Backup of NetApp Filer fails due to including snapshots with other file system selections.

Problem

Backup of NetApp Filer fails due to including snapshots with other file system selections.

Error Message

0xe0001309 - The NDMP server returned a backup error.
You must select a specific snapshot for backup from the .snapshot subfolder. You cannot include other snapshots or directories in the backup selections.

Cause

The ability to back up NetApp Filer snapshots was first introduced in Backup Exec 11.0.7170.

In order to back up a NetApp Filer snapshot, only one snapshot per volume can be selected, and no other file system resources can be selected.

The image below shows the selection of an entire NetApp volume that includes the .snapshot directory. (Figure 1)

Figure 1
 

Attempting to back up the entire volume and entire .snapshot directory will result in the job skipping the snapshot folder.

Attempting to back up a snapshot and a folder on the same volume will result in the backup job failing with the above mentioned error.

When examining a .snapshot folder on a NetApp Filer it may appear to be small in size. In fact, a backup of any of the individual .snapshot folders will result in a Full backup of the volume as it appeared at the time of the snapshot. The backup will NOT result in a backup of the small data residing in the snapshot folder. The image below shows how to select an individual snapshot that will result in a Full backup as the volume appeared at the time of the backup. (Figure 2)

Figure 2
 


Note: If you are not able to check the individual snapshots you will need to select the volume, then edit the selection in text view and add the "\.snapshot\hourly.0" to the path of the backup. This will be the same as checking the box. If another snapshot is needed, edit the path with the needed snapshot.



The backup of the single snapshot as seen above results in the Restore Selection below. (Figure 3)

Figure 3
 

As can be evidenced by the availability of the entire volume, the snapshot backup resulted in a Full backup of the volume as it appeared when the snapshot was generated.

Note: In most cases it is not necessary to backup the NetApp snapshots and they should simply be deselected for backup.
 

Solution