Restoring imported media 1

[CoreyWilson]

Hello all,

I have some problems getting this to work. Thought I would post a new thread with where I have managed to get thus far.

For this trial/test I have used one tape from an offiste location.

I put the tape in the drive and ran an inventory, the drive detected the tape. From the catlogue option in netbackup I chose to verify this tape. Was successful, I then imported this tape and after about 1.5hours it shows as successful. Now I would like to restore data from this tape. When I use the backup/archieve/restore program I do not know how to find this tape. I selected to restore an archived backup and also selected to restore a normal backup. The history graph does not show the media imported, so how do I run a search for this? As the source server I selected the master server in which this tape was imported into, but I also tried specifyign the orignal master server it was created on as well in case it looks for that identifying tag in the tape name. I tried the combination of client values as well, dosent seem to matter.

The tape has been imported and is now catalogued and reconized by this master server, how do I choose to restore data from this imported tape?

I have tried to follow the manual but they seem to skip over (or do not make it very clear) how to restore data once it has been imported from a tape from a different unit.

Really need to get this working.

Any help is appreciated - thanks for your assistance.

 

[CoreyWilson]

Also should have mentioned - when using the backup/archive/restore program and specifying the orignal master server the search took some time as if it was searching through the entire database but then came back with an error: Cannot connect to socket.

WHether this is because its trying to communicate with this server across the lan (i am doing these restores in a lab environment on seperate subnet and vlan) or whether its something different, this may even by irrelavent, but thought I should mention it.


Thanks again!

 

[doug1ct]

Hi,
I think that once the tape is imported you can then go to Catalogue
on this window are various buttons that select start/end time etc and a search. maybe this will help if you put in the client name.
I don't think adding the server name etc of where it was created will be of any use as the only knowledge your NB server has is of its own db.
hope this helps
regards doug

 

[lenski]

Importing images is overly compucated. First there are 2 steps to the import. First the media is read and a report produced. Then the data is actully imported. Only then will able to see the data in the restore tool.

Then when using the restore tool leave the NetBackup server as your master. The source server is the original server the backup was of.

 

[CoreyWilson]

Hi Guys,

Okay well here's where my problem lies. I have completed phase 1 and phase 2 according to the manual.

Phase 1 - insert the media to be imported to the tape drive, from catalog, select initate import, enter the tape bar code, click ok the media is read and a report is generated.

phase 2 - in catalog search for the imported media within the time frames the data was originally to that tape, select the media that is displayed in the results, choose it and select actions | import.

Phase 2 takes a while to create the catalog and add the relevant informtion to the database. I am able to complete both of these steps, however the problem I am having as mentioned is when trying to restore data from the tape after phase 2 has been completed on it, I cannot find the tape in the restore program to restore data from it.

I am pretty sure I left the netbackup server as the master and specified the source server as the original server that wrote the data to the tape during one of my tests.

I will try/confirm the suggested and post back. You would think they could make it a tad easier and the instructions less absent

Thanks for the replies guys - stay tuned.

 

[CoreyWilson]

Hi guys,

Okay so going the route recommended above I am receiving an error message which I think I know what's causing but not sure how to resolve. THe error I receive after configuring the restore utility to have the master server the server that is currently reading/restoring the tape, the source server which I have configrued as the server name of the server which originally wrote data to the tape and the destination is configured as the master server as well.

The error I am receiving is as follows: Warning: Server (master server name) does not contain any backups for client (the original server the tape is from) using the specified policy type (MS-Windows-NT) as required by client (Master server name).

Now there was a custom backup policy created and used on this tape im trying to restore from called 'Exchange'. Infact all of our backups are custom policies. I have tried selecting all the available policies in the restore program under client/options tab but I receive the same error for all of them. It's almost like I have to somehow import these custom policies into the restore utility. When I catalog the tape, the policy is defined as Exchange.

Any suggestions with how to proceed from here?

Thanks kindly for your assitance!!

 

[lenski]

The policy should not be a problem, but what are you setting the Policy Type to on the source tape in the restore tool. That should be the same as the original backup type. Or was that what you said you were doing.

 

[CoreyWilson]

Yes its the same, the backup was done with a custom policy called 'Exchange'. That is what the policy shows as when I catalog the tape. When I try and restore by default its set to (MS-Windows-NT) but I tried the (MS-Exchange-NT) as well as the standard and none made any difference. There is not a policy in that drop down list for the custom policy of 'Exchange' that the tape was created with.

I hope this answers your question?

 

[kiger]

Is the destination client name typed in exactly like the client name when it was backed up. We have in the past ran across where the names did not match, for example: for the backups the server client name is SERVER1, if you type in server1 for the destination client, NetBackup will spit out the message that there are no backups for that client.
Just a thought.

 

[kiger]

Oops, I meant the source client name and the server name has to be the same.

 

[lenski]

Well NB is not going to be able to display a tape created on a custom policy type if it is not also set up to understand what the custom policy type is. It's like you created a tape in french but then try to view it on a system which has german, english and spanish but no french loaded. You have to load french to read and display french.

 

[CoreyWilson]

I havent had the option to test this yet as that drive is now on the fritz...go figure (not related to this issue though, its giving fan has stopped working warnings on the library itself)

Anyways, so what you are saying is that the server names are case sensitive or not? I wanted to try that, because currently I have the server name typed in lower case, but I wouldnt think that would make a difference but I wanted to try none the less.

Secondly as Lenski points out - since the tape backup was done with a custom policy - how do I import that policy into the backup, restore and archive utility so that it can be read? I would think that importing the tape into the backup database would be enough to read the data on the tape and make it understanable regardless of the policy since the same version/service release of the software and same hardware was used for the backup as the server restoring the tape.

Thoughts?

 

[lenski]

No because it is not actuly a custom policy but a custom policy type, small be important differance. To use an example, we have the Lotus Note agent loaded. Only when that agent is loaded can we list Lotus Notes as a backup or restore policy type. If the agent is not loaded then Lotus Notes will not be on the list and we can not see any backups created with Lotus Notes as a policy type in the restore tool window.

So however the custome policy type was created on your original server the action has to be repeated on the master now. Otherwise you will see nothing. Importing the tape does not add policy types to the master.

Server names are case senitive for some parts of NB and not for others. Trying to remember which bits is what keeps us in a job.

 

[CoreyWilson]

Hello all,

I wanted to ensure that I posted back here to let everyone know that I got things up and running and would likely still be stuck without the asistance of those members here that contributed some helpful advice and answers to recitify this problem. As it turns out, the drive unit I was using for testing this in our lab environment had the fan die so it was on hold for almost the entire week while I awaited a replacement. It also turns out that one of the tapes I was using had a bad fragment or something that somehow was prohibiting a proper import of data?!

Anyways, when I did get a successful import I was going about trying to restore it incorrectly. When using the backup, restore and archive utility, i was specifying the master server as the server I was working with, but when I specified the client to restore from, I was specifying the actual backup server that the backups were written from, not the client that actual data came off of, ie. mailserver, and file server, i was instead entering the name of the backup server that created the backup job.

I was instructed to look under program files\veritas\netbackup\jobs\images and a new folder would be created during import to represent an image of files, i was to specify that as opposed to the actual backup server. No where in the net backup manual did I see this speficially stated. To me that is not common sense - to use the actual server name where the backup came from and not the backup server in which the media was created.

Anyways, I have leared something valuable. So thanks again the assistance I have received on this dragging issue.

 

[Stumpr]

And thank you CoreyWilson for following up with your post. Too many time we never hear sbout the final resolution. Thanks again for the summation.

Bob Stump
Incorrigible punster -- Do not incorrige