Limitations to file-based backup and restore

You must be aware of limitations that apply when backing up files that are used by both UNIX® and Windows® clients.

To request a backup from a UNIX client, you must have read permissions on all files and search permissions on all directories (typically a root user). To request a backup from a Windows client, you must have read permissions on all files and folders.

To avoid losing security metadata, files created on Windows operating systems must be backed up on Windows and files created on UNIX operating systems must be backed up on UNIX. Here are some sample solutions:

You might have used special naming conventions to create files or directories. SAN File System does not interpret special naming conventions in any way. In addition, SAN File System cannot always prevent an administrator or any client user from creating a file that violates a naming convention.

Therefore, be aware of the naming conventions when performing backups. Ensure that backups of files in specially named directories are performed only from the same type of client that created the files. So, in an environment that has both UNIX and Windows clients, divide the backup process into multiple parts to prevent the loss of security attributes for files. The number of parts can be as few as two or as many as the number of directories in the global namespace, depending on the capabilities of the backup utility that a client uses.

Parent topic: File-based data backup and restore

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