Using NDMP instead of CIFS mounting

Question

I have a weird but interesting use-case. I use CIFS to mount shares from a File Server (NetApp, EMC etc) to an application server (win/linux server where my application runs). My application needs to process each of the file from the shares that I mount via CIFS. My application also needs access to the meta-data of these files such as Name, Size, ACLs etc.

I would like to see if I can achieve the same via NDMP. I have some very basic questions regarding this use-case. It would be great if you guys can help me out here.

1. Is this even something which is achievable?
2. Can I transfer only shares that are interesting to me instead of the entire volume?

Answer 1

NDMP is essentially an application protocol to control backup/restore operations. The protocol is supple enough to do interesting things like data migration or tape cloning as well.

However it is not a file access protocol so "mounting" anything via NDMP isn't possible unless a NDMP server vendor writes a NDMP extension to do so: which will be a rather silly given there are specialized protocols that do just that.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

NDMP is designed for data management (backup, recovery, etc.) and not as a file access protocol such as CIFS. If you application is a backup application then yes, you can use NDMP to control and copy subsets of the data from your filer to the application server. Note that the format of the data will be what the filer provides (via NDMP) and not in your control. Hope that helps!