Automatic DDFS repair

DDFS repair is a process that lets you check the integrity of the backup jobs and consistency of the backup data stored on the appliance.

In the appliance firmware version 8.14.0 or later, the system starts an automatic DDFS repair on boot of the appliance after an unclean shutdown, for example, power outage, system crash, manual power-off, and the like. It is applicable to appliances with a total RAID capacity of 6 TB or less.

When you boot the appliance after an unclean shutdown, the system notifies you that it is about to start repairing DDFS.

If you do not cancel within 10 seconds, the process starts, and you can see the progress on the screen.

Local view	Remote view

During DDFS repair, appliance Management Console is not available and you cannot access it.

Results of DDFS repair are saved in the internal report. Upon completion, appliance reboots as usual ¹, analyzes the report, and marks backup jobs that have missing data blocks as Failed Verification ().

You can find and review such jobs in Jobs › History.

Even if a backup job has the Failed Verification status, you can still try and boot it, or browse and restore it to retrieve data.

To try and fix the Failed Verification jobs, first you have to request missing data blocks from the peer appliance. For this:

1. In the appliance Management Console, go to Settings.

2. In the Tools section, click Deduplicated File System.

3. Find the Request Missing Blocks option and click Launch next to it.

   If you do not see the option, click Help on the upper right, and then select Show Advanced.

   

Next, you have to check the Failed Verification jobs for consistency. For this:

1. In the appliance Management Console, go to Jobs › History.

2. Select a job with the Failed Verification status ().

3. On the actions toolbar, click Advanced, and then click Check for Consistency.

   

4. In the open dialog, click Verify to start the process.

   After the process starts, you will see its progress in the dialog. Time necessary for the process to complete depends on the size of the job.

   

   To stop the process, click Cancel.

   The process can run in the background, so you do not have to keep the dialog open. To close the dialog, click the Close icon ().

   Unfortunately, the appliance does not notify you when the check ends. So if you closed the dialog, you have to select the job and click Advanced › Check for Consistency again to open the dialog and see the progress.

After the consistency check is completed:

• If all issues with the job were resolved, it is marked as Successfully Completed ().

• If the job still has issues, its status does not change – that is, remains Failed Verification () – and the next consecutive backup job, whether it is on-demand manual or scheduled automatic, will be full.

  If for some reason, full backup cannot be performed, you can still try and boot the job, or browse and restore it to retrieve at least some data.