Vaulting Dashboard Tool
The vaulting dashboard allows the user to monitor and manage vaulting operations on a system or vault. The screen is organized into four primary areas: an historical view of completed vaulting operations, the currently-active vaulting operations, any pending vaulting operations (backups waiting to be vaulted), and a control bar at the bottom.
Vaulting Modes
Before describing the areas of the Vaulting Dashboard in detail, we first provide an overview of the modes of vaulting, as this affects what you see on the screen. The vaulting modes are Copy and Deduplication. In Copy mode an entire backup is copied to the vault when it is vaulted, while in Deduplication (also known as Patch) mode only the changed portions of the backup are transferred to the vault. To see which mode is enabled for the system, go to Settings->Vaulting->Vaulting Attributes and click on "Configuration Options and Vaulting Control". If the checkbox "Vaulting Deduplication On?" is selected (and it is, by default), the system is using Deduplication mode.
When a backup is vaulted, it goes through several phases. If deduplication is enabled for this system:
- The vaulting process creates a Delta file that contains the changed portions of the backup file;
- The Delta file is Copied from the system to the vault;
- As the vault receives the Delta file, it Patches these changes into the vaulted backup.
Completed Operations (Vaulting History)
Completed Operations are grouped per system in the top of the screen. For each row of Completed Operations, the following information is provided:
- Status - a graphical status indicating whether or not the backup was successfully vaulted
- Client - Client Name
- Vaulted Date/Time - the time at which vaulting started
- Type - the type of backup vaulted
- Elapsed - the elapsed time for the vaulting operation
- Size (MB) - the size of the vaulted backup
Also, you can click on any row in the table and a details window will display additional information, including the low-level messages (the Sync Messages) associated with the vaulting operation. If the selected operation is one that has failed and is eligible to be reset, a reset button will be displayed in the details window. Only those backups associated with repeatedly failing patch operations are eligible for reset. Reset will remove the signature file, the delta, and syncInfo files so the entire process can begin anew.
Pending Vaulting Operations
The Pending Operations area at the bottom of the screen contains a list of any backups that are waiting to be vaulted (the backlog), organized per system. The fields displayed are
- Status - a status indicating whether the vault operation is active or not
- Client - Client Name
- Backup Date/Time - the time at which the backup started
- Type - the type of backup
- Elapsed - the elapsed time for the backup operation
- Size (MB) - the size of the backup
A backup appears in this list once the backup successfully completes, and it was initiated for a client that has sync'ing enabled (see Client Configuration for more information on enabling vaulting for a client. Failed backups will not be vaulted.
You specify whether or not you want to vault BareMetal, SQL, Exchange, and Local Directories by enabling or disabling options in the Vaulting Attributes for the system. If enabled, BareMetal backups and SQL backups will be seen in the Pending Operations list. Exchange and Local Directories will never show up in the Pending Operations list because even when enabled, as these types are vaulted based on directory locations, and whatever backups exist in these directories will be vaulted each day.
Pending operations will show up with an hourglass for their status if active, with the particular vaulting phase displayed in the Active Operations list. There will also be times where a backup appears to be active and then inactive again before vaulting completes. This may be seen when you click on a system in the Navigational Pane while using the dashboard. If the selected system has transmitted its Delta file to the vault for a particular backup and is waiting on the vault to complete the Patch, it will not be active from the perspective of the system. (on the vault the Patch operation will be shown in the active list). Once the Patch completes, the backup will be removed from the Pending Operations list and the complete vaulting information will be displayed in the Completed Operations list at the top of the screen.
Pending Operations do not become Completed operations on a 1:1 basis. For example, multiple SQL backups will map to a single Completed SQL Operation once vaulting has completed, because they are vaulted as a group.
Active Vaulting Operations
The area in the middle of the screen shows active vaulting operations, organized per system. Each row contains the following information:
- Phase - an icon that denotes the vaulting phase, e.g., Delta, Copy, Patch.
- Client - Client Name
- Date/Time - the time at which this vault operation started
- Type - the type of backup being vaulted. In addition, you may occasionally see a special "SystemState" type in the active operations list. SystemState is a small amount of information that is periodically copied from the system to the vault; it would be used during the restoration of a system if ever needed.
- Elapsed - the elapsed time for this specific vaulting operation
- % - the completion percentage of the operation
- Estimated Completion - the estimated completion time for this operation/phase. It is important to note that this projection is based on completion percentage (as calculated using current and final size), and vaulting rates seen at that point in time. During the day, if you use throttling to limit the network bandwidth used for vaulting, you may see projected completion times that are later than you would have anticipated. This is because with throttling, the amount of bandwidth available for the vaulting operation has been limited. If bandwidth is increased, the projected completion time will become shorter as the vaulting operation continues its progress. Conversely, if a vaulting operation is resumed after a failure, the estimated completion time will appear sooner than you would expect, because the completion percentage and rate is based on the size of the vault operation. For example, resuming a vault operation that is 50% complete will indicate once it starts vaulting again that 50% of the backup has vaulted in a very small amount of time (based on the time that the operation resumed). As the vaulting operation continues, the estimated completion time will become more accurate again.
When you select a row in the active list, you see additional fields, such as the current and final size associated with this operation and the rate at which the phase is progressing in MB per second.
A "Terminate" button is available for every active vaulting operation, allowing the user to choose different backup options and begin anew. File-level (Master, Differential) or BareMetal backups will display an additional "Terminate/Clear" button. Selecting this button will clear the "sync needed" status of the backup. In the event a patch operation is in progress, all patch information will be removed so a new backup can begin anew (Securesync will not think it should resume patching that backup on the next pass).
The active vaulting list will include the operations' completion percentages, except in certain specific situations. The different scenarios are outlined as follows:
- On the vault, the Patch process for all backup types will include a completion percentage.
- During the creation of a Delta file for Master, Differential and BareMetal backups, you will see its completion percentage.
- During the creation of a Delta file for SQL, Exchange, and Local Directories, no completion percentage will be available. The current size is visible when you click on the item to view its details, so you can get a rough idea of the completion percentage by dividing the current size by the final size from the time the backup previusly was vaulted.
- During the copy of the Delta file from the system to the vault for SQL, Exchange, and Local Directories, you will see its completion percentage.
- During the Copy of SQL, Exchange, and Local Directories, no completion percentage is available (this occurs when not deduplicating and backups are copied in their entirety to the vault).
- The Copy of SystemState from the system to the vault is a small operation that never shows a completion percentage.
Vaulting Controls
At the very bottom of the screen is a set of controls, which include:
- Refresh Checkbox. Enabling this checkbox means that this screen is automatically refreshed as per the refresh interval. This will allow you to monitor the progression of vaulting operations.
- Refresh Interval. The number of seconds between automatic refreshes if the refresh checkbox is enabled.
- Refresh. This button causes a manual refresh of each of the panes in the dashboard.
- Clock icon. Used if the user wishes to know when the Pending Vaulting Operations will be considered for vaulting. The primary vaulting control process, securesync, checks periodically to see if new backups are ready to be vaulted. Clicking on this icon will display the last time checked and the next time the check will occur. It will also let the user know if vaulting is suspended, as no backups will begin vaulting if it is suspended. The interval time may be changed using the Settings->Vaulting ->Vaulting Attributes interface.
- Close. This button closes this subsystem and returns the user to the settings system.