Administration Guide › Managing Existing Catalogs › Condensing Catalogs

Condensing Catalogs

When you condense a catalog, CA VM:Backup removes all file, track, and block information for every minidisk and file space. CA VM:Backup retains only the general entries for the minidisks and file spaces.

You can condense a catalog only once. No jobs can be running when CA VM:Backup is condensing catalogs.

CA VM:Backup marks condensed catalogs on the Manage Existing Catalogs screen by preceding the dumpjob number with an asterisk, for example, *00002009.

To condense a catalog, enter condense in the Command column of the Manage Existing Catalogs screen next to the catalog you want to condense. CA VM:Backup displays the Condense Catalogs screen. This screen lists the selected catalog and all other catalogs that are based on this catalog.

Condense All Associated Catalogs

When you condense a catalog, CA VM:Backup also condenses the catalogs from any incremental backups that are based on the catalog you chose to condense. CA VM:Backup condenses these catalogs regardless of the following details:

• The individual auto-condense dates that are defined for those catalogs.
• Whether the catalog that you chose to condense was created during a full or during an incremental backup.

When you condense a catalog that has no other backups that are based on it, CA VM:Backup condenses only the specified catalog.

To condense all the catalogs that are listed on the Condense Catalogs screen, enter yes on the command line.

Backup Schedule Considerations

If you run incremental backups on a daily basis and full backups once a week, consider setting up the backups as follows:

• Run all backups using file/track/block-level detail.
• Convert catalogs that are older than a certain age to domain-level detail.

Restore Considerations

Retaining condensed catalogs can be more useful than discarding them. The benefits of retaining versus discarding catalogs depends on the restore needs of your data center and how long you need the catalogs to be available. A domain-level catalog allows CA VM:Backup to process only those tapes that contain data for the minidisk or file space being restored. The lack of a catalog requires CA VM:Backup to scan all the tapes from a particular backup while searching for the requested data.

Processing Guidelines for Auto-Condensing a Catalog

When you specify auto-condensing for a catalog, consider the following factors:

• Specifying an auto-condense period does not protect a catalog from being condensed manually (through the CONDENSE command) or from being condensed because its base catalog was condensed.
• If you try to condense the catalog for a domain-level backup, the process does not change the catalog. The resulting catalog is the same as it was before you entered the CONDENSE command.
• If an error occurs while a catalog is being condensed, CA VM:Backup does not condense that catalog.