Removing a single volume from a multi-volume AdvancedDisk disk pool, without expiring any backups
Hi all,
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/moving-images-between-disks-advanceddisk
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/has-anyone-successfully-removed-volume-advanced-disk-pool
I found the above two related posts, but couldn't really find the exact answer to my question.
My version is 7.5 but I suppose I am also asking this question for all previous versions that support AdvancedDisk.
I've read through the AdvancedDisk guide (Used to be part of the Shared Storage guide) and studied the part titled "Removing a volume from an AdvancedDisk disk pool".
The concept, procedures and commands are straightforward enough, but none of the guides explain how to achieve one of the prerequisites for the procedure:
- NetBackup image fragments cannot exist on the disk volume (that is to be removed from the AdvancedDisk disk pool)
How exactly do I achive this prerequisite without affecting the other volumes in the AdvancedDisk disk pool, and also without having to expire everything from the entire AdvancedDisk disk pool?
I have this AdvancedDisk disk pool with 3 volumes.
All 3 volumes contain backup images.
Now I would like to remove the 3rd volume.
I do not want to expire everything from the entire disk pool (from all 3 volumes) just so I could remove a single volume.
In other words, I don't want the 1st and 2nd volumes to be affected, at all.
I just want to remove the 3rd volume.
Now since the 3rd volume contains images that have not expired (And I have no intention of expiring them), I would like to SOMEHOW MOVE them out from the 3rd volume and into the 1st or 2nd volumes. Or into both.
If this can be done (3rd volume emptied), then the rest of the steps from the guide can be followed. (Which is basically DOWN volume, DOWN disk pool, then "nbdevconfig -deletedv -stype AdvancedDisk -dp disk_pool_name -dv vol_name")
I understand I should not do this from the OS file system because it would mess up the Netbackup catalog image disk references, and stuff.
But how do I do this the "right" way?
In one of the above posts, Nicolai mentioned that "Duplicating the images would have been a good soloution".
If duplication is a solution, I'm thinking of something like the following steps.
But how is it done? I couldn't find an obvious way to do even step 1.
1. Duplicate all images from volume_A in an Advanced disk pool to volume_B in the same Advanced disk pool.
2. Expire the images from volume_A (NOT in the disk pool scope and not from volume_B.)
3. Now that volume_A is rid of all images, remove the volume with the nbdevconfig -deletedv command.
4. Result: Zero backup data lost and zero side effects on the AdvancedDisk disk pool level/scope.
Thanks all,
RLeon
Just a stab and to help prevent your insanity - or at least to give you something to go on ... not going to be as simple as you hoped i dont think as you need the volume DOWN to make sure it is not writtent to if you try and duplicate it but if it is down you can't duplicate from it!
1. bpverify or bpimmedia using the -l switch along with -dp and -dv options to identify the images held on that volume.
2. bpduplicate the images to a new location (tape or another disk pool)
3. bpexpdate using the -dv or -copy 1 as appropriate to clear that disk volume down
4. down the disk volume and pool
5. delete the volume
6. duplicate it back to the original pool if you wish
7. if you do 6. above then bpexpdate -copy 2 (or 3 etc.) or -dv again to remove from the temporary location you duplicated them to.
Or the unautorised way ... using the file copy method you did not want to use (and unsupported i would imagine so purely supplied as a theory!!):
1. Copy all fragments from the volume to one of the other volumes
2. bpexpdate against -dv or -copy 1 to clear that volume down
3. run an import against the volume you copied them to (may have to be from a command line with the -copy 1 switch)
Your only issue here would be if images were spanned across volumes as you could be left with fragments missing - a full bpimmedia / bpverify may gives you clues if that is the case.
Hope this helps in some way