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GRT on virtual tape

Ahmed_ELHalwagy
Level 4

i want to backup Active Directory and Exchange using GRT but i am facing a problem with GRT technology, GRT needs physical disk

i have a virtual taope which means disks but seen by netbackup as a virtual tape , how can i make the GRT works with this virtual tape...

it's urgent for me to bakup these servers with GRT technology

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

You really need to go through the guide as this is fairly basic NetBackup configuration.

NetBackup Admin Guide - Section 3 - Chapter 10 covers creating disk staging storage units.

Once created set your policies to use it and enable GRT duplication on the Master Server Host Properties - General tab.

Once the disk copy has gone and you only have it on tape then go to the Catalog Section, select Duplicate at the top and search for the backup.

Select it and duplicate it back to the disk storage unit

After that you will be able to restore GRT information from it.

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10 REPLIES 10

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

As far as NetBackup is concerned a VTL is tape and so you cannot use it for GRT.

You need "real" disk of some sort - even enough to hold a couple of your required backups as you can duplicate it to tape afterwards (or VTL) as long as you keep an area with enough free space to duplicate it back later should you need to do a restore from it

Disk is pretty cheap these days so is worth the investment - from a 3TB USB drive (maybe!?) to the type of unit I regularly deal with that has up to 160TB in a 4U array and cheap as chips as they say

Hope this helps

Ahmed_ELHalwagy
Level 4

can u give me more details about this process and how can i do it in details ,

my netbackup is 7.1 enterprise

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

You could set up a basic disk staging area (a folder on a disk volume) for you backups to go to - configure that as a basic disk storage unit and give it a schedule to automaticlly duplicate to your VTL or to real tape.

Make sure that the Master Server Host properties is set to duplicate GRT information

More details in the Admin Guides

Hope this helps

Has your initial question now been answered?

Ahmed_ELHalwagy
Level 4

can u give me a steps of how to backup to disk as staging and after that copy to tape and in retore process , what i should do to restore from GRT after copying it on tape

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

You really need to go through the guide as this is fairly basic NetBackup configuration.

NetBackup Admin Guide - Section 3 - Chapter 10 covers creating disk staging storage units.

Once created set your policies to use it and enable GRT duplication on the Master Server Host Properties - General tab.

Once the disk copy has gone and you only have it on tape then go to the Catalog Section, select Duplicate at the top and search for the backup.

Select it and duplicate it back to the disk storage unit

After that you will be able to restore GRT information from it.

Ahmed_ELHalwagy
Level 4

now i want to delete the image from the disk after being duplicated to tape and i want to ask about the destage schedule, will it delete the image from the disk or not and if not how can i automaticaly ...

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

As a staging storage unit it will automatically delete images from disk aslong as they have been duplicated if it needs more space to do another backup - by default the disk used will stay almost full at all times so it need to be a dedicated volume

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

All your questions are answered in the section of the manual that Mark referred you to. There is also a section to determine space needed...

Duplication/staging will not automatically delete/expire images on disk. Disk images are controlled by expiration date/retention level in schedule or high water mark - which ever comes first.

Think about it - if you want to restore from GRT backup, the images MUST be on disk. So, you want at least the last backup to be on disk and not deleted automatically after duplicated to tape.

Ahmed_ELHalwagy
Level 4

now i expired the image from disk and then i deleted it after destaging , i duplicated it from tape and i tried to restore but i faced the error 144 the image is on tape duplicated it on disk

RonCaplinger
Level 6

I'm pretty sure your tape cope is listed as the primary copy.

You need to go into the Catalog display and bring up the image that you copied back to disk, right click it, and select "Set Primary Copy".  Then your restore job should be calling the copy from disk instead of the one on tape.