Previous PageNext Page

Chapter 3 - EBR Daily Operations

Monitoring the EBR service
Changing EBR servers
Listing clients and servers
Managing backup volumes
Displaying media set information
Starting a network-wide backup
Selecting clients for backup
Changing options
Recovering backup data

Adding new clients to a backup group
Adjusting group start times to reduce network load

Figure 3-1. EBR Administrator Program Icon

Figure 3-2. EBR Administrator Window

Monitoring the EBR Service

Changing EBR Servers

1. Choose Change from the Server menu.

Tip: Or click the Change Server button on the speedbar.

The Change Server dialog box appears:

Figure 3-3. Change Server Dialog Box

2. In the Server box, type the name of the server you want, or locate its name in the scrolling list and highlight it.

If the scrolling list is empty, click the Update List button. This action enumerates all EBR services (both active and inactive) on the network, and lists the name of the server on which the service is installed. On a large or busy network, this update may take a minute or so to complete. EBR Administrator saves the updated list of EBR services in memory.

Note: EBR Administrator uses StreetTalk Directory Assistance (STDA) to find EBR services on your network. If you have created any EBR services since the last time STDA updated its database, they will not show up when you use Update List.

3. Press [Enter] or click OK. If you prefer to use the list of servers, you can double-click on your choice to select it.

Listing Clients and Servers

1. Choose Find from the Client menu. The following message appears:

Figure 3-4. EBR Search Message

Figure 3-5. Find Clients Dialog Box

The Find Clients dialog box displays the name of every EBR server or workstation client on the network and the name of the EBR service to which it is assigned.

2. To change to a different server, highlight its name in the dialog box and click the Change Server button. You can also use the Change Server dialog box.

Tip: To change servers, you can also double-click on the server name in the Find Clients dialog box.

Managing Backup Volumes

Tip: Consider keeping some backup volumes off-site. If backup volumes on-site are destroyed, you can recover your company' s data from the off-site volumes.

Labeling a Backup Volume

Tip: You can give a backup volume any name you want, provided each one has a unique name. Be sure that the name on the adhesive label to the physical volume is the same name as the one you typed into the Label dialog box.

mars.1 This backup volume is the first of a sequence for the
             EBR service running on server mars
pluto.10 This backup volume is the tenth of a sequence for the
             EBR service running on server pluto

jupiter.001 jupiter.002 ... jupiter.999

Important: The EBR service tracks the information stored on each backup volume. Backups are not overwritten, but appended to the backup volume each time it is used. Therefore, you can leave the same backup volume in the server' s backup device no matter which backups are scheduled. When the backup volume is full, the service requests a new one.

Tip: If you cannot read the adhesive label on a volume, you can use EBR Administrator's Verify Label feature to determine it. See "Verifying a Volume Name" later in this chapter for more information.

Labeling and Mounting in One Operation

1. Insert the backup volume into the device on the server. For example, put a tape into the drive.

2. If the EBR server has more than one device, highlight the appropriate device in the Devices window. Only Banyan CNS servers currently support more than one tape device.

3. Choose Label and Mount from the Media menu.

Tip: Or click the Label & Mount button on the speedbar.

The Label and Mount dialog box appears:

Figure 3-6. Label and Mount Dialog Box

If the backup volume has already been labeled, the EBR service checks it, then displays its name in the Volume Label field, and its media pool name in the Pools field. For an unlabeled backup volume, the Volume Label field is empty.

4. Under Pools, make sure the Default choice is selected. The Archive choice is explained in "Labeling an Archive Volume" later in this chapter.

The Pools field specifies media pool membership for this volume. The Default pool is for general backups, and the Full and NonFull pools may be used if you want to separate backup media by level of coverage.

See Chapter 4 for more information about media pools and for an explanation of full and non-full backups.

5. Enter the name for this backup volume into the Volume Label field, and click OK or press the [Enter] key. If you try to label a backup volume that you have previously labeled, EBR Administrator prompts you with a notice to make sure you really want to re-label the backup volume with a different name or type. For example:

Figure 3-7. Relabel Confirmation Prompt

If a backup volume is recyclable, the EBR service re-labels it without asking permission to overwrite. (Recyclable means a volume is re-usable.)

If a backup volume is not recyclable, EBR Administrator prompts you again to make sure you want to recycle it. For more information about re-labeling and recycling backup volumes, see Chapter 5.

Important: If you re-label a volume, the information written there is no longer accessible to EBR.

Labeling a Backup Volume without Mounting

Labeling an Archive Volume

Mounting Volumes

Use Mount (Read/Write) when you want the backup volume to be available for both backing up files or recovering files.
Use Mount (Read Only) when the backup volume should be used for recovering files only. In other words, the EBR service will not write to the mounted volume even if someone tries to back up their files. Backup volumes mounted as read only display an "(R)" next to their name in the Devices window.

1. Insert the backup volume into its server device.

2. In the Devices window, highlight the appropriate device (if necessary).

3. Choose Mount (Read/Write) from the Media menu.

Tip: Or click the Mount read/write button on the speedbar.

If you wish to mount a volume for recovers only, and do not want users backing up to that volume, choose Mount (Read Only) instead.

Important: The EBR service allows you to pre-mount a backup volume so you can complete unattended backups. Pre-mounting means mounting a volume on the EBR server in anticipation of a scheduled backup (for example, before going home at night).

Unmounting Volumes

1. In the Devices window, highlight the appropriate device.

2. Choose Unmount from the Media menu.

Tip: Or click the Unmount button on the speedbar.

Note: You cannot unmount a volume if it is in use.

media waiting: waiting for 1 writable backup tape

Important: When a user or administrator tries to recover files, the EBR service requests by name the backup volume you need to mount in the device. If you need more than one backup volume to recover the files, EBR Administrator provides a list of necessary volumes in the Pending window, so that you can prepare all of them at once. As files are recovered, EBR requests each backup volume it needs, one at a time.

Verifying a Volume Name

Note: Verifying a label does not mount the volume, so there is no danger of it getting used for a pending backup request.

1. Insert the volume into its drive, if it is not already there.

2. Highlight the appropriate device in the Devices window.

3. Choose Verify Label from the Media menu.

Volume name: tut.000 (archive)

Displaying Media Set Information

Figure 3-8. Volumes Dialog Box

Figure 3-9. Volume Save Sets Dialog Box

Starting a Network-wide Backup

Manually back up a single client. This process is done through the Backup window of EBR and is explained in the VINES EBR User's Guide. Users can back up their own files manually using EBR.
Schedule the EBR service to start network-wide backups at a given time. (The default time is 3:33 a.m.) Choose Groups from the Client menu. The Groups command is described in Chapter 4.
Initiate a network-wide backup immediately. This choice is useful if the scheduled backup did not complete, or if for maintenance reasons you need to back up a group of clients over the network immediately. Use the Group Control command described in the following procedure.
Initiate a backup of specified clients immediately. This backup is useful only if the scheduled backup of specific EBR clients never started or was partially successful.

1. Choose Group Control from the Client menu.

Tip: Or click the Group Control button on the speedbar.

Figure 3-10. Group Control Button

The Group Control dialog box appears:

Figure 3-11. Group Control Dialog Box

All backup groups known to the EBR service appear in this dialog box. A backup group is comprised of zero or more clients that an EBR service backs up in one session. Notice that the dialog box shows when the group backup was last run, when the next run is scheduled, and the backup status.

2. Highlight the name of the group of clients that you want to back up immediately. Make sure status is Finished or Never Run; starting a group that is Not Finished causes the backup to start all over again. Groups that are Not Finished should be restarted using the Restart button.

3. Click the Start button.

Tip: Make sure the EBR service has a labeled backup volume mounted in its device before you initiate a backup. If there is no backup volume in the device, the service will ask you for one before it can back up the group.

Monitoring Backup Groups

Group - Displays the name of the backup group
Last Run - Displays date and time the group was last backed up
Next Run - Displays the date and time scheduled for the next group backup, or whether scheduled backup is disabled
Status - Displays the progress of the backup. There are three different progress messages:

Never run — The group has never been run.
Finished — The backup has finished.
Not finished — The backup is still running or has exited prematurely.

Figure 3-12. Details Dialog Box

Clients - All clients of a group, listed alphabetically
Incomplete Save Sets - Scheduled backup has not started, or has started but not yet completed, backing up the listed save sets
Successful Save Sets - Scheduled backup completed successfully; no major errors occurred
Unsuccessful Save Sets - Scheduled backup ran and completed but did not successfully back up all the save sets listed

The target VINES server was not running the EBR agent.
The target VINES workstation not running Scheduled Backup.
The server or client crashed during backup.
The network connection failed during the backup.

Starting and Stopping Group Backup

Figure 3-13. Group Control Dialog Buttons

Check the Pending status window. You might need to mount another backup volume, or maybe the index is full.
Check the Sessions window. Perhaps a recover is in progress, or other backups are occurring and parallelism is too low. Parallelism is the state of an EBR server when backing up different save sets in parallel and multiplexing files onto the same backup volume.
Click the Start button to back up the group of all clients again. Even clients that completed successfully will be backed up again.
Click the Restart button to back up only the clients that EBR was unable to finish during scheduled backup.
Click the Stop button to stop backup of the group currently running, if for example an I/O error occurs and you need to clean the tape, or if you need to take systems down for network maintenance. The STOP button only works for groups that were started automatically.

Select Clients for Backup

1. Choose Group Control from the Client menu, or click the Group Control button on the speedbar. The Group Control dialog box appears.

2. Highlight the name of the group to which the selected clients belong, and click the Select Clients button. The Select Clients dialog box appears:

Figure 3-14. Select Clients Dialog Box

3. Check the box for the clients you wish to try backing up again, then click the Start button. The EBR service immediately begins to back up the client(s) you have selected.

Handling Open Files

Checking Backup Volumes

Monitoring Indexes

Changing the Options

Polling Interval to determine how often, in seconds, you want information in the status windows updated.
Font to change type style in the status display windows for Devices, Pending, Messages, and Sessions. This section does not change font in the menus, speedbar, or status line.
Speedbar to alternately show and hide the speedbar.
Status Line to alternately show and hide the status line.

Polling Interval

1. Choose Polling Interval from the Options menu. The Polling Interval dialog box appears:

Figure 3-15. Polling Interval Dialog Box

2. Enter a number into the Polling interval field, or use the _ and _ arrow buttons to move up and down one second at a time.

3. Click OK or press [Enter] to register the change. EBR Administrator updates the service status information in the status display windows using the new polling interval.

Changing Fonts

Figure 3-16. Font Dialog Box

Recovering Backup Data

EBR Console Operations

Note: You cannot back up a server from this menu. To back up a server, use the EBR Administrator. Refer to Chapter 2 for more information.

1. Select Backup/Restore from the Operator Menu.

2. Select Enterprise Backup/Restore (EBR) from the Backup/Restore Menu. You are prompted for your username and password, which are verified and stored for later use by those EBR Console operations that need them.

3. Enter your username and password. The EBR main menu appears:

Figure 3-17. EBR Main Menu

Recovering Server Data

Note: To use Recover Server Data, you must be a member of AdminList@ServerName@Servers where ServerName is the name of the server on which you are using the Console.

Services hosted on the server, listed by their StreetTalk name. These always appear at the "top" of the hierarchy, where the recover browser starts looking for data to recover.
StreetTalk groups listed by their StreetTalk name.
Mailboxes (if the server hosts a mail service) listed by the owner's StreetTalk name.
Mail Folders (if the server hosts a mail service) listed by their folder name.
Files and directories in VINES Files services listed by their DOS name. Information about files and directories can be configured using the VIEW subcommand.

cd [name] Similar to the DOS cd command. Changes the current working directory to the directory specified by name, where name is either a directory in a VINES file service or the StreetTalk name of a service.

changetime [when] View the index as of the backup closest to, but not later than, the date specified by when. If when is not specified, the date of the backup you are currently browsing is displayed and a prompt is issued for new time.

EBR allows great flexibility in date specification. It accepts absolute dates, such as November 13, 1995 and relative dates, such as last Tuesday. Absolute dates can be given in two formats: MM/DD[/YY], and Month DD[, YYYY]. Times can also be specified as either absolute or relative, with absolute times in the format: HH[[:MM][:SS]] [am|pm] [time zone] - for example, 12:30 a.m., 14:21, and 10 p.m. PST. The current time is used to calculate unspecified parts of a relative date (that is, two days ago means two days ago at the current time), and midnight is assumed for unspecified times on an absolute date (for example, July 2 means July 2 at midnight). The resolution at which times may be specified depends on how often the server was backed up. The EBR service's index browse policies determines the date of the index you can view.

dest name Prints the destination to which the files and directories on the recover list can be recovered. If you have not used the relocate or rename subcommands to specify a new location, then dest indicates that the files will be recovered to their original location.

dir [name] Similar to the DOS dir command. Lists the contents of the directory or service you are currently browsing, or the contents of the directory named by name, where name is either a directory in a VINES file service or the StreetTalk name of a service

force, noforce Force specifies that you want to overwrite files on the server's disk with data retrieved from backup media. noforce (the default) specifies that you want to be prompted if name conflicts occur, and allowed to select one of the following choices:

Table 3-1. noforce Actions

choice action
y Overwrite existing file
Y Overwrite existing file now and in all subsequent cases of name conflict
n Leave the existing file in place and do not recover the backup
N Leave the existing file in place and do not recover the backup in all subsequent cases of name conflict
r Rename existing file
R Rename existing files in all subsequent cases of name conflict

Note: When you specify force, it applies to all items on the recover list. File and directory renaming with force makes sense only when you are recovering file service data. Therefore, recover reverts to the default (noforce) when recovering other service data.

When you choose r or R, the file is renamed by appending an "R" to the name if the existing file, and is truncated, as necessary, to fit within client filename length limits.

help, ? Displays a summary listing of recover subcommands and what they do.

list Show the contents of the recover list.

mark name, unmark name

mark Marks name for recovery and adds it to the recover list. unmark removes name from the recover list. The dir subcommand displays a + sign to the left of files, directories, and services that are marked.

quit Quits the recover browser without recovering anything.

recover Recovers the contents of the recover list.

relocate newdir Specifies that file service files and directories marked for recovery should be recovered under newdir instead of under their current parent. newdir will be created if it does not already exist. newdir can be:

A relative pathname within the current file service (..\dos\mydir\games)

An absolute pathname within this file service or another file service on this server (MyFiles@Server@Servers\dos\mydir\games)

rename oldsvc newsvc Renames a service backed up as oldsvc to newsvc. newsvc must exist on the target server, but oldsvc does not. You can use rename to recover an old version of an existing service into a new name. You may only execute one rename per recover session.

versions name List all the versions of the service, directory, or file named by name that are available for recovery. For each version of name available, versions provides two lines of information: the first is similar to what dir name would produce, and the second lists the tape volume(s) that will be required to recover this version of name. You can use changetime to go back in time as needed to mark the version of name you want to recover.

view [mode] View file and directory names in VINES file services by their DOS, Macintosh, or UNIX names. mode can be one of DOS, MAC, or UNIX. Upper or lower-case characters may be used. If you do not supply the mode, you will prompted to enter one.

volumes List the names of the media volumes (e.g., backup tapes) that will be required to recover all of the files on the recover list.

1. Enter mark MS@Redwood@Servers to add the service to the recover list.

2. Enter recover to start the recovery.

1. cd EngDoc@Group@Org to change directory into the file service root

2. dir to list the directories at the top level of this file service

3. cd ebr\userdoc to change to the ebr\userdoc directory

4. dir to list the contents of ebr\userdoc as of the most recent backup

5. mark *.doc to add all files in ebr\userdoc with the suffix ".doc" to the recover list

6. volumes to see what tape volumes will be needed to accomplish the recovery

7. recover to actually start the recovery

1. mark mydir\*.xls

2. relocate yourdir

3. recover

1. mark MyFiles@Redwood@Servers

2. rename MyFiles@Redwood@Servers NewFiles@Redwood@Servers

3. recover

Verifying Recoverability of Data

Note: Verification does not modify data on the backup volume, nor does it create any new data on the VINES server.

Listing Services

Index Maintenance

Note: Index maintenance operations can only be performed on a server that hosts an EBR service. Index Maintenance operations require you to be a member of AdminList@ServerName@Servers where ServerName is the name of the server on which you are using the Operator Console.

Checking Index Integrity

Deleting a Client Index

Note: When you delete a client using the Clients window of EBR Administrator, that client's on-line file index is not deleted. To delete the indexes, you must use the EBR Console Menu's Delete Client Index Entries option.

Important: Do not delete a client' s on-line file index unless you have first deleted the client using EBR Administrator.

Local Tape Operations

Note: Local tape operations can only be performed on a server that hosts an EBR service. These operations require you to be a member of AdminList@ServerName@Servers where ServerName is the name of the server on which you are using the console.

Changing the Active Tape Device

Verifying Tape Integrity

Rebuilding On-line Indexes

Displaying EBR Log Files

Changing the File Service Viewpoint

Changing the Recover Source

Use the EBR Service on server: servername

Normally, servername is the name of the server hosting the EBR service that most recently backed up this server. You may want to specify a different servername if this server has been backed up by more than one EBR service and you want to browse the on-line file index for backups of this server done by that EBR service.

Recover/Verify data backed up from server: servername

Normally, servername is the name of the server at the console where you are working. (You may want to specify a different servername if you want to recover data backed up from a different server.) This server must be designated as having recover rights to servername's data. Refer to Chapter 4 for more information about this type of directed recover. No attempt is made to check the recover rights until a recover or verify is actually attempted.

If the server from which you want to recover data was not backed up by the EBR service specified in the first option, you must change that name as well. You can find out which EBR service backs up a specific server using the Find Client option of EBR Administrator.

Configuring the EBR Mail User

Note: When the EBR Mail User cannot log in, notifications that have been configured to be mailed will instead generate a message reminding you to configure the EBR mail user.

Workstation Directed Recover

1. At the destination client machine, log in as a user who is a member of the AdminList on the client's EBR service. This user identity gives you permission to access the on-line index for the source client machine.

2. In the Program Manager, edit the EBR Program Item Properties and add the -a option to the Command Line. This option starts EBR in Administrator Mode.

3. Start the EBR program.

4. Choose Directed Recover from the Operation menu. EBR displays a list of clients known to the workstation' s EBR service in the Source Client dialog box.

5. Highlight the name of the client you wish to designate as the source for recovered files as shown in the following dialog box. Click OK or press the [Enter] key (or double-click on the client name).

Figure 3-18. Source Client Dialog Box

The Source and Destination client names appear on the status line (not shown) to remind you that this is a directed recover. Then EBR displays the Directed Recover browse window, where you can mark the file(s) you wish to recover.

Figure 3-19. Directed Recover Browse Window

Previous PageTop Of PageNext Page