Configuring Optimized Backups for Hard Links

By default, hard links are ignored during backups and the data is duplicated thus taking up additional storage space. You can prevent such data duplication when backing up hard-linked files and also preserve hard links during restores using the following steps.

Additional disk space is required for the job results directory, for more information see Job Results Directory Disk Space Calculation.

Before You Begin

Review the following considerations for hard links restores:

• If you have hard link groups in restore content and use multiple streams during restore, then the hard link group will not be preserved, and the links will be restored as individual files when the links are restored by different streams.

• When restoring files and folders using a map file, if you are restoring a hard-linked file backed up with HLINK/HLINKSNAP additional setting set to Y, ensure that all the associated hard links are included in the map file to preserve the hard links.

For more information on how to restore data using multiple streams or using a map file with Linux file system agent, see Advanced Restore - Linux File System.

Procedure

1. From the navigation pane, go to Manage > System.

2. Click the Additional settings tile.

   The Additional settings page appears.

3. Click Add, and then select Entity settings.

   The Add entity settings dialog box appears.

4. In the Name box, do the following:

   1. For file system backups, enter HLINK.

   2. For IntelliSnap backups of hard-linked files, enter HLINKSNAP.

      Note

      The IntelliSnap backups for hard links are supported only as part of the backup copy operation.

5. From the Entity list, select the server or server group.

6. In the Category box, enter FileSystemAgent.

7. From the Type list, select String.

8. In the Value box, enter Y.

9. In the Comment box, enter an explanation for the change.

10. Click Save.