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Is it possible to track what changed between a full and an incremental backup?

  • 11 July 2023
  • 4 replies
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PedroRocha
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Hello,

 

Customer is backing up a linux fs using fs iDA. Some incrementals are getting too big. Is there a way to show to the customer what accounted for that incremental growth?

 

Regards,

Pedro

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Best answer by Gowri Shankar 11 July 2023, 22:45

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Pedro

4 replies

G
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Hi @PedroRocha 

 

Files are eligible to backup based on the mtime & ctime parameter which could be adjusted from the sub-client properties 

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/58507_subclient_properties_general.html

 

 

Incremental backup should use

  • UNIX mtime

    Select this option to determine which files are selected for incremental backup by changes in the mtime timestamp.

  • UNIX ctime

    Select this option to determine which files are selected for incremental backup by changes in the ctime timestamp.

    When you select Optimized Scan option, it is recommended not to select "UNIX mtime" and "UNIX ctime" options in this properties box as Incremental Backups for Optimized Scan does not support these options.

PedroRocha
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +11

Hi @PedroRocha 

 

Files are eligible to backup based on the mtime & ctime parameter which could be adjusted from the sub-client properties 

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/58507_subclient_properties_general.html

 

 

Incremental backup should use

  • UNIX mtime

    Select this option to determine which files are selected for incremental backup by changes in the mtime timestamp.

  • UNIX ctime

    Select this option to determine which files are selected for incremental backup by changes in the ctime timestamp.

    When you select Optimized Scan option, it is recommended not to select "UNIX mtime" and "UNIX ctime" options in this properties box as Incremental Backups for Optimized Scan does not support these options.

Hello

thanks for the reply…

But What I would like to achieve is to show to the customer what changed in an incremental.

Pedro
G
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Userlevel 4
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Hey,

 

There is not direct method.

 

You may create a job summery report and include protected objects.

This will show all the files protected for a given job id

 

To verify if the file is eligible for incremental, run stat agains it and find if ctime or mtime is modified

 

Regards,

Gowri Shankar 

SparshGupta
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Hi @PedroRocha 

 

What is the size of application for full and incremental job?

 

#1 - Is there any antivirus running on the Linux machine? Few AV’s tend to change ctime of files when scanned, and since ctime is modified, we end up backing up those files.

 

#2 - Is there any script running which might be modifying stuff like owner or file attributes?

 

Do you have any file singled out which customer was not expecting to be backed up in incremental job? If so, can you do a simple “stat filename” on that file?

 

PS - You can do “View backup items” from Java GUI for the corresponding incremental job to get a list of all files backed up by that specific job OR as suggested in above response, you can run via reporting as well.

 

Thanks,

Sparsh

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