Sparse file handling, Removing a client – Storix Software SBAdmin TSM Edition Users Guide User Manual
Page 27
Since the tape drive names may differ for each client, you will select in this field the name of the tape drive
to configure. Only tape drives that are configured and available on the client will be shown. Although
multiple tape drives may exist, you may only select one drive per client for system backups.
Note that this option will create a special tape device with the name “
SBTAPE”. This device will then be
available when you configure a backup job and indicate the backup is to a local tape device. Refer to
Creating a Local System Backup
in the job configuration for more details.
Sparse File Handling
A
sparse file
is a file in which blocks of data have been written non-sequentially, leaving unallocated blocks
in the middle of a file. If the sparseness of a file is not preserved when restoring, the file will be expanded to
include all blocks in the middle of the file, often causing a filesystem to inadvertently run out of space.
Preserving sparseness in files is usually desirable. This is sometimes a problem, however, if your files were
pre-allocated using NULL characters. If a file is created and all blocks are allocated by writing nulls, or "0"s,
throughout the file, the file appears identical to a sparse file on the backup. Since files containing null
blocks are indistinguishable from sparse files, the blocks are not retained upon restore. The affect is that a
file created at a large size could be restored to a very small size.
To resolves this issue, you may select the
Preserve Sparse Files option so that all backups of this client
will be created without preserving the sparseness of files. Therefore, if a file was pre-allocated using NULL
blocks, the null blocks will also be restored. Note that, when using this option, a truly sparse file (created
without pre-allocating blocks by writing nulls) will be interpreted as a large file of null blocks, and will be
expanded upon restore in order to retain the null blocks. This will often cause the filesystem to run out of
space since a file that was once very small is restored quite large.
If a backup is created by preserving sparseness, which is the default, then the
backup files may not be restored to another system of a different operating system
type. If you want to restore a backup to a different operating system type, then you
should turn OFF sparse file handling BEFORE creating the backup.
Press the
Save
button to add or change the client settings. After adding a client, its icon will immediately appear
on the
when
are displayed. If the software has not been configured on
the client, or if the client was not configured using the correct hostname of the admin system, the client icon will
appear in red. If the software is installed and configured properly on the client, the icon will appear green to
indicate that the client is accessible to the admin system.
Removing a Client
A client may be removed from the system only if it is not assigned to any backup jobs. If it is, you will be
informed so, and you must
to remove the client from the list of clients to backup.
To remove a client, either:
•
Select a client on the
when
are displayed, then click the
Remove Client
button at the bottom of the screen, or
• Click
Configure
!Clients
from the menu bar. Select the name of the client to remove and press the
Remove
button.
The client icon will be removed from the
are displayed.
Storix System Backup Administrator
27
Version 8.2 TSM Edition User Guide