Restore NDMP Tape to Windows

[john415]

 I have Backup Exec 2010 R3 installed on Windows 2008 R2. This is our legacy tape backup solution before we went to a disk based system. I have hundreds of tapes and keep Backup Exec around for old restores. We used to have a NetApp with CIFS shares and backed them up to tape via NDMP backups. The NetApp has been replaced with a new Nimble SAN. I am trying to do a restore of files from the NetApp tapes. Since I don't have a NetApp anymore I am trying to restore to a Windows box. I get the error below. How can I restore NetApp NDMP tapes to a Windows system?

 e0001315 - An invalid destination was specified for the redirected restore. NDMP backup sets can only be redirected to an NDMP server of the same brand.

[Larry_Fine]

Unfortunately, as the error message states, NDMP backups cannot be restored to anything other than an NDMP server of the same brand that they were originally backed up from.  In your case, you need to restore to a NetApp filer somehow.  This is one of the drawbacks of an NDMP backup.

[john415]

So if I don't have a NetApp anymore or access to one, how can I get the data back that are on these tapes?  There has to be a work around here.  What if my NetApp had died while it was still in production, would I have just been without my data until I got the NetApp back online?  That just seems like a bad design.  and yes, I do realize the limitations of running CIFS directly on the NetApps, my predecessor did this before I got here and I have since replaced it for the stated reasons.  Thanks.

[pkh]

This is not a BE problem. It is the way NDMP works.

[Larry_Fine · Accepted solution]

You may want to investigate a NetApp trial/simulator/VM instance.  That may well give you a viable target to restore to.  YMMV, good luck with your restore.

Or make a plea to the NetApp user community for somebody to restore your data for you. 

Either of these may or may not be a long term solution, depending upon a lot of variables.

FYI, it seems that many customers with a NetApp filer, have more than one, so they already have their NetApp filer disaster recovery tool available to them.

[john415]

NetApp Simulator was the way to go!  Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction!  I was able to stand up a NetApp VM and restore my files from tape to it without having a physical NetApp anymore.

[manuelmink]

How did you do this?

I thought Netapp Simulator doesn´t support SAN.

So how did you get the data from tape to your simulator?

We have the exact same problem here and i would be more than happy, if we could solve it the same way!