User's Manual

174 Backup, restore, and recovery
Backup
Before you configure an automatic backup, you must know how it works, select the backup type that is
appropriate for your environment, and ensure that the prerequisites are met.
What is FSE backup?
FSE backup creates copies of data on backup media for emergency purposes. It saves a consistent state of
information stored in FSE databases, FSE system files, and user data on HSM file systems.
FSE backup is performed using the fsebackup command. It includes all needed steps of the backup
procedure; if required, it also issues commands for media loading and changing. Both backup and restore
are performed on a single drive, therefore they may be very time consuming in case you perform full
backups or your FSE databases are big. However, FSE backup is an optimized process that does not
obstruct normal FSE implementation operation if it is well considered. Therefore, you need to plan your
backup strategy carefully, defining your backup type as described in ”FSE backup types” on page 172,
and be aware of backup requirements and facts, described in the following section.
How it works?
You need to consider some special points when performing an FSE backup and ensure that the
prerequisites are met. You should also check the recommendations for recreating data that can include an
alternative to FSE backup.
Prerequisites
Common
• FSE backup media pool and FSE backup media have to be configured; for details see ”Backup media
management” on page 175.
Linux specific
• On Linux platform, HSM file systems, FSE configuration and FSE databases and system files must reside
on LVM logical volumes.
Windows specific
• On Windows 2000 Server systems, StorageCraft Volume Snapshot must be installed. Note that the
snapshot is not visible as a drive letter and is available only to the fsebackup command, which can
access it to back up data.
The following information describes the FSE backup process in general. Except for the snapshot tool, which
is platform specific, backing up different platforms is performed in the same way.
Presuming that the prerequisites are met, running the fsebackup command on the FSE server (regardless
of the backup type) starts backing up the FSE implementation as follows:
1. FSE is suspended to achieve a consistent state of all File System Catalogs (FSCs) and Hierarchical
Storage Management Databases (HSMDBs.
2. Snapshots of file systems in use are created.
3. FSE implementation operation is resumed.
4. Data from snapshots are backed up.
While the first three steps only take a few minutes, the process of backing up can take a considerable
amount of time. Check ”FSE backup types” on page 172 for the recommended backup type.
Backup data is stored on specified backup media in a platform-dependent format.
Linux specific
On Linux platform, tar format is used for storage of backup data.
Windows specific
On Windows platform, FSE backup data format (fse-arch) is used for storage of backup data.
Typically, FSE backup is started automatically by cron or similar utilities, and runs in the background. It is
not possible to run multiple backup processes in parallel.