Performing an initial backup
To perform an initial backup:
1. On the DS-System, create the customer account and DS-Client account.
2. On the DS-Client, have your customer register their DS-Client with the DS-System.
3. Your customer can then create as many initial backup sets as required, which are written to a media buffer that is physically shipped to the DS-System location. See the DS-Client User Guide for instructions.
• An initial backup buffer must contain backup sets from the same DS-Client.
• Customers can send as many initial backup buffers as required.
4. When you have received the initial backup buffer media, connect it to the network so it is visible to the DS-System.
5. In DS-Operator, browse the Customers tab and select the DS-Client account whose data is in the initial backup buffer. On the DS-Client menu, select Import Initial Backup.
• For N+1 DS-Systems, a popup dialog box will ask you to select the N+1 Node to perform the activity.
6. The Initial Backup Import dialog box appears.
7. In the Import initial backup from box, type or browse for the path where the DS-System can read the initial backup data.
• For Windows: The path must be in the form <local_drive>:\initial_backup_dir or \\server\share\initial_backup_dir
(for example: \\MEDIA\drv$d\buf)
• For UNIX: The path must be in the form /initial_backup_directory
• For N+1 DS-Systems: The initial backup is performed by the selected node. Make sure that the initial backup buffer is either directly attached to that node, or is specified as a UNC path (if attached to a different computer) and the selected node has rights to access it.
8. Click OK. The Select Initial Backup Sets dialog box appears. All backup sets in the initial backup buffer that can be imported to the DS-System are listed.
9. In the Available Backup Set list, select all the backup sets you want to import and click the [>>>] button. Your selection moves under the Selected Backup Set for Import list.
• If you need to input an encryption key, the Initial Backup Meta-data Encryption dialog box appears.
• Type or import the encryption key and click OK.
10. Click OK to proceed with the import. The Initial Backup Import Options dialog box appears.
11. In the Select import method section, configure the following:
• Move — This is available only for unencrypted buffer data. If any meta-data encryption was used, the move option is disabled. If DS-System can find a storage location on the same volume as the specified path, you will be offered the move option as an import method. The data will be moved to the one storage location. Therefore the storage distribution will not be balanced after import.
– If the logical size (available to DS-System in the storage location) is less than the data being moved, a warning appears. There is enough physical space because the move process is just renaming files in the storage location. However, DS-System will not put new files into that storage location if DS-System has no available logical space.
• Copy — The copy option will automatically balance the import of data among all the storage locations in the DS-Client’s storage group. However, it will take longer than if using the move option.
12. In the Options section, configure the following:
• Concurrent import activities — Each import activity represents a different backup set that is processed in parallel.
• Additional threads for each import activity — Number of additional processing threads to run for each import activity.
13. Click Start to begin transferring the initial backup from the initial backup buffer media to the DS-System. Once successfully completed, those backup sets can have backups start to run on schedule or on-demand from DS-Client.
• After the import has completed, verify the activity log. The event log for the import activity will contain a comparison between the number of files saved by the DS-Client to the initial backup buffer and the number of files the DS-System imported from the buffer. These numbers should match.