Change client name in image?

[spitman]

In our environment, we have several hosts that were backed up under one name; then the old admin decided to back the host up under a different name. Is there a command to run to change the name within an image? I read in other posts about ALTPATH; but that would be if there were no images under the new name. 

"I have inherited this environment..."  -daily mantra

Unfortunately, backups have been running for quite some time under the new name; so both db image directories have backups in them.

Happy to hear advice, and thanks...

(Running 7.6.0.3 on all RedHat master/media servers.)

[rookie11]

There is no way u can change the name within an image. good way to keep going with new name of server during backups. Keep notes of new name and old name of same server. restore request might come and u wont  be scratching ur head then

[spitman]

I have just such a spreadsheet, showing old names to new names, and even dates... and I have found out that with a dozen or so servers this has happened over the years. Again--this is an environment I inherited, and was just curious if there was some kind of cleanup we could do.

[rookie11]

keep a backup of spreadsheet as well. :) :) 

[spitman]

So am I gathering from not hearing from anyone else that there is really no way to do this?

Why isn't there? It would be nice to understand...

[revarooo]

Spitman, no there is no supported method of doing this.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

Sorry I am late...

Yes. There is a way.

Stop NBU, cd to /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images and locate the 2 folders of each client name.
Move/copy contents of unwanted folder to the correct client name. 
Rename unwanted folder (as precaution) and create symbolic link to correct name.
(ln -s correct-name unwanted-name )

Start NBU.

You will now be able to restore client using any of the 2 names. 

I have done this many times where different policies were created for the same client using shortname and FQDN or where backup network was added after intitial backups on public network.

The same procedure used to be described in one of NBU Admin Guides for NBU Client name change (will post when I find it...).

If all is fine, you can delete the folder with unwanted name.

[spitman]

Hi Marianne, thank you for the info! I hope this isn't a silly question; but will this be affected in any way by future NBU software upgrades--i.e. if I put this in place, will I have to put it back in place after upgrading software?

[Marianne]

Nope. Nothing like that.

Folders and symbolic links under images are not affected in anyway during an upgrade.

I have done this over so many years at various customer sites and never had any issues.

The only thing that can go wrong is if symbolic links are created incorrectly at OS level.
If you test the link after creating it with cd command and see correct info, all is fine and you can start NBU.

Next test is browse for backups.

You also have the renamed folder as 'backup' until you decide to delete it.