Configure application details and settings to protect file system data

From the Application Details & Settings page—accessed from the Details & Settings link at the top of each application's backup plan—you can modify application-specific settings for backing up a file system. Application settings may be useful or required in certain circumstances. After you configure your application settings, click Save Changes.

The following is a list of the application settings and a description of what they do.

  • Username/Password: If alternate credentials were specified when the network drive was mapped to the host, in the spaces provided, enter the file share username and password.

  • Staging Disk Size (GB): Enter a value in gigabytes. Valid entries are one to 256000. By default, the Backup and DR agent uses the size of the managed file system as the size of the staging disk. This setting allows the administrator to override this value to allow for growth of the file system.

  • Use Staging Disk Granularity as Minimum Staging Disk Size: The default value is zero when you select No. If you select Yes, then you must enter a value in GB in the Staging disk granularity field. This setting is for applications that are less than the size of the granularity setting and tend to grow periodically. This setting helps avoid frequent and costly full backups. There is no initial cost to using a staging disk that is larger than required for immediate use because the staging disk is thin-provisioned.

  • Staging Disk Granularity (GB): Defines the granularity of the staging disk created for an out-of-band application. It specifies the size of each staging disk when multiple staging disks are used for an application. Valid entries are one to 128000. For example, the following:

    • If an application is 4.3TB, and the Stage Disk Granularity value is 2TB and Last Staging Disk Minimum Size value is 1TB, the backup/recovery appliance creates three staging disks of 2T, 2T, and 1T.
    • If an application is 4.3TB, and the Stage Disk Granularity value is 2TB and Last Staging Disk Minimum Size value is 0.1TB, the backup/recovery appliance three staging disks of 2T, 2T, and 0.3T.
    • If an application is 4.3TB, and the Stage Disk Granularity value is 5TB and Last Staging Disk Minimum Size value is 1TB, the backup/recovery appliance creates one staging disk of 4.3T. Stage Disk Granularity and Last Staging Disk Minimum Size are specified at the application level and override the system-wide default values.

  • Staging Disk Mount Point: Enter a Staging Disk Mount Point if you need the staging disk mounted to a particular location.

  • Exclude Patterns, Include Patterns: Enter the filename pattern to be excluded from or included in backup. The backup/recovery appliance offers the ability to exclude or include certain file types. Using either the Exclude Patterns or Include Patterns option, only the most crucial data is backed-up leaving a side the non-critical files. The guidelines include the following:

    • Only files are excluded or included, this does not impact directories.
    • A pattern can include wildcard characters, for example, an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). To exclude all the files that contains .sys as extension, enter *.sys in the Exclude Pattern or Include Pattern field.
    • On Windows, files named pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys that appear in the root directory of a drive are automatically ignored.

  • Start Paths: Specifies the point in the file share where backup starts. If the Start Path field is left blank, backup starts at the root directory of the file system to be backed-up.

    Linux example: /usr/local backs up the /usr/local directory.

    Windows example: \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME\abc backs up the abc directory on the file share.

  • Prune Paths: Provide the prune paths in the Prune Paths field. Prune path specifies a point in the file system where directory traversals stop.

    Linux example: /usr/local/lib ensures that nothing following /usr/local/lib is copied, but all other directories and files in /usr/local are copied.

    Windows example: \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME\abc ensures that nothing following \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME\abc is copied, but all other directories and files in \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME are copied.

    If this field is left blank, the directory traversal descends into every subdirectory of the start paths being backed up.

  • Service Access Point IP Address: If a file system is a cluster resource and if you want it to be backed up irrespective of which cluster node is hosting the file system, then specify the cluster resource IP as a service access point IP. This allows the backup/recovery appliance to connect to the Backup and DR agent using the cluster resource IP and to back up the file system from the active cluster node. For backup to work correctly across all cluster nodes, the Backup and DR agent must be installed on all cluster nodes. Enter a virtual IP address for a clustered application. For failover clusters, this is used to find the active node for a backup. For active/active clusters, this is a comma separated list of eligible servers that can be used for the backup.

  • Use Service IP for Restore: Honor the service access point IP address during restore for a clustered application. Select Yes if you want to use the service IP address for restoring a cluster application. Select No if you do not want to use the service IP address to restore.

  • Backup and DR Agent Options: Leave Backup and DR agent options blank unless you are working with support.

  • Prefer LVM for Single Staging Disk: Create an LVM even when a single staging disk is enough for backup. Select Yes if you want to use an LVM-based staging disk that can be expanded without requiring a new full backup, regardless of the size of the Linux source disk. Select No if you do not want to use an expanded LVM-based staging disk.

Backup and DR Service for Filestore and file systems

This page is one in a series of pages specific to protecting and recovering filesystems with Backup and DR Service. You can find additional information in the following pages: