Conversion of Veritas Netbackup LTO3 tape to Disk

[Horly12]

Hi All, 

I am newbie to veritas netbackup here, and have recently taken over

the role of IT manager in my company. We are current running netbackup version 6.5.1 using 

LTO3 cartridges with a tape library. Current backup methodology is Disk to Tape ( not D2D2T).

As we are comtemplating moving away from tape to disk backup, is it possible to convert

our existing backups on LTO3 tape cartridges to Disk format ? PS i am not looking to perform a disk restoration here,

as i intend to keep the backup meta-data. For the disk storage, we are looking to use 

Network Attached Storage (be it NFS or CIFIS volumes) and mapping them as 

network drive to the backup servers ( on windows)

Any comments on the feasibility of this approach or suggestion to achieve the same result 

would be most welcome. 

[mph999]

No they cannot be converted.

Your option is to either keep them on tape, or duplicate them to disk.

As a matter of interest, if you are going to backup to disk ...

1.  Are you going to have x2 copies, to protect against disk failure.

2.  How are you going to make the second copy - some methods (eg replication outside NBU) leave you more 'open' to losing everything if there is disk corruption.

Martin

[Marianne]

First of all: Please take note of the fact that NBU 6.x will reach EOSL in October 2012.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH74757

Secondly, Network attached storage is supported as Basic Disk but definitely not recommended as a long-term solution.

NetBackup 7.x has excellent disk backup solutions - from Advanced Disk to Dedupe disk.
Disk based backups are normally used for short-term retention (due to space limitation and need for multiple long-term backups such as weeklys, monthlys and yearly backups with up to 7-year retention requirements) and tape for long-term retention.

Best to engage with local Symantec office or your local reseller who can assist you with proper design for disk-based solution.

Find a Partner/Reseller

Locate an authorized Symantec Partner/Reseller in your area using this online tool.

• Launch the Partner Locator

[mph999]

Adding to Mariannes outstanding post, 'NFS' has quite a performnce overhead, best avoided ...  Better to add disk as 'luns'.

Martin

[Horly12]

Hi mph999,

can you explain what is meant by duplication of my tapes to disk ? 

Does it mean that when I proceed to restore a file, NetBkUp will proceed to fetch 

the data from the disk instead of from the tape ? 

As for you questions

1) Probably not, we are just going to run RAID5/6 on the underlying volumes

2) I guess refer to my answer for item 1. 

[Horly12]

Hi mph999,

noted on the performance issues part. We actually do not intend to 

perform new backups, after switching over to disks. The disks are just meant to 

hold the current backup data for up to 7 years for audit compliances, and ad hoc 

restoration purposes. 

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

First of all, create a Basic Disk Storage Unit.

Next, use Catalog section of the NetBackup GUI and select 'Duplicate' in the drop-down section.

You will need to duplicate each tape one-by-one.

Will be easiest to script the process and use bpduplicate command.

After successful duplication, copy 1 (tape backups) can be expired.

You will need assistance from an experienced NetBackup Administrator to perform these tasks.

[Horly12]

thnks for the heads up on the EOSL date. 

If we finish the deduplicate from tape to disk, before the EOSL date,

then i guess we are fine :)

Rdgs

Henley

[Horly12]

Hi Marianne,

Thanks for giving me the solution :) 

if i expire copy1 , does it automatically make copy2 the primary ? 

or do i still have to use 'bpduplicate -npc 2' commands ? 

Idea is to restore from copy2 (disk backups), hence forth.

Also if i am using the cli bpduplicate tool, can i specifiy the tape IDs instead

of Backup IDs, as i would like to duplicate on tape by tape bassis. 

Thanks in Advance :) 

Rgds

Henley

[Marianne]

Expiration of primary/copy 1 will automatically promote copy 2 to primary.

It might be a good idea to promote copy 2 to primary and perform a couple of test restores and then only expire media id's.

Media id can be used with bpduplicate:

bpduplicate -id <media_id> -dstunit <destination_stu> ......

[Horly12]

Kudos to Marlanne for going the extra miles here. 

Thanks once again !