How open files are handled during an Avamar backup on Unix/Linux and Windows

Files may be open by an application when an Avamar backup attempts to read them. This is how avamar backup handles such open files.

On Windows : Windows file handling provides exclusive access and non-exclusive access to open files.

Avamar makes use of OTM(on Windows 2000) and VSS(on Windows XP and later) to backup the files which are open by some other application.

OTM and VSS basically create a snapshot of the file system which remains static. Avamar backs up the static snapshot and therefore does not contend with other applications that have an exclusive lock on the original file.

On Unix/Linux : Unix and Linux based operating systems, unlike Windows generally provide non-exclusive access to files. Since an application may have the file open non-exclusively, Avamar is able to back up such files without issue.

A caveat however is that Avamar will back up what is written to the disk but not any changes made to the file which have not yet been flushed to the disk.

Generated by Jive on 2013-03-13-07:00 1

How open files are handled during an Avamar backup on Unix/Linux and Windows

Please refer to knowledgebase article esg126275 for details.

Generated by Jive on 2013-03-13-07:00 2