(sorry, finger problems cause previous message to leave before I finished
it)

You are absolutely right, subsequent level 1 backups do not work.

Please note that you must look very carefully at the exact wording and the
placement of the level description in the documentation. Full followed by
multiple level 1 does function like incremental on normal (not NDMP) backups
and most likely NDMP backups, and also not with NetApp. The description
being referred to is a "generic" and does not apply to Ontap. You must
consider that the level is passed on to the dump application, and the NetApp
dump command works differently (it does not know incremental).
 
>From a previous message on NetApp dump levels:

>   0-9     Dump levels.  A level 0, full backup, guarantees the entire file
>           system is copied.  A level number above 0, incremental backup,
>           tells dump to copy all files new or modified since the last dump
of
>           a lower level.
> 
>           The default dump level is 0.

The wording of the Networker manual (glossary) differs slightly:

A full (f) backup backs up all files, regardless of
whether they have changed. Levels one through nine
[1-9] back up files that have changed since the last
lower numbered backup level. An incremental (incr)
backup backs up only files that have changed since the
last backup.

And in the admin manual the following explenation can be found:

. A level 1 backup backs up all files that have changed since the most
recent full backup (considered a level zero).
. A level 3 backup backs up all files that have changed since the most
recent backup of level 2, level 1, or full backup. For example, if the most
recent backup was at level full, then a level 3 backup backs up all files
that changed since the full backup. However, if the most recent backup
was at level 2, then a level 3 backup backs up only those files changed
since the level 2 backup.
. A level 9 backs up all the files that have changed since the most recent
backup of any level except level 9.

>From the above you can conclude that the only method to mimic incremental
backup is to do a full backup followed by increasing levels.
Such as Full,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. This implies that the number of incrementals
can't exceed 9 in total.

However, incremental will not work with NetApp if you forget to specify
"UPDATE=Y". This parameter actually instructs Ontap NDMP to update the
dumpdates file which is used to determine what should be backed up.

Bye
Ernie


-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] 
On
Behalf Of Randy Doering
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:28 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Netapp, ndmp, and incremental backups.


I've been meaning to ask a question about that paragraph, but hadn't gotten
around to it. I don't think that subsequent Level 1 backups will function
like incremental backups. A Level 1 on Day 2 goes back to the Day 1 Full,
but a Level 1 on Day 3 will als o go back to the Day1 Full (including what
had already been backed up on Day 2).

Is this correct?

Thanks,
Randy

-------------- Original message -------------- 

> > >From the NW 7.1 documentation CD (May 2004), the Unix administrator
> > guide, in the NDMP chapter, under "limitations ...(p.532):
> > * The NetWorker software does not support incremental backup 
> > settings
> > for NDMP backups. If you select the incremental setting, the NetWorker 
> > server performs a full backup. However, you can schedule level backups 
> > to function like incremental backups. For example, complete a full 
> > backup on day 1 and level 1 backups on days 2 through 7. 
> > Itzik 
> 
> Thank you. It's the same wording in the 7.2 manual, but I completely 
> overlooked it.
> 
> 
> --
> Darren Dunham ddunham AT taos DOT com
> Senior Technical Consultant TAOS http://www.taos.com/ 
> Got some Dr Pepper? San Francisco, CA bay area 
> < This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. > 
> 
> --
> Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via 
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