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Avamar: Capacity Management - How to delete or expire backups in bulk with the "modify-snapups" tool

Summary: How to delete or expire backups in bulk with the "modify-snapups" tool.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

This article is to document how to use the modify-snapups tool on an Avamar system to help with some of the following challenges.
  • The Administrator wants to delete backups in bulk to resolve or prevent a high capacity situation.
  • The system is becoming full and, although retention policies are reduced, this action affects only new backups. It is also necessary to alter the expiration of existing backups.
  • Existing backups were set with incorrect expiration dates.
  • Business requirements change and the organizational must store more or fewer backups than originally planned for.

    Cause

    The 'modify-snapups.sh' utility is a script which is present by default, on the Avamar Utility Node under /usr/local/avamar/bin.

    Resolution

    The utility replaces the scripts 'expire-snapups' and 'delete-snapups', which were earlier forms of the tool. Both of these earlier scripts are deprecated and the commands now directly call modify-snapups, if run (see item #1 in Notes).

    Expire and Delete modes:    
    modify-snapups is run using either the expire mode or the delete mode. 
    modify-snapups --help
modify-snapups - modify snapups
Version: 7.1.0-370 (1.11)
Usage: modify-snapups [--mode={delete|expire}] [--help] [options ]
This program does nothing when invoked as modify-snapups.
Instead, invoke this program as delete-snapups or expire-snapups,
or else with --mode={delete|expire} before any other options.
    The flags that are passed to each mode are almost identical and are viewed by appending --help to the command. (see item #2 in Notes)

    What does the script do?  
    Running modify-snapups on its own is safe as it does not make any changes to the Avamar server.

    When run with correct arguments, the utility generates a script containing a list of commands. Running the script runs the list of commands in serial, in order to change the expiration dates of each backup or to delete it.

    The commands are generated according to the flags passed to modify-snapups.  

    A user can decide whether to include backups:      
    • Within a certain date range (--after / --before)
    • Under a certain domain (--domain)
    • For a certain client
    • Whether to include internal Avamar database backups for AVI, EM, MC
    • Whether to include backups on the replication target

    Example commands

    Example 1: Check all the backups under 'mydomain' and create a script which expires those created before 1 March 2015. 
    modify-snapups --mode=expire --domain=/mydomain --before=2015-03-01 > expire-backups-output-script.txt
    The script produces a list of mccli backup edit commands to MODIFY (which, in this case, is to expire) the appropriate backups. Those not matching the criteria are also listed but are prefixed with a hash (#) and the description CONSERVE:    
    # MODIFY    Snapup date: 2015-02-17 08:04:30 GMT Lab#: 418     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=418 --created=2015-02-17 --expiration=2015-05-18"
mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=418 --created=2015-02-17 --expiration=2015-05-18
# CONSERVE Snapup date: 2015-04-17 08:05:18 IST Lab#: 457     Replicated: N/A
# echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=457 --created=2015-04-17 --expiration=2015-07-16"
# mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=457 --created=2015-04-17 --expiration=2015-07-16
# CONSERVE Snapup date: 2015-04-16 08:03:46 IST Lab#: 456     Replicated: N/A
# echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=456 --created=2015-04-16 --expiration=2015-07-15"
# mccli backup edit --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=456 --created=2015-04-16 --expiration=2015-07-15

    Example 2: Delete all backups under mydomain which were created more than one month ago. 
    modify-snapups --mode=delete --domain=/mydomain --before='1 month ago' > output-script.txt

    Use proper dates as in example #1 but, to illustrate, here are used 'friendly' Linux date notations (1 month ago).

    The script contains output as shown below (truncated for space reasons). In the header, the script explains exactly what operation it is carrying out and the parameters that are in force. The script was run on 17 April 2015. 
    # ======================================================================
# CLIENT: /mydomain/server
#     Operation: DELETE selected snapups
#     After: "June 1 1999 00:00:00" (928191600) Tue Jun  1 00:00:00 IST 1999
#     Before: "1 month ago" (1426614045) Tue Mar 17 17:40:45 GMT 2015
# ======================================================================
# *** NO SNAPUPS FOUND ***
# ======================================================================
# CLIENT: /mydomain/myclient.avamar.com
#     Operation: DELETE selected snapups
#     After: "June 1 1999 00:00:00" (928191600) Tue Jun  1 00:00:00 IST 1999
#     Before: "1 month ago" (1426614045) Tue Mar 17 17:40:45 GMT 2015
# ======================================================================
# CONSERVE Snapup date: 2015-03-18 08:03:31 GMT Lab#: 437     Replicated: N/A
# echo running: "mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=437 --created=2015-03-18 --force=true"
# mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=437 --created=2015-03-18 --force=true
# MODIFY    Snapup date: 2015-03-16 08:03:57 GMT Lab#: 435     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=435 --created=2015-03-16 --force=true"
mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=435 --created=2015-03-16 --force=true
# MODIFY    Snapup date: 2015-03-13 08:01:30 GMT Lab#: 434     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=434 --created=2015-03-13 --force=true"
mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=434 --created=2015-03-13 --force=true
# MODIFY    Snapup date: 2015-03-12 08:09:20 GMT Lab#: 433     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=433 --created=2015-03-12 --force=true"
mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.avamar.com --labelNum=433 --created=2015-03-12 --force=true

    Backups that are listed with MODIFY are altered with the 'mccli backup delete' command. These backups all have 'created' dates before 1 month ago (17 March 2015).

    Example 3: Extend the expiration of existing backups.
    The following command takes backups that are created between 1 and 15 May 2018 for clients under the /clients domain and creates a script which, when run, replaces the expiration of those backups so that they expire 100 days after the backup was created. 
    modify-snapups --domain=/clients/ --mode=expire --after='2018-05-01' --before='2018-05-15'  --days=100 > expire-backups-output-script.txt
.
8<----------------------SNIP------------------8<
.
# ======================================================================
# CLIENT: /clients/server.asl.lab.emc.com
#     Operation: EXPIRE selected snapups
#     After: "2018-05-01" (1525158000) Tue May  1 00:00:00 PDT 2018
#     Before: "2018-05-15 " (1526367600) Tue May 15 00:00:00 PDT 2018
# ======================================================================
# MODIFY    Snapup date: 2018-05-07 22:00:52 PDT   Lab#: 498     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=498 --created=2018-05-07 --expiration=2018-08-15"
mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=498 --created=2018-05-07 --expiration=2018-08-15
# MODIFY    Snapup date: 2018-05-06 22:00:46 PDT   Lab#: 497     Replicated: N/A
echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=497 --created=2018-05-06 --expiration=2018-08-14"
mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=497 --created=2018-05-06 --expiration=2018-08-14
8<----------------------SNIP------------------8< .
# CONSERVE  Snapup date: 2018-06-25 22:00:41 PDT   Lab#: 501     Replicated: N/A
# echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=501 --created=2018-06-25 --expiration=2018-10-03"
# mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=501 --created=2018-06-25 --expiration=2018-10-03
# CONSERVE  Snapup date: 2018-04-30 22:00:57 PDT   Lab#: 491     Replicated: N/A
# echo running: "mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=491 --created=2018-04-30 --expiration=2018-08-08"
# mccli backup edit --domain=/clients --name=server --labelNum=491 --created=2018-04-30 --expiration=2018-08-08

    Running the script to modify or delete backups

    It is strongly recommended that a checkpoint be taken prior to running this procedure.

    After creating the script, check the contents carefully. When happy with the actions which are to be carried out, set the script to be executable.

    For example, create a script to delete all backups under /mydomain which are older than 6 months.

    Set the script to be executable and check the permissions:     
    admin@utility:~/modsnap/>: chmod +x delete-backups-mydomain-before-6monthsago.txt
admin@utility:~/modsnap/>:  ls -l
-rwx------ 1 admin admin 15016 Apr 17 18:55 delete-backups-mydomain-before-6monthsago.txt

    Run the script. Redirect the output to another file to record the changes made. 
    admin@utility:~/modsnap/>: ./delete-backups-mydomain-before-6monthsago.txt
running: mccli backup delete --domain=/mydomain --name=myclient.customer.com --labelNum=323 --created=2014-09-25 --force=true
0,22553,Backup deleted.
Attribute  Value
---------- --------------------------------------
path       /mydomain/myclient.customer.com
retention  N
labelnum   323
createtime 2014-09-25 18:07:04 IST
plugin     3001

    If the script ran to completion and is run a second time, it displays:     
    1,22552,Backup does not exist

    If the script takes a long time to run and must be halted, it can be run a second time. To avoid rechecking previously deleted backups, edit the script manually to delete the commands already processed. Alternatively, regenerate the script again.

    Generating and running the script can take a significant amount of time. It is helpful to 'divide and conquer' by splitting the work into smaller periods of time or individual domains.

    Additional Information

    Item #1 
    ls -ls /usr/local/avamar/bin/ | grep modify-snapups
     0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root         14 Nov 28 19:42 delete-snapups -> modify-snapups
     0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root         14 Nov 28 19:42 expire-snapups -> modify-snapups
    24 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root  root      24185 Sep  8 23:46 modify-snapups

    The term 'snapup' is an obsolete Avamar terminology which can be taken to mean a backup. It is a hybrid of the words snapshot and backup.

    Item #2
    Full documentation on how to use delete and expire modes is available by appending --help to the command. 
    modify-snapups --mode=expire --help
modify-snapups --mode=delete --help

    Item #3
    Be aware of the following article. See this video:  
     

    Affected Products

    Avamar

    Products

    Avamar, Avamar Client, Avamar Server
    Article Properties
    Article Number: 000058216
    Article Type: Solution
    Last Modified: 19 Nov 2024
    Version:  9
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