Editing Verification and Cloning Fields for Block Backup Clients

You can choose to verify your Block Data Protection backup application backups (SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle). provides several application verification options, which you associate with the backup source node or the verification host. Details about this feature can be found at Verifying Application Backups in the User's Guide.

Following are the verification fields that appear on the Edit Node dialog, along with their meanings. Unless specified, these fields apply to the backup source node:

• Oracle Home

  If you are an Oracle user that also uses DPX Block Data Protection, set the Oracle Home property on certain nodes. Set the field for any node that will be the target of an Oracle clone restore or on any Oracle verification host. Oracle Home is the value of Oracle_Home on the node. When performing an Oracle clone restore, ensure that the target node does not have the same logical mount points as the source database. The restore process and Oracle startup require that the recovered data be available at the same file system locations that were backed up on the source server. The Instant Access restore process automatically creates the appropriate mount points. For example, if the source database has files hosted on mount points /ora or E:, ensure these mount points are not present on the target node so that DPX may use them. See Oracle Home in the User's Guide.

• Oracle UNIX User

  If you are an Oracle user that also uses DPX Block Data Protection, set the Oracle UNIX User property on certain nodes. Set the field for any node that will be the target of an Oracle clone restore or on any Oracle verification host. Oracle UNIX User is the user name of the owner of the Oracle installation.

• Verification Options: Verify Volumes

  If selected, your backed up volumes are verified. You can select whether they will be verified "inline" or "deferred" (see descriptions in option below). You can also choose Simple or Advanced. For a Simple Volume verification, a “dir” (Windows) or “ls” (Linux) is performed to verify the file list. For an Advanced Volume verification, a chkdsk (Windows) or fsck (Linux) is performed to verify the integrity of the volume’s file system.

• Verification Options: Verify Applications

  Indicates whether applications on this node should be verified "inline", "deferred", or not at all.

  None	Do not perform application verification.
  Inline	Perform application verification as part of the backup job, before cataloging.Verification tasks appear in the job monitor as they occur. If the inline verification fails, the job fails and it is not entered in the Catalog.
  Deferred	Perform application verification as a separate job, after the backup job is completed and cataloged. Deferred verification can be performed automatically after a given time interval. After each deferred verification, the corresponding backup instance is updated in the Catalog with the status. For information related to the state of Exchange 2010/2013 backups, see Setting Verification Options for Microsoft Exchange Server in the User's Guide. "On Demand" verification is initiated from the Restore window by right-clicking the job instance to verify and selecting Verify from the context menu. Information boxes appear as the verification job is created. When you click Run or Run and Monitor on the final information box, the verification job is queued up and begins as soon as possible.

• Verification Options > Verification Node This is the name of a node to use for verification.The verification node must be running iSCSI Initiator, the appropriate application tools (such as Exchange tools), and the same operating system as the backup node.

Note. Any cluster virtual node, including an Exchange DAG virtual node, cannot be manually selected as a verification node; however, if the Verification option is set but no verification node is selected, the virtual node is used as the verification node.

Note. To verify a Windows Server 2012 deduplicated NTFS volume, select a verification node running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2. To verify a Windows Server 2012 R2 deduplicated NTFS volume, select a verification node running Windows Server 2012 R2. See Microsoft ReFS Support in Prerequisites for Catalogic DPX Block Backup in the User's Guide.

Additional requirements for a verification node are as follows:

Oracle	The requirements of the verification node are the same as the requirements for an Oracle cloning target node. See Oracle Home in the User's Guide.
Exchange	For Exchange, the verification node may have either Exchange or Exchange Tools installed. For verification considerations related to Exchange 2010/2013, see Setting Verification Options for Exchange 2010/2013 in the User's Guide.
SQL	Verification node must have SQL Server database installed and should not be the same node as the backup node. A SQL verification node cannot be a cluster node. Note. For a DPX Enterprise that contains multiple instances of SQL, it is recommended that the default verification node remain selected. This prevents compatibility issues by verifying the backups against their original instances.

• Verification Options > Deferred Verification Interval Deferred verification can be performed automatically at a given time interval. Enter the number of minutes to delay verification after the backup job completes.

The following verification fields apply to SQL verification only:

• Verification Options > SQL Options > Verify Table

  The Verify Tables method tests the integrity of database pages for all tables and indexes defined on the tables of the database.

  Yes	Use the Verify Table method.
  No	Do not use the Verify Table method.

• Verification Options > SQL Options > Verify Catalog

  The Verify Catalog method tests the integrity of the database catalog.

  Yes	Use the Verify Catalog method.
  No	Do not use the Verify Catalog method.

• Verification Options > SQL Options > Verify Allocations

  The Verify Allocations method scans all pages of the referenced database and tests pages to help ensure integrity.

  Yes	Use the Verify Allocations method.
  No	Do not use the Verify Allocations method.

• Verification Options > SQL Options > Verify Instance

  Enter the instance name to be used for verification. This is needed because SQL Server on a single node can have multiple instances. The default is the default SQL instance name on the verification server.

The following verification fields apply to Microsoft Exchange 2010/2013 verification only:

• Verification Options > Exchange Options > Verify Database (Exchange 2010/2013)

  Exchange transaction logs are always verified, but in Exchange 2010/2013 you can control whether or not Exchange databases are verified. This option is only in effect if verification (inline, deferred, or on-demand) is chosen for the node.

  Yes	Exchange databases and transaction logs will be verified.
  No	Exchange database will not be verified, but Exchange transaction logs will be verified.

Note. For versions of Exchange earlier than Exchange 2010, verification always includes both the Exchange database and transaction logs. Thus, for earlier versions of Exchange this option has no effect.

• Verification Options > Exchange Options > Throttle Database Verification (Exchange 2010/2013)

  Throttling allows you to reduce system load due to verification processing.

  Yes	Exchange databases and transaction logs will be verified.
  No	Exchange database will not be verified, but Exchange transaction logs will be verified.

Note. Throttling is not supported for versions of Exchange earlier than Exchange 2010/2013. Thus for earlier versions of Exchange this option has no effect.

Related Topics:

• Setting Verification Options for Exchange 2010/2013 in the User's Guide