Forum Discussion

PranavB's avatar
PranavB
Level 4
10 years ago

Media and images movement from old master to new

Hello Geeks !   We have one old master server running on 7.5.0.6 and we no longer using it to take backups ,it used to backup on 4-5 clients and have like 500 odd media in its EMM.   Now ...
Backup and Recovery
Configuring
NetBackup
Solaris
Tip-How to
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    10 years ago

    We looking if netbackup would be able to relate if we add the media in a read only pool ,import catalog and copy over the images.

    There is no such thing as catalog import from another master server.
     

    If you use the 'Recovery without Import', you need to keep track of expiration tapes in DONOTUSE pool outside of NBU. 
    You can use 'Media List' or 'Media Summary' (verbose option) reports on old master to keep track of expiration dates.

    The only other option is to get a Symantec Consulting Partner to merge the 2 master servers.

    Oh! There is another option:

    You can perform a phase 1 and 2 import of all 500 tapes...

mph999's avatar
mph999
Level 6
10 years ago

If you copy the images files over (.f) and then cat_export / import then yes, those media can be searched via the normal BAR gui and restores run.

What you cannot do, is write to them, as they have no media db entry.  There is also a risk they could be over written, as NBU only knows about them physically (ie localtion/ type), there is no media db entry which is how NBU knows the tape is free to use.  PUtting them in an unused volume pool (eg do_not_use) is essential, but doesn;t give 100% protection, as someone could still select that pool in a policy (perhaps by accident).

There are two ways around this, well, three if you include a proper catalog restore to move everything across, but I guess that has been ruled out.

So the other two options.

1) bptm -makedbentry command.  However, do NOT do this, it breaks nbcc.  This command should never be run by anyone, even support due to the NBCC issue.

2)  Run NBCC - this is the best option.  It will add the media db entries for those media using, funnily enough, bptm -makedbentry.  However, it then runs some SQL that tidies up the entry which  prevents future NBCC issues.  This leaves an 'acceptable' media DB entry so the media won't be accidently overwritten, and should still expire correctly.  they can't be written to as they are marked full, but at least they are safe.