After upgrading Citrix SDX to 12.1 Build 52.15, when customer tries to take a back up of SDX through ADM, the back up file size is showing very less on ADM. Whereas, if customer takes a back up of SDX directly on SDX, then the back file size is huge.

If you would like to get the XVA image file of Citrix ADC instance, image file of SDX, then you can either download the XVA image file of Citrix ADC or software image of SDX from the Citrix download portal

(OR)

You can re-generate a backup file with image file from ADM by going to ( ADM > Networks > Instances > Citrix ADC > Select SDX tab > Click on Backup/Restore tab > Select the backup file > Click on Repackage Backup option). This option will regenerate a backup file along with the image files

NOTE: To perform Repackage Backup on ADM, the XVA image files and Software image files should be available on SDX appliance.

Please refer the below Citrix ADM Documentation on how to perform Repackage Backup:

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-application-delivery-management-software/12-1/networks/instance-management/backup-restore-netscaler-instances.html 

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Problem Cause

There is a behavior change from 12.1 version onwards with respect to taking a Backup through ADM as explained below:

>> In earlier versions of Citrix ADC, when you take a backup of SDX through ADM, the SDX will send the XVA and image files of Citrix ADC instance as well as the software image file of XenServer along with the configuration files. Hence the file size of backup file was huge.

>> With the old design, the size of backup file was huge. Thus, sometimes sending a backup file from SDX to ADM gets failed when there is a network issues. Hence, we even fail to get a configuration file of Citrix ADC instance or SVM or Xenserver.

>> Since our Primary goal is to get the configuration file While we try to take a backup of SDX through ADM, Citrix Development team has changed the behavior in latest Citrix ADC versions. i.e, with the new design, when ADM sends a backup request to SDX, SDX will send only the Configuration files of Citrix ADC instance, SVM and Xenserver and it will not send the XVA file, image files of Citrix ADC instance or image file of XenServer. Thus, we see a difference in the file size when we take a backup directly on SDX and when we take a backup of SDX through ADM.


 

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-application-delivery-management-software/12-1/networks/instance-management/backup-restore-netscaler-instances.html