Backup Image
The backup image command creates an image backup of one or more volumes on your system.
You can use the backup image command to back up NTFS or ReFS, or unformatted RAW volumes. If a volume is NTFS-formatted, only those blocks that are used by the file system are backed up. On ReFS volumes, all blocks are backed up.
If you set the imagegapsize option to 0, all blocks,
including unused blocks at the end of the volume, are backed up.
If you specify an AIX® JFS2 file system for
image backup, only those blocks that are used by the file system are backed up. If you set the
imagegapsize option to zero, all blocks, including blocks at the end of the
volume, are backed up.
Note:
- AIX only: By default, snapshot-based image
backup is enabled for JFS2 volumes. To turn off snapshot-based image backups, set
-snapshotproviderimage=NONEon this command. - For the Linux clients, image backup is
only supported on partitions with id 0x83 or logical volumes that are created with the Linux Logical Volume Manager. Backing up other partitions, such
as extended partitions that contain mounted file systems or database data, can produce inconsistent
backup data if the data changes during the image backup operation.
- For the Linux client, image
backup of DASD devices with raw-track access mode on Linux on
z Systems® is not supported.
- Backup image is not supported on any GPFS file system.
- The IBM Spectrum Protect API must be installed to use the backup image command.
- When you change the attribute of a JFS2 file system to an HSM-managed file
system, an image backup is not done for that file system.
- The image backup operation is not supported on any partition that resides on a multipath device.
mode=incremental.The client backs up the files that have modification dates and times (on the client) that are later than the date and time of the last incremental backup of the file system on which the file is stored (on the server).
If the server time is ahead of the client time, incremental-by-date backups, or image backup with
mode=incremental, skip the files, which had been created or modified after the last
incremental or image backup with a modification date earlier than the last incremental backup time
stamp.
If the client time is ahead of the server time, all files that had been created or modified before the last incremental or image backup and have a modification time stamp later than the last incremental backup time stamp, are backed up again. Typically, these files would not get backed up because they had already been backed up.
The backup date can be checked by the query filespace command.
Note:
- The account that is running the backup-archive client must have administrator authority to successfully perform any type of image backup.
- The API must be installed to use the backup image command.
The backup-archive client must support the raw device type on
the specific platform to perform an image backup of a raw device. You can perform an image backup
only on local devices. Clustered devices or file systems as well as devices or file systems that are
shared between two or more systems are not supported. If you want to perform an image backup for a
file system that is mounted on a raw device, the raw device must be supported.
Use the include.image option to include a file system or logical volume for image backup, or to specify volume-specific options for image backup.
The backup image command uses the compression option.
Supported Clients
This option is
valid for AIX, Linux,
and Oracle Solaris clients.
This command is valid for all Windows platforms.
Syntax
Parameters
- filespec
- Specifies the name of one or more logical volumes. If you want to back up more than one file
system, separate their names with spaces. Do not use pattern matching characters. If you do not
specify a volume name, the logical volumes that are specified with the
domain.image option are processed. If you do not use the
domain.image option to specify file systems to process, an error message is
displayed and no image backup occurs. Specify the file space
over which the logical volume is mounted or the logical volume name. If there is a file system that
is configured in the system for a given volume, you cannot back up the volume with the device
name.For example, if the /dev/lv01 file space
is mounted on the /home volume, you can issue
backup image /home, butbackup image /dev/lv01fails with an error:ANS1063E Invalid path specified
There is a limit of 20 operands. This limit prevents
excessive sessions that are caused when wildcards are expanded by the UNIX shell command processor.
You can prevent shell expansion from causing you to go over the 20-operand limit by placing
quotation marks around file specifications that contain wildcards ("home/docs/*").You can use the removeoperandlimit
option to specify that the 20-operand limit is removed. If you specify the
removeoperandlimit option, the 20-operand limit is not enforced and is restricted
only by available resources or other operating system limits. For example, remove the 20 operand
limit to backup 21 file specifications:
backup image -removeoperandlimit filespec1 filespec2 ... filespec21Note: For Sun systems, specify either a file system name or a raw device name
(block device type).Image backup is only supported on a volume that has
a mount or a drive letter assigned to it. A volume without a drive letter or mount point cannot be
backed up.
| Option | Where to use |
|---|---|
| asnodename
|
Client options file (dsm.opt) or command
line. |
| asnodename
|
Client system options file (dsm.sys) or
command line. |
| compressalways
|
Client system options file
(dsm.sys) or command line. |
| compressalways
|
Client options file (dsm.opt)
or command line. |
| compression | Client options file or command line. |
| dynamicimage
|
Use with the backup image command
or the include.image option in the options file. |
| imagegapsize
|
Use with the backup image
command, the include.image option, or in the options file. |
| mode | Command line only. |
| postsnapshotcmd | Use with the backup image command, the include.image option, or in the options file. |
| presnapshotcmd | Use with the backup image command, the include.image option, or in the options file. |
| removeoperandlimit | Command line only. |
| snapshotcachesize
|
Use with the backup image
command, the include.image option, or in the options file. |
| snapshotproviderimage
|
Client options file or with
include.image option. |
Examples
- Task
- Back up the /home/test file space over which the logical volume is mounted
and perform an image incremental backup that backs up only new and changed files after the last full
image backup.
dsmc backup image /home/test -mode=incremental - Task
- Back up a volume that has no drive letter but is mounted as a mount point.
dsmc backup image m:\mnt\myntfs - Task
- Back up the h drive by using an image incremental backup. An image
incremental backup backs up files that are new or changed since the last full image backup.
dsmc backup image h: -mode=incremental - Task
- Perform a static image backup of the logical volume that is mounted at the
/home directory.
dsmc backup image /home -snapshotproviderimage=none - Task
- Perform an offline image backup of the f drive.
dsmc backup image f: -snapshotproviderimage=none - Task
- Perform a dynamic image backup of the logical volume that is mounted at the
/home directory.
Command:
dsmc backup image /home -dynamicimage=yes - Task
- Perform a snapshot image backup of the /home directory. AIX client: dsmc backup image /home
-snapshotproviderimage=JFS2
LINUX client: dsmc backup image /home
-snapshotproviderimage=LINUX_LVM - Task
- Perform an online image backup of the f drive.
dsmc backup image f: -snapshotproviderimage=VSS - Task
- Back up the /dev/lv01 raw logical volume.
dsmc backup image /dev/lv01 - Task
- Back up the f drive, which is mapped to a volume that has not been
formatted with a file system.
dsmc backup image f: