Seeding Content for the Initial Backup or Restore
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Seeding Content for the Initial Backup or Restore
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When an enterprise has a lot of information to back up, the initial backup to the cloud can take a long time, using on average 100MB bandwidth for the duration of the initial backup. After this initial backup, ongoing backups are incremental, whereby only the changed blocks are sent to the cloud.
Conversely when an enterprise needs to restore a lot of information from the cloud, the restore can take a long time, also using on average 100MB bandwidth for the duration of the restore.
You can speed up the initial backup or restore by storing the files to include in the initial backup or restore on a disk, referred to as a seeding disk, which is then transported to the target site and transferred over a LAN instead of a WAN.
Seeding stations, which are used to import seeding disks, must be added by a global administrator.
Note
Ensure that the portal plan includes a subscription to the CTERA backup seeding service. The default is that the backup seeding service is included in the plan.
To perform a seeded backup:
Verify that seeding is enabled.
Copy the content for the initial backup to a seeding disk that is NFS compatible. The procedure depends on the source for the backup content which can be either the machine running a CTERA Agent or CTERA Edge Filer. For details, refer to the relevant documentation: CTERA Agent documentation or Preparing a Seeding Hard Drive for the Initial Backup in the CTERA Edge Filer documentation.
Deliver the seeding disk to the backup site running a CTERA Portal.
Configure the backup site portal for seeding: In the portal define a NFS server as a seeding station. This can be a a CTERA Edge Filer that is connected to the CTERA Portal's LAN, to enable the portal to mount the seeded disk.
Import the content from the seeding disk to the portal. You import this initial backup to the CTERA Portal over the NFS protocol by attaching the seeding disk to the seeding station.
Viewing Seeding Stations
To view all seeding stations:
- In the global administration view, select Settings > Seeding Stations in the navigation pane.
The SEEDING STATIONS page is displayed with a list of seeding stations.
NAME – The seeding station's name.
ADDRESS – The seeding station's IP address.
PATH – The path from the portal to the seeding station.
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