fbackup incremental not working

[Belinda Dermody]

I asked a question the other day about the difference in the levels 1-9. I started using incrementals this week, but I must be doing something wrong because it does a full on the days that it should be doing a 1..

I have all the proper files(dates config) and I then ran test on my home directory this morning, forcing a 0 level the first time and then a 1 level and it did a complete dump each time. Attached is the cut/paste of the script with the echo command on and a copy of the dates file.

All assistance would be appreciated..

[Clemens van Everdingen]

Hi,

In this thread you see a very nice explanation of fabckup incremental levels.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xdefb5f260cafd4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

C.

[Clemens van Everdingen]

Hi,

Also this document might help you out !

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90672/B2355-90672.html

See the part of Backing Up and Restore data.

C.

[Steve Steel]

Hi

When doing an incremental backup of a particular graph (specified by a graph file name), at a particular level, fbackup will search the file /var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates to find the date of the most recent backup of the same graph that was done at a lower level. If no such entry is found, the beginning of time is assumed. All files in the specified graph that have been modified since this date are backed up

Is your dates file up to date or do you have a
program which changes ctime on your home directory.


Steve Steel

[Belinda Dermody]

Steve; Thanks for the response, I thought you had it with the same graph names, I was using different ones. But as you can see, I named them all and ran two level 1's with the same graph name as the level 0 and still got a full dump of my home directory. I do not do anything to change the time of the files. Some of them are years old.
=========== DATES FILE ======
/tmp/restore/backup.graph 1 1021034878 1021034926
STARTED: Fri May 10 08:47:58 2002 ENDED: Fri May 10 08:48:46 2002

/tmp/restore/midwk.graph 0 1021032079 1021032116
STARTED: Fri May 10 08:01:19 2002 ENDED: Fri May 10 08:01:56 2002

/tmp/restore/midwk.graph 1 1021035749 1021035786
STARTED: Fri May 10 09:02:29 2002 ENDED: Fri May 10 09:03:06 200

[Steve Steel]

Hi

It must be this

An incremental backup is used for saving data which has changed since the last full backup. Thus you do not always have to runa full
backup .

The incremental procedure is as follows:

A Full backup specifying
1)graphfile
2)parameters -0 and -u.
-u enters the start and the end of the backup in the file dates. This file is for later incremental backups. An entry is made only when the backup has been successful.

/var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates

b)Incremental backup specifying the graphfile. NOTE You must specify the same graphfile since or the incremental backup produces a
full backup of the specified file system.
Note The options -i and -e must not be used.

Fbackup incremental reads the specifications in dates and compares these time stamps with each file:

Fbackup saves the file if:
The file's modification date is after the start of the last full backup entered
(in the dates file with the same graphfile)

The modification date of the i-nodes is after the completion of the same backup

WARNING! If a backup has not completed successfully, yet the i-node modification data alters and you run another incremental backup, the backup can be of an unexpectedly large size.


Steve Steel

[Sanjay_6 · Accepted solution]

Hi James,

Seems like you are not using the -u option with the fbackup command to update the /var/adm/fbackupfiles/dates file. Try this,

Take a Level 0 backup,

fbackup -v -f /dev/rmt/0m -u -0 -g /tmp/graph_file > /tmp/fbackup.log 2>&1

Next take a level 1 backup,

fbackup -v -f /dev/rmt/0m -u -1 -g /tmp/graph_file > /tmp/fbackup.log 2>&1

Hope this helps.

Regds