|
Re: [Networker] browsing and retention policies
2009-06-16 18:16:40
On 17/06/2009, at 04:04 , Davina Treiber wrote:
David Magda wrote:
If a save set exists, but it's not in the index, how would you know
about
it? Does Networker keep it's client save set list in a separate
database
than the browsable indexes?
The details are a bit sketchy in my mind: does Networker know about
a save
set for a particular client(s) for as long as retention policy
states, but
you simply can't get a pretty list of files and directories without
the
browsing index?
That's exactly it. The media database keeps track of volumes and
save sets. Information about each save set is limited to details
such as save time, retention, size etc. The contents of each save
set is only (and optionally) held in the client file index, which
gives you information about each file backed up.
Davina's answer is correct, I thought I'd add to it with historical
considerations why browse and retention policies are maintained
separately.
Pre- NetWorker-v6, NetWorker indices were maintained in WISS format.
This database format was notoriously bad at handling large scale
(read: >2GB) chunks of data. One way to avoid corruption, etc., was to
keep browsable indices smaller regardless of the retention time. Also,
we have to consider previous disk pricing models, where (a) disk for
servers was frightfully expensive and (b) management generally didn't
want to spend money on "unimportant" systems such as the backup
server. As a result of this, backup administrators frequently had to
run with considerably smaller capacity than they would have liked to,
and scan in older backups as required.
These days there are much fewer valid reasons for keeping different
browse/retention policies - I'm not saying there's none, but there's a
lot less than there used to be.
Cheers,
Preston.
--
Preston de Guise
"Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy":
http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Systems-Backup-Recovery-Corporate/dp/1420076396
http://www.enterprisesystemsbackup.com
NetWorker blog: http://nsrd.wordpress.com
To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and type
"signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to networker-request
AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this list. You can access the
archives at http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER
|
|
|
