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Overview of Stubbing Options in Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection

Article: 100050006
Last Published: 2025-09-04
Ratings: 1 1
Product(s): Alta SaaS Protection

Description

 
Stubbing is the practice of moving the original data from the source and replacing it with a smaller shortcut or placeholder which acts as a pointer to assist with recalling the original item.

Stubbing is controlled with policies within each connector that is setup in the Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection (CASP) Connector Service. It is common that older and larger items will be stubbed. For example, a stubbing policy might specify that video and audio file types that have not been accessed in over 12 months are in scope of stubbing.

CASP provides three stubbing methods:
  1. Seamless stubs -- Seamless stubbing is best suited to Windows Server environments and provides a transparent experience to users and applications. Items that are stubbed become offline files where their size on disk is near zero. The seamless stubs have the same metadata and file type icon as the original, and they automatically retrieve on any file open command whether that be coming from a user or application. When items retrieve, there is an optional local caching feature that optimizes subsequent recalls (i.e. the retrieval agent always checks the local cache instead and only fetches from the cloud if necessary). Seamless stubbing requires the 'Retrieval Service', a Windows Server agent, to be installed on each instance of Windows Server that may handle requests on seamless stubs. Thus seamless stubbing is available only to storage that is front-ended with Windows Server file servers and SharePoint Documents(Lists not supported). See Overview of Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection Seamless Stubbing and the Retrieval Service.
    1. HTML stubs (aka. universal stubs) -- HTML stubs provide an agentless approach to stubbing that can work with any storage (Windows, CIFS, NFS). However, HTML stubs are not transparent to users and they do not automatically retrieve for applications or processes. The HTML stub is an HTML file that replaces the original item. When a user clicks the HTML stub, the HTML content displays in the user's default browser with a message saying the item has been archived and offering links to download it or view it in the CASP End-User Portal. See How HTML-based File System Stubs Work in Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection.
       
    2. Link-Based -- Link-based stubbing method is intended for use with CIFS/NFS-based storage, such as NetApp or EMC Celerra, but it can also work with Windows-based file shares.  With link-based stubbing you can perform simple and effective policy-based storage tiering without the need of deploying an agent on the target storage appliance. To achieve this implementation, a central Windows machine needs to host the same 'Retrieval Service' that is used for CASP's seamless stubbing method for Windows Server. The Retrieval Service acts as the controller for servicing recalls, and it has a file share directory configured which will contain information necessary to perform recalls from the cloud.  
      The actual stub in the link-based method is an .lnk file (shortcut) created by the CASP Connector Service (HCS) according to your stubbing policies. The .lnk file seamlessly redirects requests from users or applications to the Retrieval Service which transparently recalls items and maintains a local cache for optimization of any subsequent retrieval requests. See Overview of Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection Link-based Stubbing.
     

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