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JJJCR's avatar
JJJCR
Level 4
13 years ago
Solved

List Tape Contents (Symantec BackupExec 12.5)

hi guys, i'm on the task of recovering old datas from old tapes. 

I can read the tape contents using Symantec Backup Exec, by doing Inventory, and going to the device then clicking on the tape device name.

When I do a restore data, I can view the contents of the tape.

My question is, is there a way to list the contents of the tape to an excel file or text format?

I had downloaded the Catdump utility for Backup Exec 12.5 from this link--> (http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH87173)

The syntax for this catdump would be: catdump path-to-program-files-and-catalog-GUID.fh > dump-to-text.file

But my problem is when I tried to run that command, there's no data generated becaused the catalog.GUID.fh file does not exist anymore, or it might have been deleted.

Is there a way to print or list out the tape contents from old tapes if the catalog file has been deleted?

 

  • What I am saying is that you inventory and catalog the .bkf files once you have restore them to disk.  After cataloging, there will be catalog information for the .bkf files. You can then dump the catalog with catdump.

  • Theres one other thing you could attempt here...  Since the .fh files is (somehow) not present, and since you're unable to get a bytecount on your Catalog job.

    1. Stop all Backup Exec Services including the SQL Service.

    2. Browse to the catalogs location (as mentioned under Tools - Options - Catalogs)

    3. Rename the Catalogs folder to Catalogs_orig

    4. Start all services back up

    5. A new (blank) Catalogs folder will be created.

    6 Go to Tools - Options - Catalogs - uncheck "Used storage-media based catalogs"

    7. Inventory the media and run a Catalog job. Check if you see a byte count now.

    If you do get a byte count, let the job complete thn go and check if there is any .fh file in the Catalogs folder?

  • Hi Bhavik, thanks  for the update.

    Basically, I had done what you had suggested but it did not work.I still did not able to get a byte count, it was zero.

    I think the reason why it did not work, because there was an existing .fh and .xml files, I never realized it.

    Here's what I had done.

    I click on the Device menu, goto  the LTO Utrium and click on tape name  (LTO00009).

    Right click on LTO00009 choose restore data, then it will show the tape folder names (date + time + filename) 

    when I click on the tape folder names, it will show  a window with the "General" headings.

    Below on it there's Media Server Name: (my server name)

    Underneath the Media Server Name,there was a catalog file name: GUID-filename-with-the.xml

    So i search for GUID-with.fh extension and i found it.

    I run catdump it does extracts the filenames of the bkf files on the tape drive.

    Is there a way to get the listing what's inside the bkf files? 

    Thanks.

  • I'm not too sure if there is a way to extract that informaiton to a text file.

    You may want to Google for any third-party tools which may do that or probably consider using the traditional printscreen button. 

  •  

    I run catdump it does extracts the filenames of the bkf files on the tape drive.

    This means that you backup the .bkf files.  This is akin to copying the .bkf files.  You should not do so.   Here is the reason why.

    Reasons why copying backup to disk data files is NOT recommended.

    You should always duplicate your media media, so you should have run a job to duplicate yoru disk media (.bkf files) to tape.

    Is there a way to get the listing what's inside the bkf files? 

    What you need to do is to restore the .bkf files to disk, then inventory and catalog them.  When these jobs are successsful, you then run catdump to dump out their contents.

  • hi pkh, you mean when I restore the .bkf files to disk, the catdump can dump or extract the contents of the bkf files?

    when you say dump out their contents is it the content itself or just the listing? 

    I notice that the syntax of catdump is just for xml, what would be the syntax for catdump using bkf files?

    Thanks.

  • What I am saying is that you inventory and catalog the .bkf files once you have restore them to disk.  After cataloging, there will be catalog information for the .bkf files. You can then dump the catalog with catdump.