Super-Networking Blog

I found out an interesting quirk when backing up DFS (Distributed File System) files using Symantec Backup Exec 11D. I have a full backup setup, basically selected the entire drive to backup, finishes every night with no errors.

You go back into the job in Backup Exec and try to do a restore, what do you find? The folders that contain the DFS files are empty, 0 bytes. My first thought is what the hell is this all about. Was scared for a minute or two thinking I have no backups on tape of any of my DFS files.

I looked into it more and found that starting in Backup Exec 10d SP2 and continuing through 11d you cannot performance a backup of DFS files directly like you would normally do. You need to use the “DFSR Writer” which means using the Shadow Copy Components backup.

If you go into your server selection in Backup Exec, drill down into Shadow Copy Components -> User Data you will see the DFS info. Make sure to select these to backup your DFS files.

Things to keep in mind about backing up DFS in this manner:

-Backup Performance is greatly affected, could double the time needed for backing up those files.

-DFS Backups in this manner cannot be redirected to another location on restored like a lot of people including myself like to do when restoring files.

One workaround for the speed issue I have found but not tested is to run a Net Stop command for the DFS Replication service before the backup starts then a Net Start for that service when done.

So we have a couple of down and dirty backup servers that run backup scripts and a free backup program called SyncBack. These methods of backups are cheap (free), easy and fast. One problem you run into is when replicating data to multiple locations that have different retention times you need a way to clean-up old files.

We are talking about over 1TB of backed up data and some individual files that are over 100GBs in size. What we have done in the past is use batch files to run clean-up jobs. Robocopy is used to move aged files from backup locations to another location and then the del command is used to empty the directory. The problem with this method is it takes quite some time to move the files and takes additional space as a queue before deletion. The del command doesn’t have age switches built in.

I found a freeware product called delage32 that adds the age functionality into the mix. Now instead of my cleanup scripts moving the old files to a new directory and then del everything in that clean-up directory it just deletes files with a certain age out of the backup directories. This is much more efficient.

Download it here

I have been looking far and wide for a good free file transfer program (not FTP, different protocol) for Amazon S3. S3 only has an API not an interface for you to upload your files. Since I am not a developer and can’t make a program to use their API I need to find one. Free is the best.

I have played with quite a few and it seems like most of them out there are either really fast transfers with the worst interface you have ever used. Either that or the interface is great and the transfers are dog slow. The other class of programs I have been finding are backup programs; I don’t want to just make backups I want to be able to pick and choose what I put up there and change rights.

I finally found what I was looking for, a product called Sissle. This program has a blazing fast transfer, a great user interface and all the features you could want for basic transfers. You can setup your ACLs, it supports file structures, it functions basically like a FTP program just using Amazon’s API.

I just started using it this morning so if I find any major problems I will update this post. So far it is great!