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jim_dalton's avatar
jim_dalton
Level 6
8 years ago

Peculiar dag / db restore situation

We've done restores many a time. But this time its different...the restore job ends, the data have been read, the tape dismounts. But the job doesnt complete, it sits there saying return status 0 in the job but sits in "Active" status in activity monitor.

We use the same restore procedure as we have since the year dot...follow the steps.

One difference is the restore is to a passive node in the dag, and its local passive partner has severe disk issues...the controller has died. My exchange admin assures me it is not relevant since the restore isnt to a dag database by which I assume he means its a database only on the restore target node.

NB7604 Solaris master->windows server dag.

Any ideas?

  • Michael_G_Ander's avatar
    Michael_G_Ander
    8 years ago

    jim_dalton If the node you restore to have disk issues, it can be the log apply on the database the is taking long time. As far as I remember you can see the log apply/restore in the event log on the target exchange server.

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  • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
    Lowell_Palecek
    Level 6
    8 years ago

    To clarify, a DAG doesn't have active and passive nodes. Databases have active an passive copies. It seems the database in question has only an active copy, on the target server.

    Actually, since it's a DAG, bprd chooses the server on which to restore the database. It chooses the server with the active copy of the database. You will observe that bpresolver executes for this purpose, and in the bprd log you'll find a process within a process.

    For the job to end, tar32 sends status to bpbrm, which forwards it to the child bprd process. The child bprd process then sends status to the parent process.

    Logs to consider then are the tar log on the client, bpbrm on the media server, and bprd on the master server.

    Are all of the systems involved on the same NetBackup version?

    • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
      Lowell_Palecek
      Level 6
      8 years ago

      One more question. Are you launching the restore from a GUI, or via bprestore? There was an issue in 7.6, fixed in 7.6.1 with bprestore -w on a DAG database. The issue was that the -w option wasn't honored and bprestore returned before the restoration was done. The solution would be to wait until the job is truly done, or to upgrade the master server.

    • jim_dalton's avatar
      jim_dalton
      Level 6
      8 years ago

      Active passive nodes versus dbs: point taken. But for the most part the copies are passive so i call em passive nodes.

      The restore is to a restore db not the original  which we create and select as part of restore process.

      The target client is a little down-rev compared to the others (7504) but it has been functional for as long as I can remember. Rerun and logging seems like our only option.

       

      Thanks,Jim

      • sdo's avatar
        sdo
        Moderator
        8 years ago

        Jim - hate to give you the bad news, but... in this particular instance mixed revs of NetBackup Client, is... AFAIK... officially unsupported.  I get the impression that Veritas try to support as many mixed application-to-aplication versions as they can, but as we know, Veritas' own hands are tied quite often by other vendors.  Sometimes, and we never really know which... it is because either... 1) other vendors own prohibitions... or 2) because they simply don't have the resources to test an almost unlimited number of mixed scenarios.

        Plus we haven't checked whether the MS Exchange version of the backup is supported by the down rev NetBackup Client version, have we?

        IMO, I think your best bet is to update the down rev target restore client to the same NetBackup Client version that was originally used in the backup... and try again?  Fingers crossed for you.