Becoming frustrated with Netbackup

[JHeaton]

OS:  Server 2008 R2

NBU: 7

I'm brand new to Netbackup.  I understand that this is not a software that you simply throw on a machine, and poke around a bit and get it working.  I have downloaded ALL documentation I could find on this software, and I am going through that documentation as I try to figure things out.  However, I am frustrated at the moment.

I have installed the software, I have a Dell TL2000 SAS connected tape library that I am using at the moment for testing.  I have installed the manufacturer's drivers, and Netbackup sees the library no problem.  I have gone through the Getting Started wizards, and have done an inventory to find the tape media in the library.  All that is fine, up until I see the Media ID for the tapes, which is cutting off the first 2 numbers of the barcode.  My barcodes are 8 characters, with the last 2 characters as L4, as they are LTO4 media.  I have discovered through older posts that I need to use 1/2" cartridge tape in the new Barcode Rule that I'm trying to implement, but I'm not having any luck.  I also have cleaning tapes, that have a barcode of CLNU00L1.  I have tried to setup a barcode rule for this, to put this tape into a different Volume Pool, again, with no luck. 

Do new Barcode Rules not apply to media already listed in the library?  If not, then why the heck not?

Also, my TL2000 has an I/O slot, sometimes referred to as a mail slot, or I/E slot.  Netbackup doesn't seem to see this slot, and automatically import the media there into an empty slot and inventory it.  Is this normal?  If so, then does that mean I have to do a manual inventory every time I put media in the library, or take media out?

I'm currently using a different product in production, and it has no problem seeing new media in the I/O slots, and importing it into the library, and after certain jobs to tape, it has a process to automatically export the media used into the I/O slots, tell me when they're full, and repeat until all affected media is exported.  It would be very disappointing to find that media operations are all manual in Netbackup...

If anyone has any advice on my mentioned issues, please let me know.  I want very badly to like this product, as I'm going to be working with it for the foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Joe

[CY]

Hi Joe,

Don't be too frustrated. I think the issue is on your Dell TL2000 tape library, if your barcode rule was set up correctly in NBU.

I had similar experience when we had a DR exercie at a vendor provided offsite location. The vendor provided IBM tape library with the same LTO-2/-3 tape drives as we have in our Production environment (although we have Quantum tape library in Production), and I configured the same barcode rules for the NBU DR server, but when I inventoried the tapes they all shown the last 6 characters instead of the first 6 characters (so for example, LT1234L3 became 1234L3 instead of LT0123 that I have in Production).  In the begining I thought I had something wrong with the barcode rule or NBU configuration, but after verifying everything I remembered that different tape libraries can have different "treatment" to the tapes.  So I asked the vendor's technician how he configured the tape library and, voila, he understood what I asked and immediately changed the tape library's configuration and this fixed the problem.

Contact Dell Tech Support and see what they say.

For your 2nd question - yes, NBU won't automatically inventory tapes in the I/E slots.  That hasn't bother me but maybe it is something Symantec should consider to improve.

[Marianne]

You are so right - to get to know NBU, it is best to work with a mentor or book yourself on a 5-day instructor-led training course, plus reading manuals, these forums, TN's etc.. etc... I was thrown into the deep end, but I had a test machine and a 10-slot tape library to 'play' with. We also had hard-copies of all the manuals, which became my day-time and bed-time reading for many days, weeks, months.... I still had 'mental blocks' about certain concepts and learned a lot from UK trainers and SE's who came to visit every now and then. (if I have to name my mentors it will be Jonathan Martin and Ian Jackson...)

Barcode rules work on new tapes only. They will not modify/change existing media. Extract from Admin Guide I:

Use barcode rules
Specifies whether or not to use bar code rules to assign attributes for new media.

About the 8 characters on your Barcodes - NBU can read up to 13 characters of a barcode, but only stores 6 characters in the MediaID field. NBU stores the last 6 by default.

What you need to 'convince' NBU to store the first 6 characters, is Media ID Generation rule.

Extract from Admin Guide I:

About media ID generation rules
Use media ID generation rules to override the default media ID naming method NetBackup uses. The default method uses the last six characters of the bar code the robot provides to generate the media ID.

Also read  the topic called Configuring media ID generation rules.

If your Robot number is 0, add that to the Robot Number field, '8' in Barcode Length field and under Media ID Generation Rule, add 1:2:3:4:5:6.

If media was already added with last 6 chars, you will have to delete them and re-do inventory with new rules in place. (Media already used for backups (date in Assign Time) cannot be deleted or changed).

Hope we can help you to become UN-frustrated!

[JHeaton]

You mention that NBU will only display 6 characters in the Media ID field.  Is there a way to have it display the last 6 for the regular tapes (barcodes are 000123L4) so that it will display 0123L4, and have it display the first 6 for my cleaning media (CLNU00L1)?  If not, I guess I can always hide the cleaning media in a reserved slot in the library, so that Netbackup doesn't see it at all.

The rules as I have tried them so far:

Barcode Tag - CLNU

Media Type - hcart_clean

Volume Pool - None

Barcode Tag - L4

Media Type - hcart

Volume Pool - Netbackup (guess that's default, too, though)

The Media ID Generation rule I put in:

Robot Number - 0

Barcode length - 8

Media ID Rule - 1:2:3:4:5:6

Do those look right?  I noticed that there is no "scratch" pool, which I'm used to seeing, to show available, appendable, media.

Our retention currently is:

Daily incrementals, Mon - Thu.  These are written to a disk array, that appears as a local drive on our backup server.

Full Backups, Fri.  These are also written to disk initially, then later in the weekend, there is a job that copies the data from that location to tape.  This job also sets up the retention of 42 days.  There's a 3rd job that exports those tapes, knowing the outside location that the tapes are supposed to go to, and annotating that.  The export is automatic, and I get an alert that the I/E slots are full, so I can empty them, so the process can put the next tapes there.

We also have a monthly Full Backup, that the system knows has a retention of 400 days, and that these tapes are supposed to go to Iron Mountain.

Our current system will also give me a report each week of which tapes are due to come back to the system, as aged media, so I can throw them back into the library to be used again.

Does Netbackup address any of these?  I was told by the sales guy yes, but upon first poke, I'm not finding these capabilities.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

I might be wrong here, but I have always associated a Barcode Tag with the first couple of digits/characters that are unique. (The manual is not very clear about this...) In your case it will be 000. I have never tried to  use characters at the end. Personally I view the actual Barcode number as 000123 and not 0123L4 - so, I prefer the 1st 6. You are right - Media ID generation rule is set per robot, not per media type.

There is no scratch pool by default. You can create one and mark the 'Scratch Pool' tick box when you create it. You will probably update the barcode rule to make tapes go to the scratch pool by default.

About the rest of your questions - can I point you in the right direction and you then read up in the manuals?

The way you handle disk backups depend on your licensing model - if you have Capacity Based license, you can configure Storage Lifecycle Policies to automate duplication and expiration (Admin Guide I). With 'traditional' per-server/ per-agent license model, you can use Basic Disk and configure a  'Staging schedule' as part of the Storage Unit configuration. (See "Staging relocation schedule setting" in Admin Guide I).

About the '3rd job' - the NetBackup Vault option license is required to configure this (included in Capacity Based license). You can configure a Vault profile to eject media based on selection criteria and also generate the reports that you require. This Vault profile is then added to backup policy to automate the process.

See :

NetBackup Vault Operator's Guide  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127063
NetBackup Vault Administrator's Guide  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127062

[JHeaton]

Nooo, I want you to tell me how to do it!   (Just kidding)

Thank you for your responses Marianne, they are very much appreciated in my frustrated state.  I am working on printing out the Admin Guide, Vol 1, (wow, 1st volume and it's 828 pages... that's huuuuuge!)

I am also looking into training, but not sure when that would be possible, so I guess I'll immerse myself in the book, and these forums in the meantime.

Thanks all,

Joe

[Andy_Welburn]

You'll probably come up with a great deal of questions, the learning curve can be steep, but it's not insurmountable.

You know where we are if you need assistance, just confine any subsequent queries to "one per thread" it'll be much easier to manage & follow through for us as well as you!

Enjoy your reading....

[gustav]

getting the initial Library configured and your tapes correctly assigned to pools can be a real headache at the start. I think it took me three days to assign a cleaning tape! I think this part of the config is the most difficult for a beginner - hopefully once you have that sorted and move on to creating some policies things will come a little easier.