Avamar - Viewing Large Files

Avamar and viewing large file folders:

Avamar GUI has a problem working with folders with more than 50000 files. When trying to do a backup or restore, Avamar GUI can only show up to 50000 files. To verify this limitation, I created a perl script to create 60,000 files. The perl script is as follows:

for ($a =0; $a <>$a";
close FILE;
}

I ran this script in a test folder, and tried to backup this folder. When I clicked on this folder to select files, the AVamar GUI became unresponsive. On the client side I noticed the avagent.exe process jump up to 25% processing usage and memory usage also increased. After 30 seconds I got a pop up in the Avamar GUI saying that "The client was unable to complete this browse request within the allotted limit of 10 seconds". It gave me two options: Increase the time limit, or view partial results. I clicked on "view partial results" and it only showed me the first 20,000 files.



I clicked on the top folder which selected all the files inside the folder, and then I started the backup. After the backup completed the log reported that it backed up 60,001 files (it also backed up the perl script).

Backup #140 timestamp 2010-06-16 14:32:09, 60,001 files, 3 folders, 10.53 MB (60,001 files, 274 bytes, 0.00% new)

When trying to restore, I ran into the same issue. If I browse for the file by date, and go to that folder I get a popup message saying "Backup list truncated. The console truncated the backup listing because the maximum number of entries was exceeded. The preference max_backup_nodes in mcclient.xml specifies the limit. If the data of interest is not listed, refresh the view and then reselect your backup. This will allow you to select other folders. Selecting the same folder or any other folder that exceeds the limit will cause the truncation to occur again."

I clicked OK, and it only showed me the first 50,000 files. I didn't count, but I am assuming it did. I followed the EMC solution esg110422 which wanted me to edit the MAX_BACKUP_NODES to a higher value from the one listed. The XML file mcclient.xml is located under c:\prograam files\var\mc\gui_data\prefs on the computer where the Avamar administrator GUI (console) is installed. I increased the value to 500,000 and rebooted by desktop according to the instructions. That did not make any difference, and I still saw only 50,000 file entries. I tried refreshing and reselecting, but that did not help, I still could not see files beyond the first 50,000 entries. this causes a huge issue because you have to restore the whole folder to get that file back, something I did not want to do.

I contacted support, and was told that 50,000 is the limit and cannot be changed. I can however use command line to restore the files. I tried mccli from the Avamar utility node and I was able to restore the file by providing the full path and file name.

So, this is how things are right now. If you have a folder with more than 50,000 files, listing the files in the GUI is not possible which makes is impossible to restore any file which is not in that list. You can however use the command line to do a restore. Both mccli.exe and avtar.exe can be used to do the restore.