Load backup data to a universal share with the ingest mode
The purpose of the ingest mode of universal share is to dump data or to load backup data from a workload to the universal share over NFS/CIFS. When the ingest mode is turned on, a backup script prompts the universal share to persist all the data from memory to disk on the client side at the end of the backup or the dump.
The ingest mode differs a bit from the normal mode of a universal share. The ingest mode requires an additional operation to make sure the rest of the backup data or the dump data is persisted to the disk in the universal share. Every 60 seconds, a background job periodically flushes and persists the ingested data to disk.
The ingest mode is faster than normal mode as it does not guarantee all the ingested data is persisted to disk until the ingest mode is turn off. Therefore, turning ingest mode off is critical for data dump integrity.
Using the ingest mode
- Create the universal and mount it on the client side. The protocol can be NFS or CIFS/SMB.
- Turn on the ingest mode.
You can turn on the ingest mode for a specific share on the NFS/SMB client side. In this case, the ingest mode applies only to the specified share.
For example, you can use the following commands to turn on the ingest mode on the Linux/Unix or windows:
On Linux/Unix over NFS:
(echo [vpfs]&& echo ingest_mode=on) > <nfs_mount_point>/.vpfs_special_control_config
On Windows over CIFS/SMB:
(echo [vpfs]&& echo ingest_mode=on) > <driver_letter>/.vpfs_special_control_config
- Backup data or dump data to the universal share.
- Turn off the ingest mode on the NFS/SMB client side, after the backup or dump is completed. For example:
On Linux/Unix over NFS:
(echo [vpfs]&& echo ingest_mode=off) > <nfs_mount_point>/.vpfs_special_control_config
On Windows over CIFS/SMB:
(echo [vpfs]&& echo ingest_mode=off) > <driver_letter>/.vpfs_special_control_config
Make sure to check the return value of the commands. If the return value is not 0, the data might have not been persisted successfully. In that case, you must back up or dump the data again.