IBVolume and Snapshot - need understanding!

[mwozenilek]

Hi there!

Some questions:

- can i backup the snapshot files directly with my backup software? My understanding is that when i create a snapshot new ibvd files are created and the old ones are not changing anymore. So these old ibvd files should be ok to backup.

- when I create a snapshot: it is possible to dissolve this snapshot in a easy way? Or do I have to carry this snapshot with me forever? This is realy important as i don't want to keep all these ibvd files on my disk.

- i've created a incremental ibvolume with a max of 1 snapshot. now StarWind creates more and more ibvd files. From ham-dcapp01_00000001.ibvd to ham-dcapp01_0000000e.ibvd until now. How to stop this? Why so many ibvd files when i have a setting of max 1 snapshot? How to revert to only one ibvd file???

Thanks in advance!

[Bohdan (staff)]

The snapshot file extension is - ibvss
You can make backups. To do that you must copy ibvss, ibvd and ibvm files but not only ibvd or ibvss.
There can be many ibvd files because the data parts a located in different journals.
If the number of stored snapshots is limited to some value the ibvd files will be removed as soon as they are not in use any more.
It is bad idea to delete ibv, ibvss, ibvm or ibvd manually. Use "Cleanup Log directory" popup menu item instead.
To reduce the number of ibvd files you can create new IBVolume target, copy all data from the old target to the new one and use this new ibv target instead of the old one.

[mwozenilek]

Hi there,

does this mean, that the ibvd files are removed as soon as the data within these files is also in newer ibvd files? Or will clicking on "Cleanup Log" also integrate the ibvd's to one file? Like VMWare is doing this with snapshots ...

Thanks!

[Val (staff)]

Hi,

- can i backup the snapshot files directly with my backup software? My understanding is that when i create a snapshot new ibvd files are created and the old ones are not changing anymore. So these old ibvd files should be ok to backup.

Yes. Older snapshots are ready to be backed up.

- when I create a snapshot: it is possible to dissolve this snapshot in a easy way? Or do I have to carry this snapshot with me forever? This is realy important as i don't want to keep all these ibvd files on my disk.

StarWind will remove the old ibvd files when they are unused by the recent snapshots.
When all the sectors stored in a ibvd file are updated and stored in recent ibvd, the old ones are allowed to be cleaned up on the next snapshot, if the "Number of snapshots to keep" parameter is set.

- i've created a incremental ibvolume with a max of 1 snapshot. now StarWind creates more and more ibvd files. From ham-dcapp01_00000001.ibvd to ham-dcapp01_0000000e.ibvd until now. How to stop this? Why so many ibvd files when i have a setting of max 1 snapshot? How to revert to only one ibvd file???

THese ibvd files are storing some peaces of the wholw IBV volume.
Once their sectors are updated, they become unused and can be removed.