Files are becoming corrupt during backup??

[huddlbud]

Hi all.

I am not an admin of Netbackup but my company uses it to backup production data.  I am having a problem with files becoming corrupt and I am wondering if it could be a result of the backup running while the file is still being built.  We run SQR to build data files and we have noticed on certain files that there is a line of null characters in the file.  It is not consistently happening.   Sometimes the files build fine and then out of the blue, we'll have this null line issue.  The ONLY thing that we have been able to attribute it to is that most of the times that this has happened, the backup backed up the file while the SQR was still running.  I have checked with our tape backup admin and he says that it is extremely unlikely that the backup would have anything to do with it.  I am skeptical.

Can anyone help me with this?  I am not even sure what questions to ask or what info to provide.  I am at an impass with trying to resolve this issue.

Thanks,
Bud

[Will_Restore · Accepted solution]

but never seen backup cause it.  You could always turn off backups and take your chances.

That said, most application folks find their problem pretty quickly. ;)

[Marianne]

I agree - highly unlikely.
You should in any case only run backups of production data while offline. You will not be able to restore files that are being changed during the backup.

[huddlbud]

I asked our admin if it were possible to exclude certain directories or exclude open files and was told that it was not possible with the type of backup that they were using.  NDMB or something like that.  Does that sound accurate?

Thanks,

[Stumpr2]

I have seen Netbackup corrupt a db file unless the application was properly shutdown.

However, it was NetBackup version 4.5 and version 5.1 that were in use at that time. I have not seen this in Netbackup 6.x. This happened several years ago and I have forgotten the specifics. I didn't think it was possible but I was proven wrong.