Help Understanding NetBackup 5.0

[Jayson_kramer]

Hi All, I am having a heck of a time migrating to Netbackup 5.0 Enterprise. I have a win 2003 Server, Netbackup 5.0 Ent, and an ADIC 7000 DLT drive. I have been reading and reading documentation on this but 1000 pages into it and my eyes are killing me :?)

I have backed up data to 6 tapes. I now need to pull those tapes and insert new ones. (which I have done)
However, I am unsure what needs to happen now so I can label these new tapes and get them ready for tonights backups.

I am also having a little trouble undersyanding the difference between a Volume Pool and Volume Group

Heres what I see:

Volume Pool
-Netbackup
A00000
A00001
A00002
A00003
A00004
A00005

Volume Group
-oo_000_TLD
A00000
A00001
A00002
A00003
A00004
A00005

Robots
-TLD (0)
A00000
A00001
A00002
A00003
A00004
A00005

Do any of you have any pointers in getting me pointed in the right direction. Any Documentation that was written for someone new to Backup software, especially Netbackup 5.0 Ent. Any help would be great. (If I have to read anymore 600 page Veritas Doc's I will go blind)

[zippy]

Jayson,

A volume pool is used to identify a logical set of volumes by usage.

I have a robot and I set it up like this:

I split my volume pools this way

oracle = are for databases backups
Netbackup = is for everything else
Spare_tapes = spare tape

you have it set to one volume pool
try making another and move a couple tapes to the new one
Volume Pool
-Netbackup
A00000
A00001
A00002
A00003
A00004
A00005

I then set my policies to use one or the other.

A volume group is a logical grouping that identifies a set of volumes that reside at the same physical location

In other words, if ytou have 1 or 10 libraries - robots then each library would have one Volume group and in your case "oo_000_TLD" denotes your one volume group.


Cool..

JD

[Jayson_kramer]

So If I create a new Volume pool, I could then move my last set of backup tapes to it. Do the tapes need to be in the drive to do so? I am assuming so, so that the move can be recorded in the header on the tapes.

At this point, once they are move to a new volume pool, I can eject my tapes (manually) at dlt700 and insert new tapes. I would then reinventory robot and label accordingly?

Then after these tapes are full, do the same thing as above, move tapes to the new volume pool created above and so on......

This is just me talking out loud. Please reply with your thoughts.

By the way.....Thank you soooo much for the quick response!

[zippy]

Jayson,

How many tapes can your library hold and what is the average amount of data you backup ant any given time?

Monday thru Friday are Differential backups I assume
and Sat - Sun are full backups

The pools are ussusally used for a Class of backups not really for "per day" backups.

Do you off site the tapes?

thanks for the points i think i have 500 now ;)


JD

[Jayson_kramer]

To give you quick backround. We currently use Backup Exec. I am an Exchange Admin and need to get a good backup solution running. I currently use Microsoft Backup because we don't have a license for exchange. We do however own Netbackup 5.0 and have an Exchange license. Because of this I am trying to come up with the best solution.

Right now I am just testing with a few different backups.

File Server - is full every 2 weeks (weekend) Diff every night. I prefer weekly, but because we only have 6 tapes plus one cleaning tape (40/80), we are a little tight.(50 - 100 GB)

Exchange 2003- Weekly Currently backing up Information Store, Public folders and Mailboxes. Once it works properly I will be setting this up a little differently. (40 - 50 GB)

Backing up at least 100-150 GB once all said and done

[Julien_Mari]

Volume pool is a name for a group of media

Volume group is a location of media (offsite for example)

Robot, is your robot name and number.

What you see in your case is:
You have tapes in the netbackup pool, so policies using this pool will use one or more of the tapes in the netbackup pool. The tapes are in the oo_000_TLD VG, meaning that they are in the library and also in the robot 0.

When you put new tapes in the library you need to do an inventory to see them. (right click media in the admin console and choose inventory)

What is your library ? Have you more than 1 tape drive ?

[zippy]

Julien,

My answer is right out of the help file, funny!

JD

[Julien_Mari]

Mine is fresh in my memory, I took a netbackup 6 course last week :)

Anyway, I answer the thread with no reply, I post my message, I'm like the 5th answer.

Crazy forum.

[Jayson_kramer]

Julien, The answers to your questions are in the original post. So i know that I need to inventory; I place the new tapes(6) into the drive, then Inventory the Robot, but when I do it doesn't work. It said there are no new changes. I am assuming that is because the origial media is still listed, even though it has been physically removed.

So If I create a new Volume pool, I could then move my last set of backup tapes to it. Do the tapes need to be in the drive to do so? I am assuming so, so that the move can be recorded in the header on the tapes.

At this point, once they are move to a new volume pool, I can eject my tapes (manually) at dlt700 and insert new tapes. I would then reinventory robot and label accordingly?

Then after these tapes are full, do the same thing as above, move tapes to the new volume pool created above and so on......

[Jayson_kramer]

OK All, I am getting really stressed out here. I am able to create all of the volume pools that I want, however It does not allow me to move/change because they are assigned.

[Jayson_kramer]

Thank you all for your replies. They have truley given me a better understanding of NetBackup.