Introduction and Backup Types

What is a backup?

In simple terms, a backup is a copy of data saved and stored in a location other than the original one, which can be used to restore the original data in case of a software or hardware failure resulting in data loss.

Our Catalogic DPX solution features several types of backup to suit your business needs and allow for efficient data recovery should you need one.

Before backing up any of your data, you need to understand what backup type you should use. Catalogic DPX offers several backup types, as specified below:

Backup type	Description
File	In a File backup, data is logically backed up by file and directory. File backup is what you normally think of when you think of backups. For more information, see File Backup.
Block	A DPX Block Data Protection backup provides seamless block-level backup from primary NetApp storage systems and other primary systems (such as Windows-, UNIX-, or Linux-based operating systems) to secondary storage systems. For a comprehensive discussion about Block backup, see Block Backup.
NDMP	An NDMP backup backs up data on Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances using Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP). DPX handles the details of communication between nodes running NDMP-compliant software. For a comprehensive discussion about NDMP Backup, see NDMP Backup.
Image	Image backup performs a block-level backup, typically to tape. Free space is not backed up. Image backup is used only to provide a base backup for remote seeding and to protect Catalogic DPX Open Storage Server. For remote seeding, Image runs only as a base backup; for protection of Catalogic DPX Open Storage Server, Image runs as an initial base backup followed by incrementals. Image backup is not supported for incremental or differential backup of clients. However, if incremental or differential Image backup information exists in the Catalog from an upgraded environment and the Image backups are preserved, the backups can be used for restores. For Linux users, note that only base backup is supported for remote seeding purposes. For more details, see Image Backup.
Agentless	Agentless backup provides robust protection in VMware and Hyper-V environments. All backups are done through one or more proxy servers, which communicate with VMs. Backup agents are not required on individual VMs, thus VM data protection is referred to as “agentless”. For more details, see Agentless Backup.

Catalog Backup is a special mode for backing up the Catalog, which is the DPX Master Server metadata container. For more information about Catalog Backup, see Catalog Backup.

Note. For all backup types, sparse files on Linux are not treated as sparse files during backup or restore.

Backup jobs

To run a backup of any kind in Catalogic DPX, you need to define a backup job first. You can set backup source, destination, encryption, and job notification options, or use the default values, depending on the specific backup type. The default parameters can be customized to facilitate the job definition process for new jobs.

The topics below describe setting source and destination job options and other parameters for different backup types. The setting process and particular functionalities available may differ depending on the interface you are using. Currently, Catalogic DPX offers access either through the web (HTML5-based) interface from your browser or through the desktop (Java-based) application requiring a Java environment installed on the machine you are accessing the Catalogic DPX from. The desktop application is older and will be deprecated in the future. The web interface is continuously developed and currently supports all typical Catalogic DPX functionalities.