We tried subfile backups as a matter of trying to reduce the amount of data being sent across our network and discovered that sometimes errors would occur during the backup. We never tested a save. The errors during backup changed our mind in doing backups this way.
Buddy Howeth Computer Operations Specialist Information Systems Pacific Coast Producers Corporate Offices 631 N. Cluff Ave Lodi, CA 95240-0756 (209) 367-8800 - Main# (209) 367-6288 - Computer Room (209) 366-6240 - Alpha Pager Paul Zarnowski <[email protected]> Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[email protected]> 06/25/2009 07:13 AM Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject [ADSM-L] VMware image subfile backups We are exploring VMware backups here, and I ran across the following recommendation in IBM Redbook, "Deployment Guide Series: IBM TSM V5.5", which recommends using subfile backups to backup the VMware image files: >Incidentally, we use selective backup as opposed to incremental backup >with full >Virtual Machine images. We do so because when we use subfile backup, all the >subfile chunks can be retained for the same amount of time. full Virtual >Machine >backup works well with Tivoli Storage Manager adaptive differencing (subfile >backup) technology, which eliminates much of the backup overhead of taking >full >images at the client side, before they ever make it to the Tivoli Storage >Manager >server. This process facilitates very efficient backups both from a >client-processing perspective and from the perspective of overall storage >utilization on the Tivoli Storage Manager server. Only changed blocks are >transferred to the Tivoli Storage Manager server during subfile backup. They are suggesting using adaptive subfile backup to backup the VMware image files. Is anyone really doing this? Last I knew, subfile backups were limited to files less than 2GB in size, which would seem to me to make this recommendation of extremely limited usefulness. Thanks for any light-shedding. -- Paul Zarnowski Ph: 607-255-4757 Manager, Storage Services Fx: 607-255-8521 719 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-3801 Em: [email protected] _____________________________________________________________________________ Scanned by IBM Email Security Management Services powered by MessageLabs. For more information please visit http://www.ers.ibm.com _____________________________________________________________________________
