Performing NDMP Backups
System Administration Manual
330
❑
Adding any new equipment to a FC-AL causes the FC-AL to reset, which in turn can leave
any attached tape library in an indeterminate state. Similarly, if a failover takes place during
a tape backup operation, the tape status may become unknown. While a backup is running,
it is therefore advisable not to:
❑
Add devices to the FC-AL loop, or remove them from it.
❑
Reset the partner node in the cluster.
❑
Load any firmware on the partner node in the cluster.
❑
Taking any of these actions causes the FC-AL to reset.
❑
In recovery operations the storage management application sends a list of files to recover. If
it returns file history information with each file on the list then the list is of practically
unlimited length. However, if the storage management application does not include the file
history information the list is limited to 1024 names.
❑
The maximum tape block size supported is 256 KB.
Compatibility with Other SiliconServers
This section addresses the following two issues:
❑
The
copying
of data between a Si7500/Si8x00 series server Titan using the
ADC
utility or the
SMU Replication
function.
❑
Recovering an NDMP tape backup image of a Si7500/Si8x00 series server to
Titan or vice versa.
Titan uses a backup layout that reflects differences in the underlying file system. However, the
Titan NDMP implementation understands the Si7500/Si8x00 series configuration and can:
❑
Recover a Si7500/Si8x00 series backup format image from
tape
or through
ADC
copy.
❑
If requested, produce a backup image compatible with the older Si7500/Si8x00
series servers.
The ADC program (and hence the SMU replication utility) recognizes the situation where a copy
is being made from Titan to a Si7500/Si8x00 series server. ADC will automatically produce a
backward compatible
backup image.
Three possible actions are:
❑
ADC
copies and incremental data replications between Si7500/Si8x00 servers
and Titan SiliconServer will be performed correctly
without
requiring any specific
action.
❑
Tape backups from a Si7500/Si8x00 server can be recovered to Titan
without
any
specific action.
❑
Tape backups from Titan cannot usually be recovered on Si7500/Si8x00 servers.
However, the environment variable,
NDMP_BLUEARC_BB_COMPATIBLE
can be
set to
y
to ensure a compatible backup.
