We are using Backup Exec and to get around the time constraints of the snapshots
came up with the following option. Backup exec will execute a command before
the backup to create a new snapshot called backup-snap "rsh filer1 snap create
vol1 backup-snap" Once that is done it will run the job we created to backup
the newly created backup-snap snapshot and once it has finished it will delete
the snapshot "rsh filer1 snap delete vol1 backup-snap"
Igor Schein <igor(a)txc.com> on 04/25/2001 05:06:20 PM
Please respond to igor(a)txc.com
To: "Traitel, Eyal" <eyal(a)netapp.com>
cc: "'E.J. Jantz'" <ej_jantz(a)bswintl.com>, toasters(a)mathworks.com,
simon_clawson(a)mentorg.com (bcc: Joe Harrington/M&M)
Subject: Re: snapshot backup
On Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 08:28:39AM -0700, Traitel, Eyal wrote:
> Our snapshots are to be more exact "copy on new write" as opposed to "copy on
old write", with the advantage of no penalty at all in terms of performance of
taking the snapshot, and performance of filesystem after taking it (think of
"copy on old write" - filesystem needs to read old block, write it in the backup
location, then write the new block in old place - that's 3 I/Os. For us it's
only 1).
> We do not have to go back to specific locations on the disk, and that's a real
advantage in terms of performance.
>
> In regards to full compared to snapshot - with NetApp, it's probably always
better to backup snapshots, as they are point-in-time - when you've started your
backup at 19:00, all of it will be consistent to 19:00 sharp, unlike traditional
backup, which data changes while you backup... So - if you get me right - you
can even do full backup from a snapshot...
There's one potential problem - if your backup does not finish in time
between 2 snapshots, they will rotate (say, hourly.0 will become
hourly.1, and the new hourly.0 has started) , so in the end you're
backing up not what you started backing up. For scheduled backups one
should be cautious to, for example, do a full backup from weekly.0 and
incremental one from nightly.0, but if you're doing a on-the-fly
dump, always keep your snapshot schedule in mind.
Igor