Suggestion: File Copy job enhancement

[millardjk]

I'd like to see the File Copy job enhanced to be "intelligent" like Replication is: only send the blocks that need to be updated.

My use case: I want to "backup my backup," putting another copy onto a second storage system. I can't use array replication tools because they don't exist for my arrays. Replication expects to duplicate datastore contents; I'm after the duplication of my backup repository. File Copy jobs re-copy everything in all files, regardless of pre-existing status; it isn't even smart enough to skip copying a file that already exists unchanged.

I could set up DFSR, rsync or other delta-copy protocol, but all of those for which I'm aware require a second host; they don't have the ability to duplicate from one volume to another on the same host.

[tsightler]

Not saying I don't agree with your request, but just want to point out that neither rsync nor deltacopy require a second host, they'll work find locally copying between two datastores.

[millardjk]

Not saying I don't agree with your request, but just want to point out that neither rsync nor deltacopy require a second host, they'll work find locally copying between two datastores.

Well, I could run rsync/deltacopy on a single host, but it would require doing both client & server elements, treating them as if they were two different hosts. In the end, that's probably what I'll end up doing (until Veeam adds this to the product, at least...).

[tsightler]

Well, I could run rsync/deltacopy on a single host, but it would require doing both client & server elements, treating them as if they were two different hosts. In the end, that's probably what I'll end up doing (until Veeam adds this to the product, at least...).

Why would you need to do this? Rsync has supported local copies for as long as it has been around. There's no requirement to use both the client and server elements for a local copy, although it doesn't use the "delta" transfer for local copies since that usually would lead to the copy being any faster. It simply becomes an "enhanced" copy that only transfers files that have changed.