Forum Discussion

RaymT___'s avatar
RaymT___
Level 4
7 years ago

Catalog client db images archival can be retrival in higher NB version ?

Hi All,

Please suggest me your expert advise on catalog....

Currently catalog size grown upto 2TB with no prior archivals and compression.

Support given the below points....

- thershold size is 2TB, if we crossed then may affect the performance.

- downsize the retention period ( mgmt requirement is 15years - max is filer backup - cannot comprise on retention)

- catalog archiva as per below tech note  ( support say " if i do catalog archival of client db images then can able to retrive only on same netbackup master version", mean current master version is 7.7.3, so if i do archival now, those data cannot be retrive in upgraded version as we planning for 8.1 version by this year end.)

- Compression is not much effeciency...

- setup new master environment ( mgmt is not OK )

- ALTPATH  ( im not sure how this will help long term, how this will carry during the upgrade? )

Please suggest me which is the long term best option? any other alternate best method?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Last query, we are planning to upgrade out NBU version from 7.7.3 to 8.1 by this year end, if i do catalog archival now, will be any issue if i do retrival this archived files after the version upgrade? mean will be there any issue raise with version changes?

  • My 2c:

    Backup should never be used in place of archiving.

    You have no guarantees that you will have tape drives in 15 years that can read backups written today.
    Think about it - 15 years ago we were using LTO1 tapes/drives. Even LTO3 drives that can read these tapes reached EOSL some years ago. 

    It seems to me that the retention requirements for your file server data is the ideal use case for archiving.
    Please speak to your local reseller about Filesystem Archiving

    I will never recommend Catalog archiving as I have seen how a customer lost ALL catalog info older than 2 years.
    The tape that contained the archived catalogs was for some unknown reason removed from the library. 
    When they needed to perform a restore and tried to retrieve the images from tape, it was discovered that the tape was not in the library. It could not be found among the vaulted tapes either.
    All archived catalogs on a single tape is a single point of failure
    I don't know if duplicating the archive tape is supported.  

    About this statement:
    support say " if i do catalog archival of client db images then can able to retrive only on same netbackup master version"
    My interpretation of this is that you will need to restore the archived catalogs before an upgrade is done. 

     ALTPATH is for Windows master that runs out of space on the installation drive. 
    On Linux/Unix, the images folder is moved to a new drive and symbolic created in original /usr/openv... location.
    (All covered in NBU Admin Guide I.)

    There is no need to be concerned about images during upgrade - image conversion happened in NBU 7.5. 
    There are no changes in images for subsequent versions.

    In all honesty, if Filesystem Archiving is not an option (yet), I would much rather deploy a second master server and split the environment.
    But this is purely my opinion as a result of bad experience with customer's catalog archiving. 

     

  • My 2c:

    Backup should never be used in place of archiving.

    You have no guarantees that you will have tape drives in 15 years that can read backups written today.
    Think about it - 15 years ago we were using LTO1 tapes/drives. Even LTO3 drives that can read these tapes reached EOSL some years ago. 

    It seems to me that the retention requirements for your file server data is the ideal use case for archiving.
    Please speak to your local reseller about Filesystem Archiving

    I will never recommend Catalog archiving as I have seen how a customer lost ALL catalog info older than 2 years.
    The tape that contained the archived catalogs was for some unknown reason removed from the library. 
    When they needed to perform a restore and tried to retrieve the images from tape, it was discovered that the tape was not in the library. It could not be found among the vaulted tapes either.
    All archived catalogs on a single tape is a single point of failure
    I don't know if duplicating the archive tape is supported.  

    About this statement:
    support say " if i do catalog archival of client db images then can able to retrive only on same netbackup master version"
    My interpretation of this is that you will need to restore the archived catalogs before an upgrade is done. 

     ALTPATH is for Windows master that runs out of space on the installation drive. 
    On Linux/Unix, the images folder is moved to a new drive and symbolic created in original /usr/openv... location.
    (All covered in NBU Admin Guide I.)

    There is no need to be concerned about images during upgrade - image conversion happened in NBU 7.5. 
    There are no changes in images for subsequent versions.

    In all honesty, if Filesystem Archiving is not an option (yet), I would much rather deploy a second master server and split the environment.
    But this is purely my opinion as a result of bad experience with customer's catalog archiving. 

     

    • RaymT___'s avatar
      RaymT___
      Level 4

      Thanks alot Marianne for your detailed explanation. Same approach support also says.
      "permanent solution as setup new master and spilt the catalog."

      Let me take into mgmt..

      • Marianne's avatar
        Marianne
        Level 6

        Remember to mention the possibility of Filesystem Archiving with Enterprise Vault as well. 

        This would be my no.1 recommendation as there will be no need for 15y retentions in NBU. 
        Plus all the other benefits of EV.