is fbackup possible on another LUN (disk)

[Syedfurquan]

Hello All,

I am using HP-UX 11.31 and we are migrating our storage from iscsi to MEC_VNX. I need to move my data which is populated from iscsi (Left hand Storage) to EMC_VNX. Since I don't have mirror/ux license so I can't go my LVM mirroring method. I tried going going by taking cold backup of data base using data protector and restoring on the newly created LUN from EMC.

But my backup and restoration is very slow becuase backup is going over network and tape drive is also iscsi only.

Is there any way I can take backup using fbackup on disk to reduce the traffic over network on same server and then restore?

Total size of teh database I need to backup is 300GB

any help is very much appreciated.

Regards,

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can absolutely run an fbackup with a destination of a file on disk.

For example:

# fbackup -f /var/tmp/fbackup.disk -i /tmp
fbackup(1004): session begins on Tue May 6 09:33:16 2014
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /var/tmp/fbackup.disk
fbackup(3055): total file blocks read for backup: 619028
fbackup(3056): total blocks written to output file /var/tmp/fbackup.disk: 619762

# ll /var/tmp/fbackup.disk
-rw------- 1 root sys 317318144 May 6 09:33 /var/tmp/fbackup.disk

# ll /var/tmp/fbackup.disk
-rw------- 1 root sys 317318144 May 6 09:33 /var/tmp/fbackup.disk

# frecover -I /var/tmp/fbackup.disk.idx -f /var/tmp/fbackup.disk

# more /var/tmp/fbackup.disk.idx

8192 1 /
8192 1 /tmp
8192 1 /tmp/!p4.d
483328 1 /tmp/!p4.d/btlan.p4:000000d8
749568 1 /tmp/!p4.d/c8xx.p4:0000001e
327680 1 /tmp/!p4.d/cdfs.p4:00000028
1138688 1 /tmp/!p4.d/ciss.p4:00000056
2285568 1 /tmp/!p4.d/fcd.p4:000000bc
2584576 1 /tmp/!p4.d/fclp.p4:000000bb
65536 1 /tmp/!p4.d/fclp_fcp.p4:000000a3
65536 1 /tmp/!p4.d/fclp_vbus.p4:00000039
2703360 1 /tmp/!p4.d/fcoc.p4:000000d6

<...snip...>

Basically, when running your fbackup, instead of specifying a tape drive with the '-f' option, just specify a file name on a file system that has enough space for your backup.  Also, make sure the file system is 'largefiles' enabled so that you can write the complete file.

[Syedfurquan]

Hello Patrick,

Thanks for the reply and help to take backup using fbackup on disk. Now when I am trying to restore that backup to specific location I am failing in that. The steps I am following are below. I have taken a backup of /tmp in /testvg1/fbackup.disk and want to restore thsi backup in /testvg1/restore but not able to do so. Getting error in that.

when I do frecover -rv it is restoring but I don't want to restore it in default location.

Any help is very much appreciated.

aps39-69-root# fbackup -f /testvg1/fbackup.disk -i /tmp
fbackup(1004): session begins on Wed Jul 22 23:01:50 2009
fbackup(3024): writing volume 1 to the output file /testvg1/fbackup.disk
fbackup(3055): total file blocks read for backup: 94
fbackup(3056): total blocks written to output file /testvg1/fbackup.disk: 252
aps39-69-root# ll /testvg1/fbackup.disk
-rw-------   1 root       sys         129024 Jul 22 23:01 /testvg1/fbackup.disk
aps39-69-root# frecover -f  /testvg1/fbackup.disk -X /testvg1/restore
frecover(3207): additional argument: /testvg1/restore specified
frecover -r [-hosvymFNOX] [-c config] [-f device] [-S skip] [-E extarg]
frecover -R path [-f device]
frecover -x [-hosvymFNOX] [-c config] [-e path] [-f device]
            [-g graph] [-i path] [-S skip] [-E extarg]
frecover [-I | -V] path [-vy] [-f device] [-c config]
-{r,x} - full/partial recovery
-{I,V} - write index/volume-header to path
-{F,X} - flat/relative recovery
-{i,e} - specify a path to include/exclude
-{g,c} - specify a graph/configuration file
-{N,h} - No files recovered-Only verify/graph information
-R     - continue an interrupted session
-f     - specify an input device
-o     - overwrite existing files
-v     - verbose mode
-y     - answer yes to all questions
-S     - specify a file for skipped blocks
-s     - sparse file recovery
-O     - set ownership of files to the user running the recovery
-m     - Print marker information (checksums, filemarks, setmarks)
-E     - specify extent attributes handling: warn, force, or ignore
aps39-69-root# pwd
/testvg1
aps39-69-root# frecover -f  /testvg1/fbackup.disk -rv
aps39-69-root# ll
total 252
-rw-------   1 root       sys         129024 Jul 22 23:01 fbackup.disk
drwxr-xr-x   2 root       root            96 Jul 22 12:28 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   2 root       sys             96 Jul 22 14:18 restore

Restore

[Patrick Wallek]

When using the '-X' option to frecover, you do NOT specify a directory name.  The recovery is done relative to your current directory.

For example, I just backed up my /tmp/ directory.  Now I am going to recover /tmp into /var/tmp/PWW:

# cd /var/tmp/PWW

# pwd
/var/tmp/PWW

# frecover -xX -f /var/tmp/fbackup.disk -i /tmp

# ll
total 32
drwxr-xr-x 3 root sys 96 May 7 09:51 .
drwxrwxrwt 19 root root 8192 May 7 09:51 ..
drwxrwxrwt 9 root root 8192 May 7 09:47 tmp

If you want to recover everything from your backup tape, relative to your current directory, then you can do:

# frecover -rX -f /var/tmp/fbackup.disk

[Syedfurquan]

Hello Patrick,

Once again many thanks for the reply.

Now I need one last suggestion here is, I am going to take fbackup on disk my full database backup and frecover it in the same LUN as new LUN is having much spaces free. Currently I was doing this using Data Protector in test server where database size was around 290GB, backup time is around 6 hours where as restoration took more than 24hrs. I took backup on Ultrium4 tape using iscsi ultrium 4 tape drive over network and restore on new LUN of EMC_VNX

Now since I am trying to take backup using fbackup on the same server I believe I will be getting much better performance over here as I will be not able to get around 30hrs of downtime in production.

Can I proceed this way and how much time you expect it will take to complete? Any other suggestion is also most welcome.

[Patrick Wallek]

Without knowing your hardware, storage, fibre and numerous other factors that cold affect performance, it is very very difficult to make any sort of guess about how long your backup will take.

That would be more of a process of you doing some tests by backing up part of the data, say 10 or 20 GB, seeing how long that takes, and then calculating a rough total time from that.  However that is an inexact science as well since numerous small files take longer to backup than a few large files.

[Syedfurquan]

Hello  Patrick,

Agree with you that it is very difficult to guess the timing.

My only query are:

1. Is it recomended or Can I take backup of database around 380GB using fbackup on disk?

2. Since backup using HP Data Protector is taking 6hours and restoration around 32 hrs for 300GB databse which is doing over ethernet network. So if I go fbackup on disk it should be faster as backup and restoration is on the same server?

Regards,

[Patrick Wallek]

>>1. Is it recomended or Can I take backup of database around 380GB using fbackup on disk?

Do you have enough spare disk space to create a backup that big?  If so, and the filesystem can handle files larger than 2 GB, it's worth a shot.

>>2. Since backup using HP Data Protector is taking 6hours and restoration around 32 hrs for 300GB databse which is doing over ethernet network. So if I go fbackup on disk it should be faster as backup and restoration is on the same server?

I would think it should be faster than tape but I can't answer that with absolute certainty since I don't know anything about your system.

If it's not as fast don't blame me.  That is what testing is for!

[Syedfurquan]

>>If it's not as fast don't blame me.  That is what testing is for!

ha ha surely I will not blame you :-)

In fact I am very much thankfull to you for all your support and will update you tomorrow with the backup and restore time fbackup has taken.

Regards,

[chindi]

Hi ,

You can try EMC's open migrator tool which comes free with VNX.

We have migrated our entire data from EVA 6400 to EMC VNX5500 using the same.

We have 4gbps SAN-SWITCH for our EVA6400 , hpux 11iv2 hosts .

For 700GB transfer it took around 2 hrs only .