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gregsih's avatar
gregsih
Level 4
15 years ago

Dates in bpadm

Hello

Has anybody ever seen this problem before:


                            Server:  ALL
                            Client:  ALL
                        Start Date:  05/30/1908 23:27:15
                          End Date:  09/15/2009 23:59:59
                Output Destination:  SCREEN

                Reports
                -------
                b)  Backup Status
                l)  List Client Backups
                p)  Problems
                a)  All Log Entries
                m)  Media...

                d)  Change Dates
                c)  Change Client
                s)  Change Server
                o)  Output Destination  (SCREEN or FILE)
                h)  Help
                q)  Quit Menu

                ENTER CHOICE:

The problem is the default Start Date. System is running Solaris 10 and NetBackup 6.5.4. The problem is the default is not consistent, ie it changes from day to day.

This only appears when using the bpadm utility.

I'm sure I have encountered the same or a similar problem before but can't find any record of it in my notes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Greg

7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Basics
NetBackup
  • CRZ's avatar
    CRZ
    15 years ago

    Run `bpconfig -L` to get your "Display Reports" setting.  You may find it to be some absurdly high number not found in nature, like mine was:

    # /usr/openv/netbakcup/bin/admincmd/bpconfig -L
    ...
    Display Reports:        6357058 hours ago
    ...

    Now somehow, `bpadm` uses the above value to come with...SOMETHING, which it subtracts from "right now" to arrive at the Start Date.  Clearly, I didn't go back 103 years (on mine, my start dates are in 1965) so there must be some overflow or 32 or 64 bit math or something to keep it from LITERALLY using that value.  Whatever it is, it should be pretty consistent - if you recheck the Reports menu five seconds after the last time you generate it, you should find that the Start Date has also moved up five seconds.

    This value can be reset with `bpconfig -ha <hours>` to something much lower if you are so inclined.  I've also found that when you set it to a sane value (like 24 or 48), it actually DOES calculate the Start Date out where you'd expect it to be- a relative value from now, subtracting the number of hours in your bpconfig output.

    Anticipating your next question, I have no idea when/where/how NetBackup chooses/chose a seemingly (but surely not!) random, incredibly high number to use as the default value.  I believe it depends on your O/S and architecture at the time you first install NetBackup, but that's speculation.  (For example, I bet Stuart and J. were both running the same Linux when that value was set.)  I expect it was set back when I installed NBU 5.1 fresh and got carried over through all my upgrades.

    (If I can't get THIS marked as a solution, there's no hope for me.  ;-)  )


     

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  • J_H_Is_gone's avatar
    J_H_Is_gone
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Well Stuart?

    NetBackup on My AIX (not Linux) was installed about December of 2007 on my master.

    If yours was installed about the same time then CRZ gets a big golden star for his work.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    15 years ago
    My Linux master was Installed this January 2009 from a fresh 6.5 installation. No upgrade.
  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Thumbs up from me, but disappointed you don't know where the default value is plucked from! ;)
  • CRZ's avatar
    CRZ
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    Okay, the gauntlet was thrown and I decided to see if I could figure it out (quickly).  It looks like "6357058" is a common value (maybe it's yours, too - nobody posted here that it was or wasn't, but it did pop up in an unrelated TechNote about the "behavior" file*) so I looked to see if anybody had any cases with that number in it.

    I found ONE clue.  It appears that we had ONE case logged with a customer reporting that somehow their "Display Reports"  value was reset to 6357058 after they changed a master server timeout through the GUI.  (That case is in Japanese, which doesn't make things any easier!)  This seemed to indicate a bug.  They were running Windows so they couldn't run bpadm anyway, so the matter wasn't pursued.  The case was logged with 6.5.2.

    Thinking I could reproduce this on a test box, I utterly failed to do so.  :)  So, maybe it's a bug that we fixed, or maybe I'm running the wrong architecture, the wrong version, it's the wrong phase of the moon, &c.

    So......there's a bit more on that.  I STILL don't really know how it's happening, but I think we can chalk it up to a bug which may or may not still exist in the product.  I now have a hunch that for everybody, it's the same weird value, but again, our different O/S and architectures are doing the math differently, which is how we end up with wildly different Start Dates.

    Thankfully, it's easy enough to issue a single command and change that value back to something in it's allowed range (which I believe is something like 0-32767).

    I will definitely stop researching this now...right up until it bugs me enough to revisit it later and see if I can get enough evidence to get somebody to make sure it won't happen in NBU 7.0.  ;-)

    Thanks for the original question, Greg - that's just the kind of thing to get me interested enough in finding an answer to cause me to waste a whole lotta time on the company's dime.  (Just kidding, boss!  I'm MULTITASKING)

     


    *How to determine the image cleanup interval and how modify it 
     http://support.veritas.com/docs/312093

    Notice the "HOURS AGO 6357058" line.