Using Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) › How to Perform a Backup › Review the Backup Prerequisites and Considerations › Merge Job Guidelines

Merge Job Guidelines

Review the following merge job guidelines:

• A merge job has the lowest priority. When a merge job is running, if any other job comes in, the merge job will be stopped. After that job completes, the merge will be resumed or restarted.
• You can manually stop or pause the merge job when it is running. If the merge job is manually stopped/paused, you must manually start or resume it from the Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) home page. It will not be resumed/restarted automatically. As a result, the launching of all scheduled merge jobs will be suspended until you manually resume them.
• If the merge job is automatically stopped it will be automatically started when no other job is running.
• When a merge job is resumed, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) will know exactly where to start the process. If the merge job crashed or the machine was abruptly shut down, the job is resumed from the previous merge state.

  Example 1: When a merge job is started and crashed at 20%, the next time when the job is restarted, it will start to merge sessions again from 0%.

  Example 2: When a merge job is started and paused at 10%, the next time when the job is restarted, it will start to merge sessions from the 10% point. If it crashes at 20%, then the merge job will be restarted from the 10% point.

• When a merge job is resumed or restarted, if the list of sessions being merged is not changed since the time it was paused, the merge is resumed. This means it resumes and continues the merge from the point where it was paused.
• When a merge job is resumed or restarted, if the list of sessions being merged is changed since the time it was paused, the original merge is resumed without any added or modified sessions. This means the original merge resumes and continues the merge from the point where it was paused. When the original merge is completed, a new merge of the added or modified sessions will then be performed.

  Example: The original merge job contains 4 backup sessions and is paused when it completes 90% of the merge. When the merge is resumed, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) will complete the remaining 10% of the original merge and then a new merge will be performed for the added or modified sessions.

• The Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) home page Job Monitor indicates the merge job status. It shows the percentage complete and displays more details if needed. For more information, see Job Monitor Panel in the online help.
• The merge process must be able to keep the recovery point in a consistent state. You can restore a file from any visible session even if the session is partially merged. If there is a session merge not completed, the merge job will run in the background to merge the session.