       assigned one of these savegroups to every backup client [because
>this is the only way I could think of to equate a backup client with a
>particular clone pool; more on that latter];
>*       wrote a single ksh script that:
>*       ran every morning at the conclusion of nightly backups;
>*       used mminfo to determine which full backups had not yet been
cloned,
>and which backup clients had created these savesets;
>*       used nsradmin to determine which savegroup with 'Year' in the name
>was assigned to each of these backup clients
>*       loop:
>*       for every retention period, clone those savesets belonging to the
>clients with the savegroup equal to the 'n_Year' currently being processed
>to the corresponding backup clone pool
>
>This ran very well for many months, until I left that job.  But creating
>this machinery and writing the script took a long time, and it was very
>difficult for anyone other than me to understand.
>
>So, here's the question:  is this a useful idea, so useful that NetWorker
>should be enhanced to do it?  Do you need to clone to different clone
pools?
>Does your data have different retention periods?
>
>Comments, please!
>
>Thanks
>tl
>
>Terry Lemons
>> CLARiiON Applications Integration Engineering
>        EMC²
>where information lives
>
>4400 Computer Drive, MS D239
>Westboro MA 01580
>Phone: 508 898 7312
>Email: Lemons_Terry AT emc DOT com
>
>
>
>Terry Lemons
>> CLARiiON Applications Integration Engineering
>        EMC²
>where information lives
>
>4400 Computer Drive, MS D239
>Westboro MA 01580
>Phone: 508 898 7312
>Email: Lemons_Terry AT emc DOT com
>
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