New N5230 v2.6.1.1 master/media auto creates an extra backup policy.

I am curious about this policy...

I only logged onto our in-house demo appliance about a week after my colleague has re-imaged it with 2.6.1.1.

I don't see this policy on our appliance. What is the policy name? 
(Will ask my colleague if I know the name.)

So, yes, it seems that some folders in the policy is getting excluded.
(I have not checked to see if there is an include_list. Have you?)

Have you checked bpbkar log after a successful backup?

The new auto-created process was named:   SYMC_NBA_Dedupe_Catalog_mastername

BTW it was created in a de-activated state.

.

I have run two backups:

1) I let the new auto-created policy run, and it only backed-up the two files in ost-plugins folder.

2) I ran an all_local_drives backup of the master, and it excluded (IMO correctly) the catalog.

.

So, it seems that the configuration of the appliance creates a policy so that it can protect the new 'MSDP' catalog areas, but then at the same time ensures that a user created backup policy cannot accidentally backup the traditional NetBackup catalog.

This leads me on to a third question:

3) Are we, as backup admins, supposed to ensure that we take regular backups of the new v2.6.1(.x) MSDP meta-catalogue space of /msdp/cat ?

The disk layout and catalog protection changed in 7.6.1.x/2.6.1.x and yes, if you upgrade to 2.6.1.x (or at least 2.6.1.1, I skipped 2.6.1.0) you'll automatically get one of these polices for every Appliance you upgrade.

There's a whole new chapter in the Deduplication manual about protecting the catalog on Appliances and MSDP boxes.  Unfortunatly the command given to create the policy for MSDP's (it doesn't auto-create the policy when you upgrade a MSDP to 7.6.1.x) doesn't work and throws all sorts of errors.  So for now only Appliances will be protected if you configure and enable those policies.

This is not specific to appliances however appliance setup script does create this policy automatically.

From NBU 7.6.1 onwards, Veritas recommends all MSDP users to back up MSDP database catalog, the recommendation is based on the new MSDP catalog layout, see this technote http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO102685

Thank you.

4) Why then, does the auto-created exclude_list preclude the new MSDP catalog backup policy from working?

We need a reply from Symantec....

I doubt that any of us 'regular folks' will have the answer.

If anyone gets an answer from Symantec folks please let us all know.

Thank you Morten.

I didn't check.  And, yes, it did auto-create an include_list.

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The policy that was auto-created, was in a de-activated state, but I have since tweaked it a bit, here's how it looks now:

msdp001:/usr/openv/netbackup # bppllist SYMC_NBA_Dedupe_Catalog_msdp001 -L
Policy Name:       SYMC_NBA_Dedupe_Catalog_msdp001
Options:           0x0
template:          FALSE
audit_reason:         ?
Names:             (none)
Policy Type:       Standard (0)
Active:            yes
Effective date:    04/01/2015 15:57:47
Client Compress:   no
Follow NFS Mnts:   no
Cross Mnt Points:  no
Collect TIR info:      no
Block Incremental: no
Mult. Data Stream: no
Perform Snapshot Backup:   no
Snapshot Method:           (none)
Snapshot Method Arguments: (none)
Perform Offhost Backup:    no
Backup Copy:               0
Use Data Mover:            no
Data Mover Type:           -1
Use Alternate Client:      no
Alternate Client Name:     (none)
Use Virtual Machine:      0
Hyper-V Server Name:     (none)
Enable Instant Recovery:   no
Policy Priority:   900
Max Jobs/Policy:   Unlimited
Disaster Recovery: 0
Collect BMR Info:  no
Keyword:           NetBackup Deduplication Catalog
Data Classification:       -
Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:    yes
Client Encrypt:    no
Checkpoint:        no
Residence:         SP_TO_CP_PROD_2WEEKS
Volume Pool:       NetBackup
Server Group:      *ANY*
Granular Restore Info:  no
Exchange Source attributes:              no
Exchange DAG Preferred Server: (none defined)
Application Discovery:      no
Discovery Lifetime:      0 seconds
ASC Application and attributes: (none defined)
Generation:      14
Ignore Client Direct:  yes
Enable Metadata Indexing:  no
Index server name:  NULL
Use Accelerator:  no
Client/HW/OS/Pri/DMI/CIT:  msdp001 5230 NetBackup-Appliance 0 0 0 0 ?
Include:           /msdp/cat/databases/catalogshadow
Include:           /msdp/cat/databases/datacheck
Include:           /msdp/cat/databases/spa
Include:           /msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/etc
Include:           /msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/var
Include:           /usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/pd.conf
Include:           /usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/mtstrm.conf
Schedule:              Daily_Full
  Type:                FULL (0)
  Frequency:           0+ day(s) (46800 seconds)
   Excluded Dates----------
      No specific exclude dates entered
      No exclude days of week entered
  Retention Level:     0 (1 week)
  u-wind/o/d:          0 0
  Incr Type:           DELTA (0)
  Alt Read Host:       (none defined)
  Max Frag Size:       0 MB
  Synthetic:           0
  Checksum Change Detection: 0
  PFI Recovery:        0
  Maximum MPX:         1
  Number Copies:       1
  Fail on Error:       0
  Residence:           SP_TO_CP_PROD_2WEEKS
  Volume Pool:         (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:        (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:         1
  Schedule indexing:   0
  Daily Windows:
   Day         Open       Close       W-Open     W-Close
   Sunday      006:00:00  018:00:00   006:00:00  018:00:00
   Monday      006:00:00  018:00:00   030:00:00  042:00:00
   Tuesday     006:00:00  018:00:00   054:00:00  066:00:00
   Wednesday   006:00:00  018:00:00   078:00:00  090:00:00
   Thursday    006:00:00  018:00:00   102:00:00  114:00:00
   Friday      006:00:00  018:00:00   126:00:00  138:00:00
   Saturday    006:00:00  018:00:00   150:00:00  162:00:00

.

The exclude_list that was auto-created:

msdp001:/usr/openv/netbackup # cat exclude_list
/advanceddisk
/cat
/msdp/data/
/msdp/cat/
/config

.

The include_list that was auto created:

msdp001:/usr/openv/netbackup # cat include_list.SYMC_NBA_Dedupe_Catalog_msdp001
/msdp/cat/databases/catalogshadow
/msdp/cat/databases/datacheck
/msdp/cat/databases/spa
/msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/etc
/msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/var
/usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/pd.conf
/usr/openv/lib/ost-plugins/mtstrm.conf

.

Me, renaming the include list to match my policy rename:

msdp001:/usr/openv/netbackup # mv include_list.SYMC_NBA_Dedupe_Catalog_msdp001 include_list.SP_PROD_NBU_DEDUPE_CATALOG