Migrate data LTO-3 tape set to LTO-6 tape(s)

[wfk1966]

Dear all,

I REALLY need you help.

I use BE 2015 FP3 and I got a new library with two LTO-6 drives. To getrid of my old LTO-1/2 & 3 tapes I have to migrated the data to the new LTO-6 tapes. As you know LTO-6 is NOT even able to read LTO-3 tapes, so I need to do the migration as long as I still have the LTO-3 drive available.

I need to read the data from the old tapes and write them to the new tapes. In many cases, I need to read from tape sets (not just a single tape) - means several physical tapes that are logically connected. For example if a server didn't fit to the capacity of one tape.

So I do NOT want to simply duplicate one single tape to another tape, as this would not take care about the logical chain of the data.

I opened already a Veritas support ticket - but by now, I feel that the agents do not really got the point what exactly I need.

As Backup Exec is installed a million times in the world, I'm sure that there is a way to migrate data. I do not believe that BE does not provide this is crucial option as it is absolutely neccessary for restores in the future. 

Once more - read from tape/-set write to tape.

PLEASE help me!

Many thanks, Werner

[Larry_Fine]

When BE does a "duplicate" job, it copies the backup set (which may span media).  It does not simply make a carbon copy of one physical tape.

So, to update your old stuff:

• inventory & catalog your old tapes.
• go to the "backup sets" view of one of those old tapes.
• right click a backup set and select "duplicate"
• you may select a disk or tape target.  Soimetimes there are advantages or requirments to doing a duplicate to disk, then a duplictae to tape after.

[pkh]

Just to add to the above post, there is no facility in BE to make a duplicate of a tape from another tape.  BE always duplicate backup sets regardless of whether they are one of many on a tape or one which spans multiple tapes.

[wfk1966]

After some further testing, I think I have to be more specific.

I have a tape set that consists of 5 tapes (201-202-203-204-205). It's a yearly backup of multiple large and small servers.

I did Inventory and catalog them and see now, how the servers are distributed on the tapes.

tape 201: Server-A, Server-B, and first parts of Server-C

tape 202: second parts of Server-C

tape 203: rest of Server-C, Server-D, parts of Server-E

tape 204: rest of Server-E, parts of Server-F

tape 205: rest of Server-F

The only way I found to duplicate the tapeset was to select the first tape in the row (201), selected "Backup Sets", selected every available to Server/Resource (Server-A,Server-B, Server-C), right click and selected "Duplicate".

The duplicate job started and duplicated the data of Server-A, Server-B and Server-C using the tapes 201, 202 and 203 to the new LTO-6 tape. That is fine, but of course, now I miss Server-D, Server-E and Server-F.

Would it mean, that I now have to

- select tape 203\Backup sets\Server-D & Server-E duplicate them to the same LTO-6 tape and after that

- select tape 204\Backup Sets\Server-F and duplicate it again to the same LTO-6 tape

Is this really the only way to get the full tape set duplicated?

Best regards, Werner

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Yes.