Veritas Netbackup media ID for catalog backup

[Steve Lewis]

Veritas Netbackup 3.4GA, L1000/HP-UX 11.00 and a Storagetek L80 tape library.
I have just taken on the administration of this system, so I am still learning.

The Veritas Netbackup Administration window (3.4 / X-windows) has a GUI method of specifying which media to use for catalog backups. Currently somebody has to go into this window every day and put in the new media id to use. This isn't very efficient. Left to its own devices, Netbackup seems to want to use the same tape all the time, or a tape which isn't in the silo, even when suitable (expired or new tapes of the correct pool) are already loaded.

Can anyone tell me:
(1) how to find a suitable tape to use for the catalog backup, using the command line. A command to list the currently loaded media, their pools and assignment dates would be a good start.

(2) how to assign the tape found in (1) to the Netbackup DB catalog backup using the command line, not the GUI.

In 4.5 (which we may upgrade to when we are confident of it) is there a similar way to do this? Currently we have to use the Windows GUI in 4.5.

[Tim Sanko]

1. I hate Veritas, but I use it. Veritas will cycle through tapes in a specific pool to back up the veritas database. This is a feature.
it alternates tapes 1,2,1,2,1,2 etc. If you eject these tapes the system will still try to use them.

To simply eject them is not a good answer. the real answer is to modify the pool first then eject them and also to allocate new tapes to the catalog pool.

You might as well get used to the Java gui as it isn't going away. I was told there was a "robust command line", and there is, but the documentation lacks,IMHO.

I gave up on a similar plan and leave my catalog tapes in the box and Vault the catalogs. It is easier that way.

[Steve Lewis]

Thanks Tim.

The way it is currently set up is this.
After the daily backups and duplications to the non-Netbackup pools are finished, we perform a catalog backup. Then the primary backup tapes and the catalog backup are sent off-site. Sending the catalog backup off-site with the backup tapes greatly speeds up disaster recovery.

Later each day, the operators load some new tapes into the silo, which we assign to various pools.

If anyone can tell me the commands I requested I am still interested.

[Richard Pugh_2]

Hello Steve!
To answer your questions:

(1) What is the purpose of not using the same 2 tapes for the catalog. If you backup a the catalog each day and offsite it using duplication (bpVault for NBU 3.4) then you will not need to switch internal tapes. Best practices is that if you have to recover your NBU database from more than 2 days ago, you are in trouble anyway. You do not need the NetBackup catalog to restore data from media. All you need is your duplication report and the media, then import it.

(2) I am not sure there is a way to assign the 2 pieces of media via command line with the exception of using the bpmedia command or the vmquery command.

(3) There is no X Gui in 4.5, it will be Java. The command line uses the same commands + some extras that are currently in NBU 3.4. Also in NBU4.5 there is the Vault function for duplicating media. In this version you can choose to duplicate the Catalog.

[Patrick Provenzo · Accepted solution]

Th command to assign catalog back tapes from the command line is /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpsyncinfo -id1 [media id] -d1 [media density]
If you wish to assign another tape to use specify a -id2 and -d2 parms.

In /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/goodies there is a sript called available_media which should give you the info you are looking for.

Hope this helps