topic Re: fbackup config options in Operating System - HP-UX

fbackup config options

Bill Sadvary — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:36:52 GMT

I have a storageworks SDLT 320 Internal Tape Drive on its own SCSI bus and running HP-UX 11.23.

What would the best options for an fbackup -c config file for good performance and reliability?

Also, would I need any special frecover options when doing a restore?

Thanks,
-Bill

Re: fbackup config options

Grayh — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:43:38 GMT

Nope ... you can use fbackup & frecover commands to work with the latest SDLT320, SDLT220 and DLTvs80 tape drives.

Re: fbackup config options

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:44:05 GMT

Hi Bill:

Start with a configuration file that looks like:

blocksperrecord 4096
records 64
checkpointfreq 4096
readerprocesses 6
maxretries 5
retrylimit 5000000
maxvoluses 200
filesperfsm 2000

The manpages for 'fbackup(1M)' document the default settings which is what you will get in the *absence* of an explicily defined set.

These parameters are recorded onto the actual backup tape and are thus used for a 'frecover' session too.

Checkpoint records allow the salvage of a backup when a bad tape spot is detected, since the records contain information about the file being backed up. The 'filesperfsm' parameter controls the frequency with which Fast Search Marks (FSM) are written. Both checkpoint and FSM records affect performance. FSMs take a tape drive out of streaming mode thereby adding to backup time. Conversely, however, FSMs improve the time it take to recover a file from tape.

In general, if your backup consists of a high proportion of small files, increase the value for 'filesperfsm'. If your backup consists of a high proportion of large files, then decrease the 'filesperfsm' value.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: fbackup config options

piyush mathiya — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:46:25 GMT

Hi Bill,

It depends what type of backup you are taking, do you want to take OS backup, DB backup, Application backup, Data backup...

Anyways, you can use the below options for taking backup...

-f: Device used for backup media
-0 to -9: Backup level
-u : Update the /var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates file
-v : Verbose mode; display the activity of the command
-i : Include the path in the backup
-e : Exclude the path from the backup
-g : Graph file used with fbackup
-I : Create an index file showing a list of files backed up

If you need more information, reply us

Re: fbackup config options

Bill Sadvary — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:59:14 GMT

I was looking for the config params that James posted.

I'm doing a full system backup, OS and App and Data files.

Basically, I have two servers, one application server and one Oracle DB server. Probabaly the largest DB file is around 4 GB.

-Bill

Re: fbackup config options

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:10:05 GMT

Hi (again) Bill:

By the way, 'fbackup' and 'frecover' are being deprecated at 11.31. At some later release 'fbackup' will not be able to create new archives, although as I understand, 'frecover' will remain available to restore archives.

Be especially aware, too, the at 11.31 the header written by 'fbackup' has changed and it is *not* possible to restore an 11.31 archive on any release other than 11.31.

The replacement for 'fbackup'/'frecover' is 'pax' with its ability to handle files larger than 8GB on 11.31 and on 11.23 with the 'pax-ENH' product installed.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: fbackup config options

Bill Sadvary — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:07:09 GMT

Thanks for the replies.
-Bill