Total Backups Test
Unitrends uses backups to create recovery points for your data. Backups are run in different modes and are organized into backup groups. Your backup strategies determine which modes you will use. Unitrends backups fall into two general categories: local backups and backup copies.
Local backups are stored on the appliance. These backups are immediately accessible and enable you to meet low RTOs. Backup copies are stored on an offsite target. These backups are duplicates (hence, "copies") of your local backups, and are used for long-term retention and disaster recovery.
Backup modes determine what data to include in the backup. These modes protect all types of data and apply to asset-level backups, host-level backups, application backups, NAS backups, and iSeries backups. While creating backup jobs, you can select the following backup modes: full, incremental, differential, selective, and bare metal. In addition to these, the server automatically creates synthetic backups as needed.
In environments where multiple clients/servers are connected to the target backup server, administrators may often fail to figure out what type of backup was being performed by the client/server and when the backup was performed. The Total Backups test helps administrators in this regard!.
This test auto-discovers the backup modes using which clients/servers are performing backup on the target backup server, and for each backup mode, this test report the number of times backup was performed using that particular backup mode. Administrators can compare the values across the backup modes and figure out the most commonly used mode for backups.
Target of the test: A Unitrend Enterprise Backup server
Agent deploying the test : An external agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for each Backup mode using which backup was performed on the target Unitrend Enterprise Backup server that is being monitored
Parameter | Description |
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Test period |
How often should the test be executed. |
Host |
The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured. |
SNMPPort |
The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default is 161. |
SNMPVersion |
By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPVersion list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list. |
SNMPCommunity |
The SNMP community name that the test uses to communicate with the storage. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear. |
Username |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges – in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against this parameter. |
Context |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the Username provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the Username in the Context text box. By default, this parameter is set to none. |
AuthPass |
Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned Username. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPVersion selected is v3. |
Confirm Password |
Confirm the AuthPass by retyping it here. |
AuthType |
This parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. From the AuthType list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified username and password into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:
|
EncryptFlag |
This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option. |
EncryptType |
If the EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the EncryptType list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:
|
EncryptPassword |
Specify the encryption password here. |
Confirm Password |
Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here. |
Timeout |
Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in this text box. The default is 10 seconds. |
Data Over TCP |
By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic – for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components – to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set this flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No. |
Engine ID |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. Sometimes, the test may not report metrics when AES192 or AES256 is chosen as the Encryption type. To ensure that the test report metrics consistently, administrators need to set this flag to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No. |
Measurement |
Description |
Measurement Unit |
Interpretation |
---|---|---|---|
Total backups |
Indicates the number of times backup was performed using this backup mode on the backup server. |
Number |
Compare the value of this measure across the backup modes to determine the backup mode that was most commonly used for backup purposes. The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the ID, the name of the client who performed the backup, the time at which the backup was performed and the total number of files that were backed up. |