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Hot or Cold catalog backup?

Shane_Rainville
Level 3
We recently upgraded our backup software to NetBackup 6.0MP4.
I have been thinking about moving to Hot catalog backups.

Is this recommended or should I stick with cold catalog backups?

If you lose the DR recovery file can you still recover a hot catalog backup?
9 REPLIES 9

DavidParker
Level 6
Shane,
Based on some of the posts other folks here have made recently, it seems like HOT is the way to go. Hopefully someone will 'second' that recommendation?

$0.00.05

Bill_Liston
Level 4
I switched to Hot catalog backups about a year ago and have never looked back. I've completed two DR tests with the hot cats and both times it worked perfectly. The restore wizard is extremely simple to use.

You can recover the catalogs if you don't have the DR recovery file. The e-mail I receive each morning actually gives me the exact command lines needed for the recovery for that backup.
Here's an example


Disaster Recovery Procedure without the DR Image File
NOTE: ONLY ATTEMPT THIS AS A LAST RESORT If you do not have the attachment included with this email, use the following instructions to recover your catalog:

1. Install NetBackup.
2. Configure the devices necessary to read the media listed above.
3. Inventory the media.
4. Run:
bpimport -create_db_info -id 800554
5. Go to the following directory to find the DR image file
HOT_CATALOG_1169726480_FULL:
D:\Program Files\VERITAS\NetBackup\db\images\netbackup\1169000000\tmp
6. Delete the other files in the directory.
7. Open HOT_CATALOG_1169726480_FULL file and find the BACKUP_ID
(for example: netbackup_1169726480).
8. Run:
bpimport -backupid netbackup_1169726480
9. Run:
bprestore -T -w -C netbackup -t 35 -p HOT_CATALOG -X -s 1169726480 -e 1169726480 /
10. Run the BAR user interface to restore the remaining image database
if the DR image is a result of an incremental backup.
11. To recover the NetBackup relational database, run:
bprecover -r -nbdb
12. Stop and Start NetBackup
13. Configure the devices if any device has changed since the last
backup.
14. To make sure the volume information is updated, inventory the media
to update the NetBackup database.

I'd definitely move to Hot Catalog Backups.
Bill

Dennis_Strom
Level 6
go with hot catalog backups and set the cold to user initiated only. I was having all kinds of problems, loosing connectivity to my libraries, loosing connectivity to the EMM database, ect.. I switched to hot backups and have not had one of those old problems since.

The thing to keep in mind with Netbackup is when a cold catalog backup is taking place the emm database is locked. So much of your functionality is lost. If you try and perform a function that requires access to the emm database netbackup can end up in an unknown status.

Support recommended that I go with Hot backups. So now my catalog schedule does weekly inc, weekend fulls and monlhly archive just like my other backups. I send the catalog backup monthly archive offsite with the other tapes along with a copy of the email that is sent. With this a full recovery is possible even if the datacenter is lost all you need to do is recall the monthly archive.

Bashir
Level 2
Hi Dennis,

I'm new to Veritaqs NetBackup and need some help.

I've created a hot catalog to do fulls weekend and inc daily just like yours. The thing i don't do is archive it monthly. You seem to be very familiar with this process. Could you please send me the steps to monthly archiving hot catalogs.

Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

ja290
Level 3
I have "hot catalog backups" on my to-do list.

Can a hot backup be written to some place on disk? I do that currently with my cold backups and rsync the files elsewhere. 

rjrumfelt
Level 6

All, just FYI, this probably should've been a new thread

Anonymous
Not applicable
Cold catalog backups are no longer available in NetBackup 7.0.
So like me I'm moving to Hot Catalog backups in 6.5. And the admin guide does state that Hot is preferred, best practice.

karthkri
Level 2
Partner Accredited

Its better u move to hot catalog backup. Hot catalog backup is much better that the old traditional way.

If you loose the DR recovery file also, u can still recover the hot catalog backup

Zahid_Haseeb
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited
 i think that the Hot Catalog backup can span on multiple tapes if you have a big catalog backup. 
see this if you want to deploy hot catalog backup

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/howto-take-online-hot-catalog-backup