Command Reference Guide

2.2 NAME 12
PREREQUISITES FSE backup uses logical volume snapshot technology to
keep FSE system’s operation almost unobstructed during the backup window. To
be able for the FSE backup to use this technology, HSM file systems, FSE con-
figuration and all FSE databases and system files have to reside on LVM logical
volumes (on Linux systems) or special snapshot software needs to be installed (on
Windows systems). This is an essential prerequisite.
FSE backup uses FSE backup media – FSE media that are assigned to a special
media pool, distinguished by its BACKUP type. A backup pool should be config-
ured with only one volume in order to use all the space on medium. Backup media
in this pool should be formatted, but not initialized. If the backup encounters an
initialized FSE medium, it will return an error. This is applied to prevent loss of
data. For details on configuring an FSE backup media pool, see the fsepool man
page.
IMPORTANT: It is an FSE administrator’s responsibility to dedicate correct
backup media for each backup session. fsebackup does not keep record of which
backup media had already been used for backup and when. It will only check if
media with the specified barcodes are assigned to FSE backup media pool before
proceeding. It is also suggested to keep at least two backup sets in order to ensure
that you have always at least one valid backup.
THE BACKUP PROCEDURE After the prerequisites are checked and ful-
filled, fsebackup first suspends the FSE system and achieves a consistent state of
all File System Catalogs (FSCs) and Hierarchical Storage Management Databases
(HSMDBs). It then creates snapshots of all required disk volumes (/var/opt/fse
and /var/opt/fse/part on Linux and appropriate disk on Windows) before resuming
the FSE system operation. Suspend and resume operations are performed using
the fsebak command. Once the snapshots are successfully created the backup can
continue.
All relevant data is gathered together and archived using tar tape archiving utility
on Linux and proprietary FSE tool on Windows (fse–arch). It is then written to the
FSE backup media in form of several archive files, separated with file marks. First
archives on the medium are client specific data (HSM file system and HSMDB).
This is followed by File System Catalog archives for each FSE partition, then
the Configuration Database (configuration information for FSE system, FSE li-
braries, FSE drives, FSE media pools and FSE partitions, the Resource Man-
agement Database, Fast Recovery Information (FRI) in temporary disk files and
File System Extender 3.2 Command Line Reference