NBU 7.5 catalog recovery error

You DR test server must have the same name as the live Master and must have NetBackup installed to the same location (as well as being of the same version and patch level)

I am guessing from your logs that your real master is not names testmaster2?

Mark,

Many Thanks for your reply. You are correct real master server name is different than testmaster2....

Actually we have need to restore the catalog at the DR site, where the DR server IP is different and has to remain unique?

Is there any way we can restore the prod serevrs catalog on DR server with different name and IP; so that we can continue to restor for all the clients backed up by master1 on master2 without Symantec consutling?

I'll really appreciate your help.

Thanks,

Prati

 

IP can be different, but hostnames MUST match.

Image catalog will restore if hostnames are different, but EMM database will not restore.

Images will probably be sufficient if your only requirement is to run restores at DR site. Simply add all media to DR robot, Run Device Config wizard, followed by inventory.

Ensure that DR site does not run ANY backups, else production tapes WILL be overwritten because EMM database was not restored and all media is seen as NEW/Available.

Requirements for full  Catalog restore is listed in chapter 5 of NBU Troubleshooting Guide.

See About recovering the NetBackup catalog.

There is a little cheat if it is just for DR Testing and no for use as a general rule ...

1. Set the original masters name again the DR servers IP address in its hosts file

2. When you install NetBackup on the DR Server change the detected name for the Master and EMM on the last screen to that of the original master

3. When it installs it has to communicate with itself by the real Masters name, as it can resolve this to itself it will work and will also restore the catalog etc. successfully (not actually tested this on 7.5)

Feel free to try it - but totally unsupported and not for production use - it will still write things into the configurations that will prevent you doing a great deal with the server (such as upgrading NetBackup) but most things should work fine

Let me know how it goes

Many Thanks Marianne! Actually I did lot of research around this and many response came form you as a solution, and was looking for something sepcific to 7.5 on this subject and couldn't find any. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in specifiying our requirement earlier... Actually We've need to migrate from master1 attached to tape library1(end of life) to master2 attached to tape library2(new) and thats why need to make sure that catlog recovery works so that we can restore all the backups taken by master1 on master2(connected to tapelibrary2) and tapelibrary2 can read tapes from tapelibrary1(LTO3) and also we want master2 to continue taking backups of all the clients and retire master1 and tapelibrary1. Also master2 is on tengig network hense IP has tobe different. Unless, I did something wrong, I DID try catlog recovery with different IP and same hostname on DR server and it failed, but I will retry that by following the chapter 5 full Catalog restore from troubshooting guide but please advise on the above requirement. Thanks, PD

Marianne,

Also I forgot tomention anther detail..

I have already completed the master server upgrade and master1 and master2 are exact same version of NBU 7.5.0.4 and they are UNIX(master1) and LINUX(master2)

Also our existing env is SSO and entire env  is running at 7.5.0.4

 

Thanks,

PD

Catalog recovery to different IP address should work, as long as all other requirements are in place (also listed in Mark's post):

1. Same hostname (if original server used shortname, you also need to use shortname on new server)
2. Same installation path (if NBU was installed in C:\Program Files on old master, installation on new master cannot be D:\)
3. Same NBU version and patch level as original server.

If catalog recovery fails with all of the above in place, let us help to troubleshoot - please post restore log in <install-path>\netbackup\logs\user_ops\<user-name>\logs\Recover<date-time>.log

***EDIT ***

So, this is Linux/Unix, not Windows.
The same principals apply. 

Please see http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH77448 
Although TN says IP must also be the same, this is not really a requirement, as IP address is not stored anywhere in NBU catalogs.
 

There is no need to import the catalog, that is what the DR file is for.

You have to copy this across (the DR file).

Also, is the dsu basic disk, or advanced disk.  If it is advanced disk, you will need to use the nbcatsync command to re-rync the DR file  with the 'internal' address of the advanced disk stu

If the stu is basicdisk Is the location of the disk_stu the same on this DR master, for example :

/somepath/dsu

(It needs to be the same, or if not you need to tell us)

See http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127922

Martin

Marianne,

Can't thank you enough.

Rebuilding the DR server OS at present, also just to make sure I understood all the details and restrictions correctly...

As long as PROD(master1) and DR (master2)  have the same name with differnt IP is OK then this should work.

 

Also I should be able to perform all the restores across new IP DR server (reatined old PROD name exactly for EMM) and new backups should continue as well.

 

Also I didn't follow the upgrade issues Mark's posted? May I request either of you to explain that those to me.

 

Martin,

Sorry if I forgot to mention that...

yes  its basic STU disk and not advanced disk, also I'm using the same mount point on the PROD and DR servre.

 

Thanks again,

PD

 

PD

I offered a workaround that allowed you to test a catalog restore to a server who's physical name was different to that of the real Master Server

When using that "cheat" method it is for testing only and although it would work fine and be able to do restores etc. due to the nature of NetBackup it does still write information about its physical host name into certain configurations which would not make it possible to upgrade NetBackup at a later date.

It was just a workaround that would allow you to just re-install NBU without rebuilding the server.

If you are doing a rebuild and will use the same name but different IP address (not quite sure how you get away with that if it goes on a domain) then it should work fine - just remember that it will resolve the rest of the world as it is so if the Master has media servers etc. it may well want to talk to them (or even run policies once it is all up and running) so do take it carefully and whatch what is enabled and running when doing a test that can communicate with the "real world"

Again a few hosts file entires for its media servers could prevent it making contact with the real ones

Hope this helps