Catalog Restore to New Environment

[backup-botw]

I am looking to restore a catalog from a site that has been decommissioned to a newly built master server that will be used merely for searching for old backups from that site should anything be needing a restore. That way I can see what tapes are needed and then load those tapes and import them into my production environment and do the restore.

Trick here is that there are no devices attached to this master server. It will be used merely for searches. My production environment is where the restores will occur from. I have imported the tape into this environment...Phase 1...and now I am curious as to where I should go from here. I was tentative to do the Phase 2 Import as I don't want to do anything that can cause issues in my production environment or mess up the catalog there. I didn't know if I could do the Phase 2 and then restore that data over to this other master server I built and then import the catalog there or what my next step should be.

Any guidance you all can lend would be appreciated.

[revarooo]

A Phase 1 and Phase 2 import of a tape and it's images on a DR system ( I assume that's where you imported them) should not interfere with the tape/images on your production server.

One thing I am curious about, you mentioned your DR server has no devices - so how did you import?

[backup-botw]

I did not mention DR. This is not a DR site...I have built a master server to simply search the catalog from the decommissioned site if a restore is needed so I can see what tapes would be required. From there I could then load the tapes into the Production environment, do the phase 1 and 2 import and then do the restore.

There are no devices on the search only master server I have built. As stated above I did the Phase 1 import in my production environment and it has devices attached to it.

[revarooo]

Ok, I see. So I assume you will be doing a cat_export from the old domain and cat_import into the "search" domain? Absolutely no issues in doing this.

I am guessing you do not want to import the tapes from the old domain into your new production domain.

[backup-botw]

I am not familiar with that process, but I know it was not done and the site is already decommissioned so I am unable to do that now. I did however do a catalog backup prior to the site being shutdown. Yes I would like to import this catalog into the "search" master server, but I am lost on how to get it onto that master.

I have done a phase 1 on the tape in my production master server...do I simply do a phase 2 and import the images I need and then is there a way to restore that from the production master server over to the this "search" master server? Maybe restore it to a test VM and then copy it over to the "search" master server and then import it once its there?

No we do not want to import all the tapes. The plan was to only import tapes from the decommissioned site on an as needed basis should a restore be needed.

[revarooo]

Ok if you phase 1 and 2 on your production server you can search the images on that server? There would be no need for this extra "search" master server?

[backup-botw]

I do not want to merge catalogs. I have not done the Phase 2 on my production master server. I only did the phase 1 so I could see the catalog backup images and get the expiration date of the tape.

[revarooo]

if the original master is now down and decommissioned You will have to import the images OR put a tape drive on your search master and import. If it is up you can cat_export the images copy the output over to the search master and cat_import the images in. I am making assumptions here that your original master is 7.5 ir above where image header are in the NBDB database.

[backup-botw]

Can I do the phase 2 import on my production master without it adding that data into my production catalog? It would great if I could do the phase 2 and then copy the data over to the search master and recover the catalog there.

Yes the original master...the one that is decommissioned...was 7.6.0.2.

[revarooo]

No a phase 2 brings the images in, so will add the image headers into your NBDB database as well as the files file (.f files)  to your netbackup\db\images\ directory

[mph999]

Just so you know, when you do phase 1, the tapes are  given a 1 week expire time, so you need to run phase 2 within 1 week, else you have to start again.

[backup-botw]

So would it be possible to do the Phase 2 on this tape in the production environment and then get this data over to the search only master so that I can restore the catalog there and use it to search the Backup, Archive and Restore for backup images and get tape info that would be needed?

[backup-botw · Accepted solution]

Going to get a standalone drive and attach it to the master server I built to just do searches and import the catalog that way.