DR Test - Restore only partial catalog - IS IT POSSIBLE

[dukbtr]

Hello,

We are about to do our annual DRP Test. In the past we recovered the entire Catalog that was backed up. I was wondering how to make the recovery quicker, the last catalog restore took about 3 hours.

My idea was to change the catalog backup to only backup the images of the 2 servers that are getting restored. This will save a lot of time not having to restore images from the NAS and other servers with millions of tiny files. This way we only have to restore the two images that we are going to use at the testing site. We are taking a full catalog backup with us just in case.

Our environment is:

NB 5.1 - Master and Media servers HPUX 11.11
Master is also media server
5 other media servers
LTO and DLT 4
STK L700e and 9710 robotic libraries


HOTSITE environment:

2 HPUX boxes

4 direct attached LTO and 2 DLT on 1st box
2 direct attached LTO and 2 DLT on 2nd box

Since we are not using a robot at the testing site, do we need to backup up this info in the catalog? In the past we had to configure the drives ourselves after deleting the old drives. Can we save time by not having to delete the old drives by not backup the them up in the catalog backup?

Can someone recommend a time saving selection list for our catalog backup? Any other recommendations would help also.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[Chia_Tan_Beng]

Hi David,

I'm not sure about your DR setup but I presume your DR master server has a simple setup consisting a local tape drive for catalog restore.

If you want to restore only 2 backup images and skip the catalog restore, the faster way is to do a fresh install and configure Netbackup on the DR master server, copy the images from your hotsite to the DR site.

E.g.
Images to be restored are from clients A and B.
1) Identify the media that store the images (either by restore GUI or bpimagelist, etc) and bring over to DR site
2) install Netbackup on DR master server (can be done prior your DRP test)
2) tar /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/A and /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/B from master server to tape and restore onto DR master server.
3) add "FORCE_RESTORE_MEDIA_SERVER = " and recycle bprd daemon.
4) update /etc/hosts to insert the IP of the 2 DR clients accordingly
5) install NB on the 2 DR client (can be done prior your DRP test)
6) perform a test backup for the 2 DR client (just to verify the connectivity & setup)
7) Insert the tape to local tape drive of master server and perform restore as usual

There's a document which I think is quite useful for your case.

VERITAS NetBackup (tm) catalog recovery without importing tapes:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/263423

[Ankur_Kumar]

Well you can Tar the particular client image under the /db/image directory from the master and then untar it on the destination DR box, but this particular operation can result into discrepancy in the catalogue.

Chia reference to the below mentioned Veritas Doc is appropriate and effective, please do have a look as for your reference i am posting the same link as well

http://support.veritas.com/docs/263423

The best part is you aint require an import of the images.

ciao
Ankur Kumar

[Ankur_Kumar]

Well you can Tar the particular client image under the /db/image directory from the master and then untar it on the destination DR box, but this particular operation can result into discrepancy in the catalogue.

Chia reference to the below mentioned Veritas Doc is appropriate and effective, please do have a look as for your reference i am posting the same link as well

http://support.veritas.com/docs/263423

The best part is you aint require an import of the images.

ciao
Ankur Kumar

[Ankur_Kumar]

Well you can Tar the particular client image under the /db/image directory from the master and then untar it on the destination DR box, but this particular operation can result into discrepancy in the catalogue.

Chia reference to the below mentioned Veritas Doc is appropriate and effective, please do have a look as for your reference i am posting the same link as well

http://support.veritas.com/docs/263423

The best part is you aint require an import of the images.

ciao
Ankur Kumar

[Doctorski]

David,
We backup our client images (excluding the master) to our master via a normal policy. We then only bpbackupdb the masters images along with media server "db", volmgr/database, vm.conf and bp.confs etc.

You then only need to bprecover your masters images, and RESTORE the client images required. backup and restore is therefore much quicker.

It is vital however that you have checks to pick up new clients etc

- Darren