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Best Practices catalog NetBackup

Sylvain_Seb
Level 2

Hi everyone,

In my company we're using NetBackup 7.6. We've got 1 masterserver and 10 mediaservers, about 100 clients.

Everything is working fine but i'd like to backup the catalog up on a different mediaserver but I don't know how to do that, I mean the best way (which kind of storage ? retention ? how to restore it in case of masterserver crashing).

Can you help me with that ?

Thanks a lot and sorry for my english!

Sylvain

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Level 6
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

I thought it was a bad idea to backup the catalog up on a deduplication pool so I was wrong.

 Not wrong, but not best idea either.

There are additional steps to restore from dedupe disk: 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH72198

Please also see the TN under 'Related Articles': 

In addition to Disaster Recovery section in Troubleshooting Guide, go through this section in NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I 

Chapter 22 - Protecting the NetBackup catalog.

Yes, destination can be anything, but bear in mind that if you backup to a media server, catalog recovery will want to restore from the same media server.
IMHO, basic disk (can be CIFS share) or tape connected to the master server is easiest to recover.

DR-file can also be written to CIFS share.
Configure email notification to email DR-file as well as recovery steps after completion of each catalog backup.
Schedule catalog backups to run at least once every day.

For DR recovery, you need to ensure that catalog media as well as DR-file will be available at DR site.
 

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10 REPLIES 10

revarooo
Level 6
Employee

Sylvian,

 

You can back it up to any media server with any retention you like. There is no preferred storage  A month is usually a good idea and backing up frequently good too.

 

The NetBackup Admin Guide has details on Disaster recovery. Catalog backups create a DR file which you can use to recover the Catalog in the event of Disaster. The wizard will guide you through this and ask you for the location of the DR file - always ensure the DR file is kept on another server other than the master :)

 

Does that make ense?

 

Sylvain_Seb
Level 2

Thanks for the quick answer :)

I thought it was a bad idea to backup the catalog up on a deduplication pool so I was wrong.

I already send the DR file on email and store it on a different server.

I'm gonna check the Admin Guide ;)

revarooo
Level 6
Employee

Apologies, the Disaster Recovery section is in the troubleshooting guide, not the admin guide:

NetBackup 7.6 Troubleshooting guide (you want page 204 which is Section 8)

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC6470

 

Personally, if it was my catalog backup, I'd backup to disk and duplicate to tape (to be extra cautious)

 

ontherocks
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Instead of Duplicating a Catalog backup, you should have 2 seperate schedules one for Catalog Backup on Disk and other schedule for Catalog Backup on Tape.

For Example at 6:00 AM to Catalog Backup to Disk

at 6:00 PM to Catalog Backup to Tape.

INT_RND
Level 6
Employee Accredited

I would recommend to keep a copy of the catalog with the images. You need the catalog to read the images. The catalog is worthless without the images.

If you send data off-site as part of your DR plan you should send a copy of the catalog backup with the other off-site data.

Marianne
Level 6
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

I thought it was a bad idea to backup the catalog up on a deduplication pool so I was wrong.

 Not wrong, but not best idea either.

There are additional steps to restore from dedupe disk: 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH72198

Please also see the TN under 'Related Articles': 

In addition to Disaster Recovery section in Troubleshooting Guide, go through this section in NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I 

Chapter 22 - Protecting the NetBackup catalog.

Yes, destination can be anything, but bear in mind that if you backup to a media server, catalog recovery will want to restore from the same media server.
IMHO, basic disk (can be CIFS share) or tape connected to the master server is easiest to recover.

DR-file can also be written to CIFS share.
Configure email notification to email DR-file as well as recovery steps after completion of each catalog backup.
Schedule catalog backups to run at least once every day.

For DR recovery, you need to ensure that catalog media as well as DR-file will be available at DR site.
 

jim_dalton
Level 6

You might want to consider the requirements for the catalog ie how much backup meta-data you can afford to lose in the event of recovery.

This will determine how often you run your catalog backups.

When I say lose, I mean data that is in the live catalog (which youve lost) but not on the backed up catalog.

Anything inbetween you will either have to accept as lost OR you could accept that you will react when theres a request of restore from such data.

So in my case I do two catalog backups per day, one after my daily backups have run ie early morning, the other after close of business. The first I do from the master server and which is taken offsite almost immediately with the rest of the overnight backups, the latter I do on remote site. I dont keep more than 7 days worth, and even that is probably overkill: I wouldnt ordinarily chose anything but the most recent catalog to recover from. Why would you? So essentially you might consider two copies of the same catalog and maintain only two generations.

Not sure about the thinking behind revaroos "month": some detail behind the thinking of that might prove interesting.

Jim  

Sylvain_Seb
Level 2

Thanks everyone for your comments, I'm gonna try Marianne's solution with a CIFS share

Sylvain

Marianne
Level 6
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

If you choose to create a DSU using a CIFS share, please take note of Service Logon accounts that need to be changed to allow access:

Configuring credentials for CIFS and disk storage units 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO34525 
 

Sylvain_Seb
Level 2

Thanks Marianne I saw this article :)