Monitoring file systems backup Post: 302901048

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Special Forums UNIX and Linux Applications Infrastructure Monitoring Monitoring file systems backup Post 302901048 by hicksd8 on Sunday 11th of May 2014 07:45:52 AM

05-11-2014

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You don't state what hardware platform you have, what the cluster software suite is, or what the backup software is.

Your post indicates that you have a good understanding of how a (generically speaking) cluster works and that any one filesystem can only be under the control of one node at a time. Having multiple nodes thinking they could write to the volume would be anarchy and a clear recipe for data corruption. It is definitely the job of the cluster software suite to ensure that that never happens. Having said that, different cluster suites can have starkly different functionality.

Similarly, backup software suites also vary in the manner of operation.

So discussing cluster backup in generic terms I would say that there are two options for implementing backups. Firstly, when node-A fails and node-B takes over (by checking orphaned filesystems and then mounting them, taking over and broadcasting the cluster name and ip address (node-C and ipaddr-C) some cluster software will also failover scheduled jobs (eg, backup). Of course, the backup device(s) need to be still available (or node-B needs to have its own tape drive, for example) for this to work. Alternatively, like all the user community who only know about node-C and ipaddr-C, the backup is run from a machine outside the cluster which "calls in" on node-C, accesses or NFS mounts the filesystem, and backs it up. Usually, this is the preferred method.

Now in this scenario the backup software has no knowledge that it is backing up a cluster volume and it should work exactly the same way as it would with a local volume, ie, if it loses communication with the volume, it will report a backup failure. Some backup software suites (eg, NetBackup) are of client/server architecture which are very intelligent and will report failures in exactly the same way they usually do.

So in summary, the fact that it is a cluster should be largely irrelevant to reporting errors in backup schedules. How the success of a backup is verified is the same as the non-cluster scenario.

Hope that helps. Feel free to continue your questions but please give us all a clue of the platform and software(s) involved.

Last edited by hicksd8; 05-11-2014 at 12:46 PM..

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umountall

mountall(1M)															      mountall(1M)

NAME

       mountall, umountall - mount and unmount multiple file systems

SYNOPSIS

       FStype] [file_system_table |
       FStype]

DESCRIPTION

       is  used  to  mount  file  systems  according  to  file_system_table.  By default, is the file_system_table.  If a dash is specified, reads
       file_system_table from the standard input; the standard input must be in the same format as the

       Before each file system is mounted, a check is done using (see fsck(1M)) to ensure that the file system is mountable.  If the  file  system
       is not mountable, it is repaired by before the mount is attempted.

       causes all mounted file systems except the non-removable file systems such as to be unmounted.

   Options
       and recognize the following options:

	      Specify the file system type
			     (FStype) to be mounted or unmounted.

	      Specify action on local file systems only.

	      Specify action on remote file systems only.

	      Send a	     signal to processes that have files opened.

	      Attempt to mount all the unmounted file systems. This option will not perform the file system consistency check and repair.

	      Perform the file system consistency check and repair on all unmounted file system. This option will not mount the file systems.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error and warning messages may originate from or See fsck(1M), mount(1M), or fuser(1M) to interpret the error and warning messages.

EXAMPLES

       Mount all unmounted file systems listed in

       Mount all local file systems listed in

       Mount all remote file systems listed in

       Mount all local hfs file systems:

       Unmount all NFS file systems and kill any processes that have files opened in the file system:

WARNINGS

       especially with the option, should be used with extreme caution, because it can cause severe damage.

       The option may not be available in future releases.

       may not be effective with some cases of LOFS file systems.

FILES

       Static information about the file systems
       Mounted file system table

SEE ALSO

       fsck(1M), mount(1M), fuser(1M), mnttab(4), fstab(4), signal(2)

																      mountall(1M)