Can NB allocate more than 2 tapes/media for Catalog 1

[dukbtr]

My boss wants me to post and see if there is a setting in NetBackup that can be changed so that we can allocate more than 2 devices/tapes in the catalog settings at a time. We are running 5.1 on HP-UX. I have never seen such a setting/parameter, if there is one, can someone please enlighten me on it.

 

[Stumpr]

If you are talking about the devices specified for doing a catalog beckup then the answer is that only two can be defined at any given time.

That being said, there is a way to modify the setup via the command line. You can even set it up with cron to modify everyday. Some people do this for vaulting a copy of the catalog.

This technote may prove helpful.
DOCUMENTATION: How to eject and add a new NetBackup catalog tape

http://support.veritas.com/docs/274214

Bob Stump
VERITAS
"Ain't it the truth? Ain't it the truth?" Bert Lahr, Wizard of Oz 1939

 

[dukbtr]

I read the support doc and I don't think that is what we are looking for. That seems to be just the command line way of switching/adding media to the catalog/netbackup pool, instead of through the Gui. This still looks as though I would have to specify and change the media added/deleted manually. Even if set up through cron, cause the command needs the tape number. What the boss is looking for is for NetBackup to take of of all that. I have told him that it can't be done, but he does not listen. He thinks that there has to be a way to modify the Gui to be able to specify more than two storage units at a time.

Any more incite is appreciated.

 

[Vela]

Don't quite know what you need at this point.

However, our catalog grew larger than what would fit on a single backup tape. We have a process in place now that backs up our 500G+ catalog daily using a two step process.

We still have only 2 catalog tapes defined under the Catalog properties tab, and they switch back and forth each day. The schedule tab is set to 'Only when manually intiated'

The files tab has entries for our master and media server-
/usr/openv/nebackup/db/images/master name
/usr/openv/volmgr/database
/usr/openv/var
/usr/openv/java/auth.conf
/usr/openv/netbackup/db/[A-Za-hj-z]*

We also have a regular backup policy setup called Netbackup_CatalogDB_job
Client would be the master server
Backup Selections would be- /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images
The schedule is open and the job runs everyday

We also setup a volume pool called NetbackupCatalogJob and pointed the policy at that volume pool.

I set this up long ago so I don't know what I may be missing to make this work right, but I bet support can tell you.

What this does though-

It's starts the Catalog backup and that only backs up about 30G of info that tells it what image is where on what tape.

After that step is done the regular policy is kicked off automatically and that backs up the huge catalog and th other directories listed above.

Hope this helps..

 

[Vela]

If your trying to automate how Netbackup allocates tapes..I wouldn't bother. It's easy enough to remove them and eject them form the library and allocate new tapes.

I don't see the point in that.

 

[Stumpr]

He thinks that there has to be a way to modify the Gui

The boss is wrong.
Tell him Bob Stump says so.

Now if he want to submit an enhancement request to symantec.....

With enough money, and time, most all things are possible. Even walking on the moon

or this request





Bob Stump
VERITAS
"Ain't it the truth? Ain't it the truth?" Bert Lahr, Wizard of Oz 1939

 

[creakyjoe]

What i do is have via cron (and i know that's not what your boss wants but NetBackup can't do everything!) a manual backup of the catalog that checks that no backup jobs are running and if so kicks off a catalog backup to disk on another server. In olden times we would manually back that up (via tar) to a standalone tape drive and offsite it but these days the extra catalog backups just sit on the other server..

NetBackup's a good product and all that but as per the other guys, and like with any product out there there's always things that we support staff have to manufacture to fit around the products..

 

[creakyjoe]

...what i forgot to add is that my cronjob runs a few times each morn so it allows for overnight backups to overrun ie the job manages to complete at least once before lunchtime.