Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] PC NetBackup OTM problem

2002-04-10 12:26:06
Subject: [Veritas-bu] PC NetBackup OTM problem
From: limelite AT ti DOT com (Young, Ken)
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 11:26:06 -0500
I'm having a problem with OTM and the way we have our backup file list
configured.

Here's the situation:

Using NB 3.2 and greater, our PC clients have OTM enabled and the backup
file list on the Solaris server specifies something like this:

c:\Documents and Settings\
c:\WINNT\Profiles\
c:\my_documents\
c:\projects\
c:\Userdata\
c:\my documents\
d:\Userdata\
d:\my documents\
e:\Userdata\
e:\my documents\
f:\Userdata\
f:\my documents\
g:\Userdata\
g:\my documents\

However, if your PC is configured like this: 

C:\ - fixed partition
D:\ - fixed partition
E:\ - cd rom
F:\ - cd burner

OTM creates a virtual drive G:\ for its cached files and since G:\ is listed
on our backup file list, the virtual drive gets backed up too! The virtual
drive does get deleted once the backup is complete. 

How to fix it? This gets a bit interesting ...

1) Disable OTM - no a really good option since open files will not get
backed up.

2) Create separate class lists based on the number of partitions on each of
our clients. Therefore, if a PC only has a C:\, then only create a class
specifying only C:\ folders in the backup file list and if a PC has a C:\
and D:\, only specify C:\ and D:\ folders in the backup file list - an admin
nightmare but might be the best solution.

3) Instead of listing all the files for backup on the master server, only
list "all_local_drives" parameter and create custom exclude and include
lists on each client. - more admin work than #2 and we will lose control of
the file list unless we can lock down the exclude and include tab on each
client.

Therefore, we are using more tapes than needed and backing up duplicate info
... Not sure if this happens with all OTM enabled clients but I've seen
enough of this to know that our tape usage would be reduced if this is
fixed. This problem is Windows independent as I've seen it happen on Win9x,
NT4, and Win2K.

Therefore, I would like to know how other companies configure their backup
policies in relation to the file list?


Thanks,
Ken Young
Texas Instruments Inc.
(214) 567-5016 

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