Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Creating a Server Backup action

A Server Backup action performs a bootstrap backup of the NetWorker media and resource databases, and can also include the client file indexes. By default, the NetWorker server configuration contains a Server Protection policy that contains NMC server backup and Server db backup workflows. The Server db backup workflow contain a server backup action. This section describes how to create a new server db backup action, if required.

1. In the expanded left pane, select the policy's workflow, and then perform one of the following tasks in the right pane to start the Policy Action wizard:
   • If the action is the first action in the workflow, select Create a new action.
   • If the workflow has other actions, right-click an empty area of the Actions pane, and then select New.
   The Policy Action wizard opens on the Specify the Action Information page.
2. From the Action Type list, select Server Backup.
3. If you create the action as part of the workflow configuration, the workflow appears automatically in the Workflow box and the box is dimmed.
4. Specify the order of the action in relation to other actions in the workflow:
   • If the action is part of a sequence of actions in a workflow path, in the Previous box, select the action that should precede this action.
   • If the action should run concurrently with an action, in the Previous box, select the concurrent action, and then select the Concurrent checkbox.
5. Specify a weekly, monthly, or reference schedule for the action:

   • To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Define option under Select Schedule and period as Weekly by day.

   • To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Define option under Select Schedule and period as Monthly by day.
   • To specify a customized schedule to the action, select Select option under Select Schedule and choose a customized schedule using the drop-down menu that is already created under NSR schedule resource.
6. Click the icon on each day to specify the type of backup to perform.

   To perform the same type of backup on each day, select the backup type from the list and click Make All.

7. Click Next.
   The Server Backup Options page appears.
8. From the Destination Storage Node list, select the storage node with the devices on which to store the backup data.
9. From the Destination Pool list, select the media pool in which to store the backup data.
10. From the Retention lists, specify the amount of time to retain the backup data.
    After the retention period expires, the save set is marked as recyclable during an expiration server maintenance task.
11. Specify whether to include the client file indexes in the server backup by selecting or clearing the Perform CFI checkbox.
    When you clear this option, the action will only backup the bootstrap.
12. Specify whether to include a bootstrap backup in the server backup by selecting or clearing the Perform Bootstrap checkbox.
    When you clear this option, the action will only backup the client file indexes.

    NOTE:You must select either the Perform CFI checkbox, the Perform Bootstrap checkbox, or both checkboxes. Otherwise, the server backup action does not back up any data.
13. Click Next.
    The Specify the Advanced Options page appears.
14. In the Retries field, specify the number of times that NetWorker should retry a failed probe or backup action, before NetWorker considers the action as failed. When the Retries value is 0, NetWorker does not retry a failed probe or backup action.
    NOTE:The Retries option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. If you specify a value for this option for other actions, NetWorker ignores the values.
15. In the Retry Delay field, specify a delay in seconds to wait before retrying a failed probe or backup action. When the Retry Delay value is 0, NetWorker retries the failed probe or backup action immediately.
    NOTE:The Retry Delay option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. When you specify a value for this option in other actions, NetWorker ignores the values.
16. In the Inactivity Timeout field, specify the maximum number of minutes that a job that is run by an action can try to respond to the server.

    If the job does not respond within the specified time, the server considers the job a failure and NetWorker retries the job immediately to ensures that no time is lost due to failures.

    Increase the timeout value if a backup consistently stops due to inactivity. Inactivity might occur for backups of large save sets, backups of save sets with large sparse files, and incremental backups of many small static files.

    NOTE:The Inactivity Timeout option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types. If you specify a value for this option in other actions, NetWorker ignores the value.
17. In the Parallelism field, specify the maximum number of concurrent operations for the action. This is applicable if multiple rollover is implemented at an action level.

    For Direct-NDMP backups, set the parallelism value to the number of available NDMP drives.

    If you set the parallelism attribute to a higher value, there will not be enough drives to support all the queued backup save sets. Large save sets might fail due to the inactivity timeout limit.

    When NDMP groups back up simultaneously, divide the number of drives by the number of groups. Use this value for each of the parallelism attributes.

    Setting the parallelism value for the group overrides the parallelism value that is defined for the NDMP clients.

18. From the Failure Impact list, specify what to do when a job fails:
    • To continue the workflow when there are job failures, select Continue.
    • To stop the current action if there is a failure with one of the jobs, but continue with subsequent actions in the workflow, select Abort action.
      NOTE:The Abort action option applies to probe actions, and the backup actions for the Traditional and Snapshot action types.
    • To stop the entire workflow if there is a failure with one of the jobs in the action, select Abort workflow.
    NOTE:If any of the actions fail in the workflow, the workflow status does not appear as interrupted or canceled. NetWorker reports the workflow status as failed.
19. From the Send Notifications list box, select whether to send notifications for the action:
    • To use the notification configuration that is defined in the Policy resource to send the notification, select Set at policy level.
    • To send a notification on completion of the action, select On Completion.
    • To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.
20. From the Soft Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the initiation of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
21. From the Hard Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
22. (Optional) Configure overrides for the task that is scheduled on a specific day.
    To specify the month, use the navigation buttons and the month list box. To specify the year, use the spin boxes. You can set an override in the following ways:

    • Select the day in the calendar, which changes the action task for the specific day.
    • Use the action task list to select the task, and then perform one of the following steps:
      • To define an override that occurs on a specific day of the week, every week, select Specified day, and then use the lists. Click Add Rules based override.
      • To define an override that occurs on the last day of the calendar month, select Last day of the month. Click Add Rules based override.
      NOTE:

      • You can edit or add the rules in the Override field.
      • To remove an override, delete the entry from the Override field.
      • If a schedule is associated to an action, then override option is disabled.
23. Click Next.
    The Action Configuration Summary page appears.
24. Review the settings that you specified for the action, and then click Configure.