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  1. Home
  2. NetBackup™ Web UI Administrator's Guide
  3. Section III. Configuring hosts
  4. Managing host properties
  5. Client attributes properties
  6. Windows open file backup tab of the Client attributes properties
NetBackup™ Web UI Administrator's Guide

Windows open file backup tab of the Client attributes properties

To access this setting, in the web UI select Hosts > Host properties. Select the Windows primary server. If necessary click Connect, then click Edit primary server. Click Client attributes. Then click the Windows open file backup tab.

Use the settings in this tab only if you want to change the default settings.

By default, NetBackup uses Windows open file backups for all Windows clients. (No clients are listed in the Client attributes page.) The server uses the following default settings for all Windows clients:

  • Windows open file backup is enabled on the client.

  • Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

  • Snapshots are taken of individual drives (Individual drive snapshot) as opposed to all drives at once (Global drive snapshot).

  • Upon error, the snapshot is terminated (Abort backup on error).

Snapshots are a point-in-time view of a source volume. NetBackup uses snapshots to access busy or active files during a backup job. Without a snapshot provider, active files are not accessible for backup.

 

Table: Windows open file backup tab properties

Property

Description

Add

Adds a NetBackup client to the list, if you want to change the default settings for Windows open file backups.

Delete

Deletes a client from the list.

Enable Windows open file backup for the selected client

Specifies that Windows open file backup is used for the selected clients.

This option functions independently from the Perform Snapshot backups policy option that is available when the Snapshot Client is licensed.

If a client is included in a policy that has the Perform Snapshot backups policy option disabled and you do not want snapshots, the Enable Windows open file backups for this client property must be disabled as well for the client. If both options are not disabled, a snapshot is created, though that may not be the intention of the administrator.

Snapshot Provider

Selects the snapshot provider for the selected clients:

  • Use Veritas Volume Snapshot Provider (VSP)

    This option is used for back-level versions of NetBackup only. Support for those client versions has ended.

  • Use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

    Uses VSS to create volume snapshots of volumes and logical drives for the selected clients.

    For information about how to do Active Directory granular restores when using VSS, see the following topic:

    See Active Directory properties.

Snapshot usage

Note:

The Individual drive snapshot property and the Global drive snapshot property only apply to the non-multistreamed backups that use Windows open file backup. All multistreamed backup jobs share the same volumes snapshots for the volumes in the multistreamed policy. The volume snapshots are taken in a global fashion.

Selects how snapshots are made for the selected clients:

  • Individual drive snapshot

    Specifies that the snapshot should be of an individual drive (default). When this property is enabled, snapshot creation and file backup are done sequentially on a per volume basis. For example, assume that drives C and D are backed up.

    If the Individual drive snapshot property is selected, NetBackup takes a snapshot of drive C, backs it up, and discards the snapshot. NetBackup then takes a snapshot of drive D, backs it up, and discards the snapshot.

    Volume snapshots are enabled on only one drive at a time, depending on which drive is to be backed up. This mode is useful when relationships do not have to be maintained between files on the different drives.

  • Global drive snapshot

    Specifies that the snapshot is of a global drive. All the volumes that require snapshots for the backup job (or stream group for multistreamed backups) are taken at one time. If snapshot creation is not successful, use the Individual drive snapshot option.

    For example, assume that drives C and D are to be backed up.

    In this situation, NetBackup takes a snapshot of C and D. Then NetBackup backs up Cand backs up D.

    NetBackup then discards the C and D snapshots.

    This property maintains file consistency between files in different volumes. The backup uses the same snapshot that is taken at a point in time for all volumes in the backup.

Snapshot error control

Determines the action to take if there is a snapshot error:

  • Abort backup on error

    Stops the backup if there is an error during the backup job (after the snapshot is created).

    The most common reason for a problem after the snapshot is created and is in use by a backup, is that the cache storage is full. If the Abort backup on error property is selected (default), the backup job cancels with a snapshot error status if the backup detects a snapshot issue.

    This property does not apply to successful snapshot creation. The backup job continues regardless of whether a snapshot was successfully created for the backup job.

  • Disable snapshot and continue

    Destroys the volume snapshots if the snapshot becomes invalid during a backup. The backup continues with Windows open file backups disabled.

    Regarding the file that had a problem during a backup - it may be that the file was not backed up by the backup job. The file may not be able to be restored.

Note:

Volume snapshots typically become invalid during the course of a backup because insufficient cache storage was allocated for the volume snapshot. Reconfigure the cache storage configuration of the Windows open file backup snapshot provider to a configuration that best suits your client's installation.

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