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gharper
Asked: 2010-04-29 12:50:32 +0800 CST

Problems restoring old backups in NetBackup 6.5

  • 772

I had a server that was decommissioned & replaced last year, and since the server was no longer in use, I deleted it's client & backup policy from the NetBackup Admin Console shortly afterwards.

I recently got a request to restore a file from the old server, however when I specify the source client for the restore, I get an error message saying:

WARNING: server (backupserver) does not contain any backups for client (oldserver) using the specified policy type (Standard) as requested by client (backupserver).
[Ok]

In addition to that error, I can't seem to run a Client Backup report on the old client any more to determine what tapes I need to recall in order to re-index and restore the files...

Additional info:
- My backup policies are daily incrementals retained for 4 weeks, weekly fulls retained for 2 months, and monthly full backups which are retained indefinitely... I'm trying to restore the monthly backup set.
- All my offsite tapes still appear in the volume pools, however I can't seem to pull up any reports as to what's on the individual tapes, or at least, any tape that was written to prior to August 2009.

My questions:

  • Does deleting the client somehow remove NetBackups ability to ever restore files from the old system, even if the backups have a retention period of infinity?
  • Is there a way to restore the file from the tape, assuming I can figure out which tape I need?
netbackup

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If the tapes have 'expired' then you will need to re-import them into the catalog (which is an index of what is on what tape). I think this is what has happened, and unless you have a backup of that catalog I'm afraid you are going to have to go through tape by tape. This is a two step process (or a two phase process a Symantec calls it).

    The first part is to scan the tapes to find the image you need, you then need to import that image so it is ready for backup. So use phase 1 to find the backup running it on each tape, and then phase 2 once you have found it. The second phase can take a while. The instructions are located here, and I recommend you use the command line method as that has worked well for me in the past. The highlights are:

    To start a phase 1 import from the command line run the command:

    # cd /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
# ./bpimport -create_db_info -id <disk_path> -L /usr/tmp/phase1.log

    Enter the disk path to use for the import. Then, monitor the /usr/tmp/phase1.log file to monitor the progress of the phase 1 import.

    To start a phase 2 import from the command line run the command:

    # cd /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
# ./bpimport -id <disk_path> -s <startdate> -e <enddate> -L /usr/tmp/phase2.log

    I also strongly recommend you flick the hardware lock on each tape to be sure you don't overwrite these images with another backup.

    Also, in the future you will want to change the "retention period" on the tapes so the backups remain in the catalog (not sure about your question as to removing the client removes from the catalog, but in case it wasn't infinity). The levels are:

    Retention    Retention     Equivalent
 Level         Period          Days
---------          -----------         ----------
   0             1 week               7        
   1             2 weeks           14       
   2             3 weeks           21       
   3             1 month           31       
   4             2 months         62       
   5             3 months         93       
   6             6 months        186      
   7             9 months        279      
   8             1 year            365      
   9             infinity

    After you import the tape, you can set the images on this tape to never expire with:

    /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpexpdate -ev B00010 -d infinity

    All my commands are unix examples but they should be the same or similar in Windows, also, the link I provided above shows how to do the import with the gui as well.

    • 3

  2. you'll need to re import the tapes into your master catalog

    • 0