MSDP Catalog Protection

Marianne once dug an answer out from NetBackup "product management team", here:

https://www.veritas.com/community/forums/deduple-metadata-backup

If one does not like the "policy name" that it creates, you can rename the policy, but be mindful of the exclude list which goes hand-in-hand with the policy name:

https://www.veritas.com/community/forums/new-n5230-v2611-mastermedia-auto-creates-extra-backup-policy

Unless I am missing something I dont think those threads address my question. I am not on an appliance and data replication is already occuring via AIR from my production site to my DR site. My question is strictly in regards to the method mentioned in Veritas documentation for creating a policy to backup the MSDP catalog data. What I am looking for is why can I not just create the policy via normal methods in the console? Why is it necessary to use drcontrol via command line to create a policy to backup those paths I have mentioned that are referenced in the documentation? Also if I am only listing specific paths in the backup selection why is an exclude list required at all?

I am looking at the structure of the mount points and I am not seeing why the exclude list is needed. If I am only giving the policy the paths...

/storage_path/etc
/storage_path/var

Why would it backup anything else inside /storage_path? Same question holds true for the /database_path directories. If I am telling it which 3 directories to backup then why would it backup anything else? I could see if something like All_Local_Drives was selected, but I am providing the exact paths to backup.

AFAIK, you don't have to use the drcontrol command.  Just configure your own policy.  Have a look at the structure inside an appliance, and you'll see why you need an exclude list and an include list.  The drcontrol utility creates an exclude list and an include list.  So you need one too.  You'll see why when you look at the structure of the mount-points.  I could be wrong about all this, but when I looked at it before, it all made sense to me back then.  Maybe this is all appliance specific.

Here's a TN that says (or just hints?) that the "drcontrol" command is just a backup policy manipulation command:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000023974

...but I suspect that only the -new_policy and -update_policy are involved with the policy manipulation.

I'm so sorry - you're not on an appliance are you.  My bad.  Forgive me.  (sheepish)

That's correct...I am NOT on an appliance.

No worries.

I have no existing exclude lists on my MSDP servers.

I know it's not Linux/Unix, but the following is not from an appliance...

Anyway... on a test rig that has MSDP, and is Windows based, I did the following:

REM list what MSDP thinks it's main elements are...

C:\Utils>pddeDR list
Logical Name            Type    Category    Physical Name
Path to pdregistry.cfg  2       0           HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\PureDisk\Agent
Storage Path            1       0           D:\MSDP_Data
StorageData Path        1       0           D:\MSDP_Data\data
StorageDatabase Path    1       0           C:\MSDP_DB\databases
Logging Path            1       0           D:\MSDP_Data\log

REM list what MSDP thinks it need to protect of itself...

C:\Utils>pddeDR list_dr
C:\MSDP_DB\databases\catalogshadow
C:\MSDP_DB\databases\datacheck
C:\MSDP_DB\databases\spa
D:\MSDP_Data\etc
D:\MSDP_Data\var
C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\pd.conf
C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\mtstrm.conf

REM what I have already got excluded for my MSDP server?  (i.e. my test master/media server)

C:\Utils>bpgetconfig -M hserver exclude

exclude = *:\$RECYCLE.BIN
exclude = *:\VxCJ*.dat
exclude = C:\MSDP_DB
exclude = C:\Program Files\Veritas
exclude = C:\Windows
exclude = D:\MSDP_Data

REM what I have already got included to override the exclude?

C:\Utils>bpgetconfig -M hserver include

REM ...nothing...

REM when I ask drcontrol to create a policy for me, it does so AND tells me what I need to add to my include list...

C:\Utils>drcontrol -new_policy

Note!
If you have exclude lists that exclude part or all of the NetBackup
Deduplication directories, you will need to create exceptions to the exclude
lists for the following paths:
"C:\MSDP_DB\databases\catalogshadow"
"C:\MSDP_DB\databases\datacheck"
"C:\MSDP_DB\databases\spa"
"D:\MSDP_Data\etc"
"D:\MSDP_Data\var"
"C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\pd.conf"
"C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\mtstrm.conf"
for the policy Dedupe_Catalog_hserver.

The policy Dedupe_Catalog_hserver for host hserver has been successfully created.
The log file may be found at: D:\MSDP_Data\log\drcontrol\policy_admin\new_policy_1454694338.log

REM ...and it created a policy with a selection list of:

C:\Utils>bppllist Dedupe_Catalog_hserver | find /i "include"
INCLUDE C:\MSDP_DB\databases\catalogshadow
INCLUDE C:\MSDP_DB\databases\datacheck
INCLUDE C:\MSDP_DB\databases\spa
INCLUDE D:\MSDP_Data\etc
INCLUDE D:\MSDP_Data\var
INCLUDE C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\pd.conf
INCLUDE C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\mtstrm.conf

REM ...I don't like the policy name...
REM ...so I copied it to:  HSERVER-7-MSDP-TO-C
REM ...and then added some policy specific includes to the client properties...

C:\Utils>bpgetconfig -M hserver include
include = CLASS:HSERVER-7-MSDP-TO-C
include = C:\MSDP_DB\databases\catalogshadow
include = C:\MSDP_DB\databases\datacheck
include = C:\MSDP_DB\databases\spa
include = D:\MSDP_Data\etc
include = D:\MSDP_Data\var
include = C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\pd.conf
include = C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\ost-plugins\mtstrm.conf

.

So, I think the reason we have to run the steps in this order, is so that tools can work out what must be backed-up based upon what it detects about the way that MSDP is configured and take in to consideration any existing excludes.

You don't.  But others might.