Backup to Disk, Then To Tape

[DanTheMan_2]

So I think I'll be getting a new Netbackup 6.5 server.  Is it worth ordering something with a heap load of disk space?  I'm thinking/hoping that I could backup to disk before sending it to tape?  Will be backing up ~50 server running everything from Ubuntu to W2K3.

Haven't got amazing NB experience.  I kinda have to have a pop at this so bar with me....

Thanks

:)

[NBU_TSE]

Hi Dan,

Backup to Disk would be a good option, especially if you have over 50 servers which you are going to add to the environment. This will speed up the backups and you can run these overnight and then the backups can transfer the data to tape locally on the Master/Media Server during the day using DSSU (Disk Staging Storage Unit) duplication to tape without affecting the clients. Although with 50 servers I would suggest looking into getting a SAN set-up and having more Media Servers to share the load. This all depends on the amount of data you are backing up.

Hope this helps

Best Regards

Gary Yeardley (NetBackup Database Support Engineer)

[DanTheMan_2]

Thanks! I think I'll leave SANs well alone for the moment.  I don't envisage backing up too much anyway (to start).  So how easy is it to back up to disk first?  Looking at the crappy old NB 5.1 server already in use here....  I can't find any obvious way of doing it.

:)

[NBU_TSE]

Hi,

You will need to backup to a DSU or DSSU depending on your Master Version, then Enable the Temporary Staging Area and Modify the staging.

See also - http://support.veritas.com/docs/272845 - How to configure disk staging for a guide.

It may be slightly different in later versions, but the principle is the same.

Best Regards

Gary Yeardley (NetBackup Database Support Engineer)

[J_H_Is_gone]

I was going to post the same kind of question.

Thanks for the info on Disk Staging.

what is the big difference between that and doing virtual tape to disk?

do you need vaulting for either of these?

[sdo]

AFAIK you don't need Vault licences to *use* a DSSU or VTL - I guess you only need Vault licences if you want to use this method to perform your duplications.

We don't send any media off site at all, all backups are cross site, and all physical media stay in the robots.  We're using VTLs for temporary staging and SLP (Storage Lifecycle Policies) to perform the duplication to LTO4.

VTL capacity is licenced for use by NetBackup on a per TB per VTL basis.

[sdo]

One last point... if you plan to use a VTL, I recommend that you make the virtual tapes as small as possible, i.e. divide your underlying available disk TB by the maximum number of virtual media.

Our mistake was to take 102 TB (two sites X 51 TB at each site) and divide into 100 GB chunks (thinking this is similar to LTO1) - *but* really we should have divided each site's 51 TB into 700+ virtual media giving about 35 GB per virtual media.  I suggest this because it would mean that virtual tapes are filled and released sooner, thus allowing duplication jobs to start their duplications earlier for images that are complete on the released media.

[Jim-m]

Not recommended for catalogue backups