restore request

I agree with Bill, but I also have a question: What is your retention period on your monthly backups?

You are mentioning 'tape logs' that show 1 month data - are you referring to media/tape log reports? Those logs are by default kept for 28 days, but hopefully your backup retention levels (espescially month-end) have longer than one month retention? If you browse for the client's images in BAR, you should be able to go back as far as the longest retention level.

If your longest retention is really only one month, change that NOW, before starting phase I imports on ALL the tapes...

Thanks Bill. so i have to run the phase 1 import.

I am refering the Tape report/Tape logs. Is there a way to increase the default 28 days settings?

"If your longest retention is really only one month, change that NOW, before starting phase I imports on ALL the tapes" could you please let me know the consequence if I dont change it before import ?

No consequence - just remember to do it ASAP as it seems that your current retention levels do not meet business requirements.

Remember that phase 1 imports will have the same retention level as the original backups. Ensure all imports are done before imported images start expiring... Or else extend expiration dates (using bpexpdate) after phase 1 if you have very short retention levels.

About the 'the Tape report/Tape logs report' - This is simply extracted from the Netbackup 'error' log which is equivalent to a sort-of Event log and is used for general reporting and troubleshooting. The setting is kept in the Master Server Host Properties under Global Attributes - Days to Keep Logs.
This has nothing to do with image retention and ability to restore data. Tape Logs report uses 'bperror' command to extract info from error database.

Use Client Backup report to query validity of backup images for clients. Media Written report (or Tapes written) will list tapes with valid images on them. Just give start date to include June 2009 (or select 'Earliest Available'). Both these commands use 'bpimagelist' report and queries the image database.
Media List and Media Summary reports will also display all tapes with valid images on them (bpmedialist command that draws info from the media database in EMM).

Thanks a lot for explaining in detail.  client backup report is showing only report from 16th june 2010.
Tape logs is showing the tape ID and the client and what I was wondering is, to find a way to get the information of the tapes that was used of the exhange backup in june 2009.

Is it Ok to change " the Days to keep log to " 180 days? now it is 28 days.

It is more important that you fix your retention levels in backup schedules than changing Days to keep Logs setting. You can change Days to keep logs to anything you like.

Each of your policies should have a minimum of 3 schedules - one for daily backups (most of our customers keep these for 2 weeks, some 1 week), one for weekly backups (some of our customers keep these for 1 month and some for 6 months), one for monthly backups (kept between 6 months an one year). Most have got a yearly schedule as well with 5 year retention.
It all comes down to business requirements. You need to discuss recovery needs with system owners and adjust retention periods accordingly. Just read up in Admin Guide I about image space requirements.

As Bill said initially - there is NO WAY to know what data is on each tape. If you started with phase 1 imports yesterday this time, you could have done quite a bit by now...

My query was to find a way to know which client is backed up in each tape. So I dont have to import all tapes. The restore request was to restore from June, July August, Sept 2009 month end tapes. A total of 87 tapes. So I imported all 87 tapes and restored required data. But it took 4 days!!!!

going forward I am going to save the Tape logs which will tell me the Tape ID and Client backed up to that tape. From this logs I can find the the exact tape and import only that.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

Tape ID and Client backed up are also kept in images database. Having retention levels that match business requirements (restore a year or more later) will simply require a browse for images and the tape number will be obtained as well, completely eliminating need for imports.

Right now you have no choice but to do at leat phase 1 import on all tapes.