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Catalog Replication for a DR Site

mrDavid
Level 4

I have 2 Netbackup Appliances in seperate domains and both are on 7.6.0.3.  The second appliance is located in a DR site.  We have a small link between the 2 sites, and I use AIR to replicate a few small critical backups.  Most of our backups go to tape

I'm looking for the best way to transport the catalog to the DR appliance and I had almost given up on AIR replication until I saw this response by Mark_Solutions (apologies to Mark if this is out of context!) - http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/catalog-recovery-through-air

Catalog replication via AIR is supported these days as long as source and target master are on exactly the same version of NetBackup (otherwise the replication works but the import fails)

In my experince it has been used when only one site has access to tape so that the second site can import the catalog backup and then duplicate it to tape

Really not sure that i would want to use it on the DR site when that is already setup as a master in its own right - it does seem failrly pointless to me ot be honest - though of course totally possible with the proper planning and preparation

Just don't fancy the idea as the primary beauty of AIR was to remove the need or a catalog recovery etc. and to give immediate restore capabilities from a DR site.

I gave it a shot, set my Catalog backup to use an SLP that would replicate.  The replication & import was successful and I used the initate-import function to make the make the Catalogs visible.  They have not appeared

So, should this have worked, or am I on the wrong path?

thanks

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

I think it may be the terminology that is getting mixed up here ... see if this helps...

When i say "replicate the catalog" what is meant is to replicate the catalog backup via AIR to your second site .. which can then be duplicated to tape so that you have an off site copy of your catalog backup - which can be used to recover your live site should it fail.

All other backups can be replicated from your main site to the secondary site using AIR and these get automatically imported into that sites catalog when they arrive. These can then also be duplicated to tape on that site of you wish.

Is that what you were looking for?

#edit#

Just spotted your reply .. the tape copy on the DR site may well not be primary .. you can restore from that on the secondary site if you promote it to primary.

You could only use it on the primary site if the original images had expired and you would then need to import the tape on the primary site

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RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Hi

Basically, what ever is backed up to disk, and replicated will be available in your DR domain (as you've seen). Anything put on tape, will not be available in DR domain via AIR. You can only make those tapes known to DR domain via full import or a recovery without import operation.

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10

RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Hi,

 

You're almost there. What you have done is replicated and imported your catalog backup information (and data). So now it is available in DR, but you'll need to recover the catalog so you can have information about all the other backups (done in PROD) in your DR master

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

As you use AIR you dont usually need to do any sort of DR recovery at that site .. that is the whole idea behind AIR so that it removes that requirement.

What the catalog replication / import does is give you a copy of the catalog on the DR site .. which when written to tape can be used to recover your main site .. as you shouldn't need it on your DR site other than for off site safe keeping

The real test would be to get it on tape after a replication and duplication and then try a catalog recovery on a test / lab system that has the same name as the original master server

Hope that makes sense

mrDavid
Level 4

thankyou both,

Riaan, should I be using the 'Recover the Catalog' wizard?  Unless i'm mistaken this will attempt to restore my prod master server which I am hoping to avoid

Mark, understood on AIR, but as I'm using tapes can I benefit from AIR's ability to easily replicate & import catalog data?

I'll avoid using the term DR, which refers to specific functionality in NB.  My goal is to restore tapes to a seperate NB domain.  It looks like the 'Import Images' wizard is the conventional method to pull the catalog data directly off the tapes.  I'm wondering if AIR can be used as a quicker, automated method

cheers

RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Hi,

 

Sorry I misunderstood your requirement. Lets go back and define your requirement. Do you want to restore the critical backups (replicated via AIR), or the other ones on tape, or both?

mrDavid
Level 4
My issue is with restoring from tape only. Restoring replicated AIR jobs is working fine. Sorry for the confusion Thanks

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

I think it may be the terminology that is getting mixed up here ... see if this helps...

When i say "replicate the catalog" what is meant is to replicate the catalog backup via AIR to your second site .. which can then be duplicated to tape so that you have an off site copy of your catalog backup - which can be used to recover your live site should it fail.

All other backups can be replicated from your main site to the secondary site using AIR and these get automatically imported into that sites catalog when they arrive. These can then also be duplicated to tape on that site of you wish.

Is that what you were looking for?

#edit#

Just spotted your reply .. the tape copy on the DR site may well not be primary .. you can restore from that on the secondary site if you promote it to primary.

You could only use it on the primary site if the original images had expired and you would then need to import the tape on the primary site

RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Hi

Basically, what ever is backed up to disk, and replicated will be available in your DR domain (as you've seen). Anything put on tape, will not be available in DR domain via AIR. You can only make those tapes known to DR domain via full import or a recovery without import operation.

mrDavid
Level 4

Thanks for your responses gents, apologies for this slow response

I think I understand the functionality now.  I'll use import-images wizard to pull the catalog data directly off the tapes

tx

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

I see this as your biggest problem:

Most of our backups go to tape

Your appliances were spec'ed and sized incorrectly.

ALL backups for which you need a copy at remote site should be on the appliance.

Get your reseller back to size appliances for all data with about 2 week retention. 
So, when all data is written to the appliances and replicated via AIR, you can use SLPs to then duplicate for long-term retention.

mrDavid
Level 4

Unfortunetally it is our network link between the 2 sites which prevents me taking full advantage of AIR.  It was due to be upgraded...but thats a different story