Prerequisites for Catalogic DPX Block Backup

Review the prerequisites for protecting your data by using the Catalogic DPX Block Backup and either storage solution: the Catalogic DPX Open Storage Servers or the NetApp storage systems.

File Systems and Protocols

Before using Catalogic DPX Block Backup, ensure that the source storage is using the supported file system.

  • Block Backup of NFS or CIFS filesystems is not supported.

  • The Catalogic DPX Client must be configured as TCP/IP nodes.

See also. For the latest system compatibility details regarding supported hardware, file systems, applications, operating systems, and service packs, see the Compatibility Guide.

Microsoft ReFS Support

Catalogic DPX supports Microsoft Resilient File System (ReFS) for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and later with some restrictions for applications and BMR.

For ReFS in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2, note the following limitations:

  • File history generation for Block backup of ReFS volumes is not supported. Selective file restore for ReFS volumes is supported for Block backups through the use of Instant Access.

See also. For more information about Instant Access, see Instant Access as a File History Alternative.

  • Application backups: Oracle Databases, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, using ReFS volumes for data storage are not supported.

  • Restore Search of ReFS volumes is not supported.

  • File restore of ReFS volumes with the Catalogic DPX Archive is not supported.

  • ReFS volumes do not support deduplication.

Related Topics:

Deduplication Considerations for Windows Server NTFS Volumes

The following considerations apply to the Block Restore of Microsoft Windows Server NTFS volumes with Deduplication enabled to the Catalogic DPX Open Storage Server or the NetApp storage unless otherwise specified.

  • Due to a Microsoft limitation, deduplication of system volumes is not supported.

  • File history generation for Block backup of deduplicated NTFS volumes is not supported. Selective file restore for deduplicated NTFS volumes is supported for Block backups through the use of Instant Access, see Instant Access as a File History Alternative.

  • DPX Archive does not support archiving of Block backups of volumes with deduplication in Microsoft Windows Server.

  • Deduplication for the NTFS volume must be enabled in the Server Manager. Only Windows Server 2012 R2 NTFS drives with the data deduplication option General Purpose File Server selected, are supported by DPX. NTFS drives with the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Server option selected is not supported. For more information on verifying this setting, refer to your Microsoft documentation.

  • A deduplicated NTFS volume cannot be restored onto a node running a prior version of Windows. This consideration also applies to the selection of a node for Instant Access mapping, Block backup verification, and Instant Access restore.

  • Ensure that Microsoft iSCSI Initiator is running on the restore node prior to running a restore job.

Whole Volume and Selective File Restore for Microsoft Windows Server NTFS Volumes

Restoring an entire volume of Microsoft Windows Server has advantages over specifying a directory to restore:

  • Volume settings such as deduplication settings configured through Windows are restored along with the volume.

  • Volumes that are optimized via deduplication are restored in their optimized state. Files restored through a selective file restore are restored at their full file size or unoptimized state.

Bandwidth Considerations

Bandwidth for backups may be limited in some environments, particularly for backup to a remote location over a slow line. Catalogic DPX provides several methods for restricting backup transfer rates.

The Throttle backup job source option caps data transmission rates from client nodes to the storage destination. It is important to note that the Throttle option operates at the task level. Generally speaking, a backup task corresponds to a volume backup. The Throttle value applies to each task in a job, thus if a job backs up more than one volume, the maximum throughput will be higher than the Throttle setting. For example, if the Throttle is set to 10 megabytes per second and the job is backing up 10 volumes, the maximum throughput is about 100 megabytes per second.

For Windows, if the overall transmission rate uses more bandwidth than is desired, you can implement node-level throttling. The following are the node-level throttling methods:

  • For Windows 2008 R2 and later, Windows has the ability to define local group policies, which can apply QoS to all inbound and outbound network traffic. For details on using Windows group policy QoS, read the knowledge base article 45991.

  • If local group policies cannot be used and/or throttling for Windows 2003 is required, you can set a Catalogic option to control a node’s outbound traffic. For requirements and configuration for this function, read the knowledge base article 46361.

Note that the three throttling methods are not compatible with each other. Select the method appropriate to your environment, and use only one.

Throttling is not supported for backup to NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP.

Pre-Installation Considerations for Linux Clients

  • Linux Block backups are supported for extended filesystems attributes and Reiser filesystems on LVM2 (logical volume manager). Non-LVM volumes are not supported.

  • LVM2 must be installed on all DPX Linux client filesystems including root. Each VG Group must maintain 10% of the VG Group space as empty space.

  • The iSCSI Utility Package must be installed on the Linux node in order to use IA Map or manual verify functions.

  • Linux GRUB loader is required.

Change Journal Considerations for Linux Clients

The Catalogic DPX Block Data Protection uses change journaling to track block-level changes on nodes to be backed up. This enables efficient backups of only changed blocks. Note the following requirements and limitations related to change journaling on Linux nodes:

  • Change journaling on Linux nodes tracks changes for up to 20 logical volume devices on a backup source node. If the node has more than 20 volumes, the backup will succeed but only the first 20 volumes discovered are journaled for block-level backup. Volumes beyond 20 are backed up with an alternate, lower-performance method. Linux servers do not typically reach this limit. In the event you have more than 20 volumes on the node, contact Catalogic Software Data Protection Technical Support for assistance in creating backup jobs. Note that the limit does not affect Bare Metal Recovery.

  • Change journaling on Linux nodes tracks changes for up to 16 separate job definitions per volume. This is a theoretical limit that would rarely be reached in a real environment since most servers are backed up by a single backup job definition.

  • The length of a backup device name is limited to 63 characters. Physical device names are typically short (for example, /dev/sda1). LVM2 volume group names are usually longer (for example, /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00). In either case, the length of a Linux device path is typically well under 63 characters.

  • The total length of a path name where a device is mounted (for example: /opt/application/data) is limited to 96 characters.

Incremental Backup Support without using the Change Journal Driver

Some Linux operating systems do not use DPX change journaling explicitly, though the behavior for Block Data Protection is similar. Note the following considerations for incremental backup support without the change journal driver:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7, CentOS 6.7 Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, CentOS Linux 7.x, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.x and later do not use the change journal driver.

  • The supported filesystems on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms are ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, and ReiserFS.

  • The supported filesystems on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server platforms are ext2, ext3, ext4, and ReiserFS.

See also. For the latest system compatibility details regarding supported hardware, file systems, applications, operating systems, and service packs, see the Compatibility Guide.

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