Archiving Catalog and Restores

[Randy_Samora]

I am using NB 5.1 MP4 in a Windows environment and I want to know if anyone is using Catalog Archiving. We have backups with Infinity retention which will probably never require a restore. But in case they do, I want to know what the restore process is. Will the restore know that the images are archived and request the media the archives are on? Or is that a manual process in which I'll have to know to restore those images first and THEN run the restore. This is an on going effort to reduce the size of a 240GB (and rapidly growing) catalog. I'm still hesitating on the compression idea.

Thanks,
Randy

[Stumpr2]

We are from a different school. I am leary about catalog archiving. I use compression for all backups over 10 days old since I do fulls every 7 days and most restore requests are for files/folders from the last full + incrementals.

[Randy_Samora]

I'm in the same boat with restores; hardly ever need them and always from recent backups. Even if I archive 90 days and beyond, that's 2/3 of my catalog I can get rid of. I'm waiting to hear back from Veritas on whether or not the restore knows to ask for the archived image if needed. If it's an automatic process, I think that's the route I will take. I'll let you know what I find out.

[Stumpr2]

Randy,
This is kinda off-topic, but I was wondering if you have used the "Multi-Tape Catalog Backup" that is outlined in the sysadmin guide. It splits off the images directory from the catalog and backs it up as a regular backup. I am considering using it.

[Randy_Samora]

I haven't but I will now :) Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. By the way, the archiving works but NBU is unaware of the archive. If you have to restore from an arhived image, you have to restore that image first before you kick off the restore.

[dennis_sexton]

Randy,

Can you clarify. If you archive a catalog, you will be told what catalog archive to retrieve
or do you have to figure that out somehow?

thanks

[Randy_Samora]

If you archive a catalog, you have to track it manually. If you are going to try to restore a file from an image you know has been archived, you have to know what tape the archive is on and put those images back. NetBackup has no records what so ever of the archived images. It's as if you simply deleted them on your own.