Using Seeding For the Initial Back Up or Restore
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 Gateway. For details, refer to the relevant documentation: CTERA Agent documentation or the CTERA Edge Filer (Gateway) Administrator Guide.Deliver the seeding disk to the backup site running a CTERA Portal.Configure the backup site portal for seeding: In the portal define a CTERA Gateway as a seeding station, which is a CTERA Gateway that is connected to the CTERA Portal's LAN, to enable the portal to mount the seeded disk. For details, refer to the CTERA Edge Filer (Gateway) Administrator Guide.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.In this section
These tasks, except for Importing an Initial Backup From a Seeding Disk and Exporting Content To Restore can be performed in the global administration view only.
Importing an Initial Backup From a Seeding Disk can also be performed in a reseller portal by the staff administrator and by the global administrator in the team or reseller portal view.