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PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 File System Agent User Guide

File System agent limitations

Review the following limitations that are related to File System agent support in PowerProtect Data Manager.

Windows and Linux limitations

  • File System agent block-based backups exclude the following:
    • Application files such as SQL and Exchange.
      NOTE For file-based backups, application data such as SQL, Hyper-V, and Exchange is backed up.
    • HyperVisor files. The File System agent is installed primarily in the guest operating system for the backup of guest file system volumes, and is not dependent on the underlying HyperVisor.
    • Data belonging to individual application writers.
    • Unsupported application writer files.
  • It is recommended to use different mount points for each drive. Reusing mount points might cause unexpected issues during file system discovery.
  • The File System agent supports operating systems in the following languages:
    • English — full support.
    • Japanese — the File System agent can be used for all protection and restore operations on a Japanese-language operating system, provided that volume asset names are in English. Only file and folder names can be in Japanese.
    • Other languages — not supported.
    Software compatibility information for the PowerProtect Data Manager software and the File System agent is provided in the eLab Navigator, available at https://elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/modernHomeDataProtection.
  • If a Windows or Linux file system host is unregistered from PowerProtect Data Manager and then re-registered with a different FQDN, because PowerProtect Data Manager recognizes the registration as a new host by its new name, duplicate asset entries appear in the UI—those for the host that is registered earlier, as well as for the host that is registered by the new name. This does not impact backup and restore functionality on the new host.
  • IPv6 is not supported. Use IPv4 instead.
  • The File System agent and application agents use the FQDN for registration. If the File System agent coexists with the Microsoft SQL, Oracle, or SAP HANA application agent, both agents must use the FQDN.
  • For a protection policy backup with assets from different hosts, the backup status appears as "Failed" in the UI if the backup of one asset within the policy fails.
  • Running the ddfssv and ddfsrc commands to perform self-service backup and restore of file systems fails if you provide the DD hostname (instead of IP) for the DFA_SI_DD_HOST variable.
  • If the Bytes of sector sizes of the source and target volumes are different, PowerProtect Data Manager does not support block-based image recoveries. For example, you cannot perform a block-based image recovery of a volume that has 4096 as the Bytes of sector size to a volume that has 512 as the Bytes of sector size, and vice versa.

Linux limitations

  • PowerProtect Data Manager does not support ext4 file systems on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) version 11 SP1-SP4 platforms. The ext4 file system is read-only on SLES version 11.
  • On the Linux hosts that have the UEFI Secure Boot option enabled, block-based backup drivers do not load, and the error message insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/ modules/ 3.10.0-693.el7.x86_64/ extra/nsrbbb.ko: Required key not available appears. As a workaround, you can disable the Secure Boot option.
  • A file system backup might fail with the error Insufficient space exists in the volume group for creating shadow of the volume when there is not enough space in the volume group for a block-based backup to succeed. Each volume group on LVM2 or VxVM must have at least 10% free space.
  • On Linux, performing an image-level restore of a block-based backup volume to an alternate location changes the GUID for the volume. As a result, PowerProtect Data Manager displays duplicate assets on the Infrastructure > Assets pane, where the older asset has a status of Deleted/Not Detected. To ensure continued protection, replace the old asset in the protection policy with the new asset. 

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