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kabacsk's avatar
kabacsk
Level 3
10 years ago
Solved

Cataloge information looking for an old backup

Dear All,

I am looking for a backup that was put down to tape many years ago. It's not in catalog if I check on master server nbadcm.Since that backup which was put down to an lto3 tape, our tape library has changed to a new one. When the library change happened I  duplicated many tapes that are now in standalone volume group and I can see those tapes in standalone and their volume group and pool. So I know that these tapes do not contain the needed content.  I also have other tapes about 50-60 that are not in used and not added in the new library and I do not see their media id in any volume group and pool. Therefore I do not have info on their content and retention period etc. Is it possible that these tapes which was not put into this new tape library and not read by that could have the old backup? OR the catalog db contain every information even if we have new tape library and the old tapes was not fed by the new one I can not find old backup because there is no such backup.

Other words if I can not see backup in cataloge could that exist on a forgotten tape?

I think that cataloge could contain every information and those tapes I possible expired.

Thank you for any guidance

Regards

Karoly

7.5
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • revarooo's avatar
    revarooo
    10 years ago

    If you have a backup that you require and you cannot see that in the netbackup catalog and you do not know what tape it is on, the only possible way to find it is to import every single tape that you suspect it could be on.

     

    That is a very timely exercise.

     

    If you have an old catalog backup from the time the backup (that you are looking for) was done, you could try recovering this on a test system, to see if you can find the files/backupud and then find the tape it is associated to.

  • revarooo's avatar
    revarooo
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    If you have a backup that you require and you cannot see that in the netbackup catalog and you do not know what tape it is on, the only possible way to find it is to import every single tape that you suspect it could be on.

     

    That is a very timely exercise.

     

    If you have an old catalog backup from the time the backup (that you are looking for) was done, you could try recovering this on a test system, to see if you can find the files/backupud and then find the tape it is associated to.

  • sankar_28's avatar
    sankar_28
    Level 4
    10 years ago

    If the media owner of the old media is same that of new server then  possible way is to import them to get the detail of it, else as revaroo said try to do old catalog recovery on test server if you have any when library upgrade was taken.

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    It sound like youre Netbackup installation was re-installed somwhere in time. If the Netbackup had been in production all the time it would know the old tapes, even the "50-60" in stadnlone residence.

    But as revaroo say - you need to import the tape to see whats on them.

    There is a tech note on how to import tapes:

    Step-by-step procedure on how to import NetBackup backup images via the NetBackup Administration Console GUI.

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/000029918

    Be aware that LTO is only able to read two generation back. LTO5 can read LTO3, but LTO6 can't