Architecting Catalog protection and recovery
Greetings!
I am working on re-architecting my NBU environment (currently mastered on AIX) with a new build and design.
Currently I backup and protect my catalog with physical media. My goal for the new catalog backup/protection is to write that out to a disk unit attached to the master and then use hardware replication for offsite protection of said catalog. This disk will be 100% dedicated to catalog backup ONLY.
My concern comes down to catalog recovery; obviously with physical media that's a fairly simple process: locate the appropriate tape and feed it to the recovery process.
I have a new test build to try out architectural options and new features for planning the new environment and I've setup an Advanced Disk target on the master to drop its catalog backups. Backing up the catalog that way seems to be all fine and lovely. But reviewing the Catalog DR file it generates has brought a question up: If I'm in a catalog recovery scenario (building burned down/whatever), exactly HOW does this work? As you can see below, the DR file specifies a specific disk storage device. If I'm rebuilding a master and rebuilding its disk pools, I am guessing that there is no guarantee that they get the same 'path' assigned? Can I get around that by inventorying the recovered diskpool? Should I use Standard Disk instead of Advanced Disk (don't recall seeing that during the setup, is that still a thing in 8.2?) Essentially: how do I feed the recovery process these files?
Catalog Recovery Media
Media Server Disk Image Path Image File Required
* <servername> @aaaah Catalog_1572449441_FULL
* <servername> @aaaah Catalog_1572449451_FULL
Yes, just use basic disk. It will be simpler.
I agree with the 'Basic Disk' advice. This is the easiest ever catalog recovery.
PS:
I trust that you are planning your 'new build and design' on a Linux server as AIX NBU Master or Media server is no longer supported as from NBU 8.1.2.