Watch out for next blog to improve further on your Flashbackup performance.

Thanks.
Praveen Gupta

Hi Praveen,

Very interesting point about the exclude list, but I do have a question.

I'm using exclude lists with my Flashbackup-Windows policies.

Files in the exclude list are not available for restores of course. But the size of the backup is always the size of the raw device.
Does an exclude list save space on my tapes? If not it would be better to not use any exclude list at all, or am I missing something?

Peter

You are right Peter. FlashBackup is just a raw device backup and you won't save any space on tape with exclude list.

in some cases you still want to exclude some files, so that it won't appear in BAR GUI to restore and no one can restore them.

Praveen

Hi Praveen

Not using an exclude list for the flashbackup policy, I get an error in the jobs status like:

6/28/2009 8:56:02 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=3324) from client gefile01: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4183
6/28/2009 8:56:03 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=3324) from client gefile01: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098
6/28/2009 8:56:04 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=3324) from client gefile01: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098
6/28/2009 8:56:05 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=3324) from client gefile01: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098

After that, the backup runs fine.
Any idea's what these errors are? and how to get ridth of them?
running 6.5.4 on Solaris but the windows clients give me these errors.

Peter

Hi Peter,

If you are aware then there is a default exclude list. for example files like pagefile.sys etc. need not to be backed up.
starting with 6.5.4 there is a slight code change in lower level component of the code and the actual errors are being passed to job status. there are specific to windows only because this errors are in actual windows last error. (File doesn't exists, in Use, can't be opened etc.)

Symantec has fixed this issue in a form of engineering emergency binary for this in 6.5.4. You can open a support case to get rid of these errors and to get the fix for this in 6.5.4.

feel free to PM me if you need to talk to me.

Thanks,
Praveen

Peter,

sorry for coming late. I stoped my all notifications. ok. Let me know the Titan case No. for your call. EEB 1705939 is not cumulative. You will need a new EEB that will combine both fixes in one.

Praveen

Thanks for explaining this to us. Neat idea.

Hi All.

Just wanted to know what I can do to fix the issue as well..

Getting the following logged repeatedly in VCB jobs:

ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098

Have just upgraded to 6.5.4 on Master and VCB Proxy server.  Do I need to apply a further hotfix to address this issue.  Concerned that my file incrementals may not be complete

thanks

Lee

Hi Lee,

you can ask support to get fix for ET 1680520. you need to apply a hot fix for this. don't worry, this error won't cause your incremental to fail.

Thanks,
Praveen

Thanks fot the quick response. :-)

I am also seeing this error with my flashbackup ? do I need different binary?

No, the same binary will be used for FBU or VMware backups.

I am getting the same error as Peter, however my question is this - with this error, I am losing data on my Flashbackups?  Or is the EEB just to remove the generated message.  My issue with EEB's is that they may induce other errors. 

Ron,
EEB is just to remove these messages. You are not loosing out any functionality with out the EEB.

Pravs,

Since we have a "<2>" message level, this would be more informational than anything else?  The other reason for asking is that I do not define Exclude List on my Flashbackups - so I just want to make sure if I have to do a restore because of a DR, everything should be properly laid back down.  Sorry for the paranoia - it has been a long 2 weeks of software upgrades (not just NBU)

4:26:30.605 PM: [968.4344] <2> tar_base::V_vTarMsgW: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4183
4:26:30.605 PM: [968.4344] <2> tar_base::V_vTarMsgW: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098
4:26:30.605 PM: [968.4344] <2> tar_base::V_vTarMsgW: ERR - Unable to add to excluded file list error = 4098

Ron, My comments inline.

Since we have a "<2>" message level, this would be more informational than anything else?
<Pravs> : you are right. It's more of informational message. you  can safely ignore this message.

The other reason for asking is that I do not define Exclude List on my Flashbackups - so I just want to make sure if I have to do a restore because of a DR, everything should be properly laid back down.  Sorry for the paranoia - it has been a long 2 weeks of software upgrades (not just NBU)

<Pravs> :  FlashBackup doesn't backup system state files. You are pretty good if you wanted to restore all data excluding system states. If you wanted to a full DR (full m/c restore) you do have better option available with NBU.