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Dell PowerScale: NDMP Technical Overview and Design Considerations
Executive summary Introduction NDMP overview NDMP configuration
Backup types
Restore types
NDMP environment variables
Preferred IP addresses for NDMP three-way sessions
Include and exclude files and directories from backup
NDMP redirector
NDMP throttler
NDMP considerations and best practices NDMP and OneFS feature integration Troubleshooting and logs References

NDMP environment variables

Home > Storage > PowerScale (Isilon) > Product Documentation > Data Protection > Dell PowerScale: NDMP Technical Overview and Design Considerations > NDMP environment variables

NDMP environment variables

  • NDMP environment variables control the behavior of DMA for each backup and restore session. You can manage the NDMP environment variables for each backup path on the NDMP server or the PowerScale cluster. You can also specify NDMP environment variables through your DMA. NDMP environment variables can pass configuration parameters to the NDMP server. The NDMP environment variables passed from DMA always override the NDMP environment variables that are set on the NDMP server.

    Note: Symantec NetBackup and Dell NetWorker are the only two DMAs that allow you to directly set environment variables and pass them from DMA to the NDMP server.

    The following table shows the NDMP environment variables supported by OneFS NDMP.

    Table 3.      NDMP environment variables

    Environment variable

    Supported values

    Default

    Description

    BACKUP_FILE_LIST

    <file-path>

    None

    This variable is used to specify the sorted file name list for file list backup.

    BACKUP_MODE

    TIMESTAMP or
    SNAPSHOT

    TIMESTAMP

    This variable is used to enable or disable snapshot-based incremental backups.

    To enable snapshot-based incremental backups, you can specify SNAPSHOT.

    BACKUP_OPTIONS

    0x00000001,
    0x00000002,
    0x00000004,
    0x00000400,
    0x00000200,
    or 0x00000100

    0

    This variable controls the behavior of the backup operations.

    0x00000001: This option always adds DUMP_DATE into the list of environment variables at the end of a backup operation. The DUMP_DATE value is the time when the backup snapshot was taken. A DMA can use the DUMP_DATE value to set BASE_DATE for the next backup operation.

    0x00000002: This option retains the backup snapshot of a token-based backup in the dumpdates file. Since a token-based backup has no LEVEL, its level is set to 10 by default. The snapshot allows a faster-incremental backup as the next incremental backup after the token-based backup is done.

    0x00000004: This option retains the previous snapshot. After a snapshot-based incremental backup, the prior snapshot is saved at level 10. To avoid two snapshots at the same level, the prior snapshot is kept at a lower level in the dumpdates file. This option allows the BASE_DATE and BACKUP_MODE=snapshot settings to trigger a snapshot-based incremental backup instead of a token-based backup. The environment variable settings prompt the NDMP server to compare the BASE_DATE value against the timestamp in the dumpdates file to find the prior backup. Even though the DMA fails the latest snapshot-based incremental backup, OneFS retains the prior snapshot. The DMA can then retry the snapshot-based incremental backup in the next backup cycle using the BASE_DATE value of the prior backup.

    The following settings are applicable only to datasets containing the PowerScale OneFS CloudPools SmartLink files:

    0x00000400: This option backs up files as SmartLink files with file data. This option is the combo copy backup option. This backup option is the default setting.

    0x00000200: This option backs up files as SmartLink files without file data. This option is the shallow copy backup option.

    0x00000100: This option backs up files as regular files that read file data from the cloud. This option is the deep copy backup option.

    BASE_DATE

    0 or DUMP_DATE value

    0

    This variable is used to enable a token-based incremental backup. The dumpdates file will not be updated in this case.

    DIRECT

    Y or N

    N

    This variable is used to enable or disable DAR and DDAR.

    Y: This option enables DAR and DDAR.

    N: This option disables DAR and DDAR.

    EXCLUDE

    <file-matching-pattern>

    None

    If you specify this option, OneFS NDMP does not back up files and directories that meet the specified pattern. You can separate multiple patterns with a space.

    FILES

    <file-matching-pattern>

    None

    If you specify this option, OneFS NDMP backs up only files and directories that meet the specified pattern. You can separate multiple patterns with a space.

    Note: Files and directories are matched first and then the EXCLUDE pattern is applied.

    HIST

    D, F, Y, or N

    Y

    This variable is used to specify the file history format.

    D: This option specifies node-based file history.

    F: This option specifies path-based file history.

    Y: This option specifies the default file history format determined by your NDMP backup settings.

    N: This option disables file history.

    LEVEL

    0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10

    0

    This variable is used to specify the level of NDMP backup to perform.

    0: This option is to perform a full NDMP backup.

    1–9: These options are to perform an incremental backup at the specified level.

    10: This option is to perform incremental forever backups.

    MSB_RETENTION_PERIOD

    <integer>

    300

    For a multi-stream backup session, specifies the backup context retention period in seconds.

    MSR_RETENTION_PERIOD

    0 to 60*60*24

    600

    For a multi-stream restore session, specifies the recovery context retention period in seconds within which a recovery session can be retried.

    RECURSIVE

    Y or N

    Y

    This variable is only for restore sessions and is used to specify that the restore session should recover files or subdirectories under a directory automatically.

    RESTORE_BIRTHTIME

    Y or N

    N

    This variable is used to specify whether to restore the birth time for a restore session.

    RESTORE_HARDLINK_BY_TABLE

    Y or N

    N

    For a single-threaded restore session, determines whether OneFS NDMP restores hard links by building a hard-link table during restore operations.

    This variable is used to specify if hard links are incorrectly backed up and restore operations are failing.

    If a restore operation fails because hard links were incorrectly backed up, the following message appears in the NDMP backup logs:

    Bad hardlink path for <path>

    Note: This variable is not effective for a parallel restore operation.

    RESTORE_OPTIONS

    0x00000001,
    0x00000002,
    0x00000004,
    0x00000100, or 0x00000200

    0

    This environment variable controls the behavior of the restore operations.

    0x00000001: This option performs a single threaded restore operation.

    0x00000002: This option restores directory attributes to the existing directories.

    0x00000004: This option creates intermediate directories with default attributes. The default behavior is to get attributes from the first object under a given directory.

    The following settings are applicable only to datasets backed up with the combo copy backup option:

    0x00000100: This option forces deep copy restoration of the SmartLink files. This option is to restore the backed-up SmartLink files as regular files on the target cluster.

    0x00000200: This option forces shallow copy restoration of the SmartLink files. This option is to restore the backed-up SmartLink files as SmartLink files on the target cluster. This restore option is the default setting.

    UPDATE

    Y or N

    Y

    This variable determines whether OneFS updates the dumpdates file.

    Y: OneFS updates the dumpdates file.

    N: OneFS does not update the dumpdates file.