Catalogs

Hi,

CASO servers don't duplicate to an MMS...it's the other way around. To do this you need to set up the MMS to either replicate the job/catalog information to the CASO, or centralise this on the CASO.

Just be aware that if you centralise your job/catalog information and your CASO dies, so do your jobs on the MMS until such time as you get the CASO running again.

Check the link below for further information on this:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO11914

Thanks!

That doesn't make any sense though.

As I said, I have 1 server in the main site (which as CASO), and 1 server in the remote site. What's the point in duplicating backups from the main site to the remote site if I can't then restore those backups in the remote site.

How would I achieve this?

OK...does your CASO run backups? If so, CASO does NOT replicate media/catalog information to another server.

I think you're misunderstanding how the CASO then works...CASO controls media servers and receives job logs etc, and can initiate jobs to MMS servers...it doesn't receive that information and replicate elsewhere. You'd have to back up the CASO server's Data/Catalogs folders.

If you want to duplicate backups from 1 site to the other, then your CASO should be on the remote site...not the other way around.

Also, please put in the details of how your backups are configured to run which I am sure will make things  a lot easier to understand!

Yes the CASO does itself run backups. Moving the CASO to the remote site will only reverse the problem. I want/need a fully replicated system in both sites so if either site dies I can restore that sites data in the other site.

Basically, each site does its own backups, which are then duplicated to the other site. So site A's backups are duplicated to site B, and site B's backups are duplicated to site A.

I understand all that about CASO, I just didn't know it didn't replicate catalogs itself.

In terms of how backups are configured (we're using de-dupe); backup jobs runs on a schedule, then on completion the duplicate backup job runs, sending it to the other site.

Ldoodle,

I'm running into the same issue in my environment.

I run CASO w/ dedupe and then duplicate backup sets to an offsite MMS with a shared dedupe folder. I cannot restore the duplicated data from the MMS without cataloging it first.

I'm a little ticked off about it too. Symantec was selling dedupe as "dedupe with replication". I take issue with their definition of replication. They should really call it "replication via a duplicate data job/policy bundled with tedious catalog jobs than need to be manually run at your DR site". This form of "replication" is something I could have cooked up on my own without shelling out a lot of money for a second dedupe license.

Thanks Matt,

I agree it is a major cockup on Symantec's side. Why on earth would you want to duplicate data to another site and then not be able to actually do anything with it. What is their solution then to any site in a multi site organization crumbling down? Every second counts in business these days so to say "manually catalog your data" is a stupid solution when we're talking terrabytes of data!

This is a major design flaw and I would like to see multiway catalog replication in a future patch (not just a new version altogether), and very soon, otherwise they can jog on all the way to the moon if they think I'm going to renew my maintenance.

This isn't a minor bug for us either, it is do or die.

...add it in as an Idea. It seems to be worth that!

Thanks Craig, Colin - I will try the Private Cloud option and report back.

Another idea I have just thought of - we use Windows DFS-R between the 2 sites for file-based data. I wonder if it would be worth setting up a DFS location to store the catalog folder, which would be replicated at the file level so when a catlog is created/updated it is shipped off to the other site's file server.

Backup Exec would then be configured to use this location for its catalog folder.

Would that be do-able, and supported by Symantec?

...I haven't seen any mention of Symantec not supporting the catalogs being stored in a DFS location; they offer the option of changing the location as it is through BEutility...