cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Re-cataloging a tape of virtual machines

Mr__Kite
Level 0

Most of our backups are virtual machine backups that are then duplicated to tape. I recently had to re-catalog one of or older tapes and Backup got errors indicating that it didn't have enough room. I need to figure out how much room I need, hence the following question:

Does cataloging a tape of virtual machines require enough space to make copies of all vmdks on the tape in order to recreate the catalogs?

2 REPLIES 2

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

If you have either deleted the catalogs, or let BE do so manually when it purges them (default retention is 90 days), then you'd end up recreating those catalogs on disk. If you've increased the level of logging, then you could expect the catalog sizes to be much larger.

Check the disk on which the catalogs are located and ensure there is enough disk space (default: x:\Installation_Dir\Catalogs)

Thanks!

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

The catalogs of a VM (assuming GRT was enabled) in effect contain a list of every files e-mail etc inside the VM where they came from and where they are stored within the media. They should not reach the size of the VMDK but for some environments can be quite large.

 

The staging area needed to restore a VM from tape, however, does need the size of the VMDK file (or files) and if Incremental sets are involved it needs enough space to recover the chain back to and including the full.