NetBackup primary service catalog protection using checkpoints
In NetBackup Flex Scale, you can protect your primary service from software failures or from being corrupted using checkpoints. The checkpoints are created for the primary service catalog file system every 2 hours according to a schedule. A maximum of 36 checkpoints can be created. Once the total number of checkpoints exceed 36, the oldest checkpoint is deleted and a new checkpoint is created.
For the restore operation, NetBackup Flex Scale uses the checkpoint of checkpoint which is provided by the underlying file system. Checkpoint of checkpoint is a new checkpoint that is created by mounting the checkpoint that is selected for validation. After the new checkpoint is created, it is used for validation and restore.
All the checkpoints consume storage from the same volume set. As the checkpoints are copy-on-write, only modified data gets pushed to the checkpoints. But depending on data change rate, the checkpoints can consume considerable storage. If the primary file set cannot allocate storage during the write or file creation operation, instead of returning an ENOSPC error to the user, the oldest checkpoint is automatically deleted to make space. An email notification is sent if checkpoints are deleted to make free space.
All other operations such as adding a node and replacing a node are blocked when catalog restore is in progress.
Note:
This section is not applicable if you deploy a cluster with only media servers.
See Performing a recovery of the catalog file system using GUI.
See Performing a recovery of the catalog file system using REST APIs.
Note:
When the primary service catalog file system is recovered using an old checkpoint, the primary service goes back to the point in time of the checkpoint. The images created after that point in time will remain in the system and cannot be accessed unless they are reimported.
For more details on import, see the Importing backup images, Phase I and Importing backup images, Phase II sections in the NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I.