Extend backup image retention

[John_Optimus]

Hi All,

I need to extend backup images on tapes, however I need to make sure that I am using the right, below are the parameters I will be running.

./bpexpdate -m i012345 - d 03/05/2013 00:00:00

Not sure of this, does this command extends the images residing in the tape or it only extends the media expiration??

Thanks in advance.

[sksujeet]

You are right that will extend all the images on that media to 03/05/2013 00:00:00

[Marianne]

5 March is one day from today. When is image expiration date/time for this tape?

PS: there should be no space between '-' and 'd'.
Media id  i012345 is too long - should only have 6 characters.

[John_Optimus]

Hi Marianne,

My mistake, date should be 05/03/2014 and media ID is just example. Also for the space on the date parameter..

Not sure how to check media expiration as the NBU version is actually 5.1 .. Below is a sample output upon running command ./bpmedialist I think this might help your question.

Server Host = usilms05.ndc.lucent.com

 id     rl  images   allocated        last updated      density  kbytes restores
           vimages   expiration       last read         <------- STATUS ------->
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I03297   4     21   03/02/2013 07:46  03/02/2013 08:54  hcart2    66006624     0
               21   05/03/2014 10:51        N/A           SUSPENDED 

[Mark_Solutions]

As clarified above the command you need is:

bpexpdate -m I03297 -d 03/05/2014 00:00:00

The date format varies according to your system locale sometimes - but it will prompt you to with the new date in "plain english" so you can see that it is correct.

Also note that of any images span tapes it will also change the expiry date for the other tapes too - so any images or partial images on this tape will be changed

Hope this helps

[John_Optimus]

Hi Mark,

Do you mean that if the image used plenty of tapes (let's say the backup spanned across 4 tapes) the latest date will prevail on all the image retentions on the involved tapes??

Another question, if the image retention is greater than the tape expiration. Will the image retention override the tape expiration?

[Mark_Solutions]

If an image spans 4 tapes and you run the bpexpdate against one tape it will change all four.

Change one that spans tape - give it a minutes and refresh your console to see for yourself that this is the case

I do not have any customers that use tape expiration as they are supposed to last for years these days and it seems such a waste to set a "die on this date" setting.

I would imagine that the data expiration will take anyway - it is just that of you come to restore from it after the tape expiration period you wont be able to!

My advise is get rid of tape expiration settings!

Hope this helps

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

 id     rl  images   allocated        last updated      density  kbytes restores
           vimages   expiration       last read         <------- STATUS ------->
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I03297   4     21   03/02/2013 07:46  03/02/2013 08:54  hcart2    66006624     0
               21   05/03/2014 10:51        N/A           SUSPENDED 

You have 21 valid images on media id I03297. The last image written will expire on 05/03/2014 10:51.

If you change expiration date to 05/03/2014 00:00, then all images on I03297 (including spanned images) will get new expiration date/time of 05/03/2014 00:00 - almost 11 hours before original expiration date/time of last image on this tape.

If you run 'Images on media' report, you should get a list of all images on this tape, and also see other tape numbers for images that have spanned media.

[John_Optimus]

Hi Marianna,

I did check it via the images on media in NBU GUI, I can see the expiration date/time is indicated as I have set but what about the reterntion period which says 2 months, is this the media expiration? I thought image retention will overwrite it? Please refer on the image below.

[Mark_Solutions]

The Retention Period is actually a level number and is related to the what was used when the original backup was written (so that original backup was written using a 2 month retention period) - it will always keep that attribute

But the expiration date is now as you wanted