Environment
Reload (Versions 1.x - 4.x)
NOTE: Reload 5 removed the need for Portable Backups
NOTE: Reload 5 removed the "Portable Backup" feature, as it was no longer needed. A new architecture in Reload 5 is employed that cleans up expired Groupwise BLOB files without the need for the Portable Backup feature. This feature used quite a bit of processing and disk space, but it is no longer needed with Reload 5.x and beyond.
Situation
What is a Portable backup job? How many Portables does Reload keep? What happens when it runs?
Resolution
A Portable backup job is also known as a "full" or "weekly" job. It doesn't back up any data from the production GroupWise server. It moves the Standard backups (a.k.a, "daily" or "incremental" backups) into a new directory off of the ../[profile]/backups location, including making a copy of the master BLOBS (a.k.a, "attachments or "offiles" directory).
The default number of Portables that Reload keeps is two. This can be configured within the web interface or within the administration console.
Web Interface
1) Click on the profile.
2) Click on the Configure tab.
3) Click on Configure Backup Job Settings
4) The setting is labeled, Number of Portable Backups To Store.
Administration Console
1) Profiles
2) POST OFFICE PROFILE
3) [select the profile]
4) Portable
5) Retention
This is what happens during a Portable backup:
a) By default, it runs once a week on Saturday at 1:00am.
b) It first checks the ../<profile>/backups/ directory for a weeknow directory (created by the Standard backup).
c) If the weeknow directory exists, then a Portable will be performed.
d) If the weeknow directory does not exist, then the Portable process would be skipped.
e) It begins copying the master BLOBS to /[profile]/BLOBS/offiles.mirror.
f) When the BLOBS have been successfully copied, it renames the weeknow directory to [n]-week[nn]-[year] (i.e., 1-week11-2013) and moves the BLOBS in offiles.mirror over to the new structure.
g) Once the BLOBS have been copied into the new portable directory, then the portable process compares Reload's master copy of the BLOBS (../[profile/blobs/offiles/] with the production GroupWise server's BLOBS files.
h) The BLOBS that have been deleted on the production GroupWise server are removed from Reload's master copy of the BLOBS.
i) The master BLOBS on the Reload Server should now match the BLOBS directories on the production GroupWise server.