How should I do this backup?

[JHeaton]

NBU 7.1 - Capacity

Master/media server - Windows 2008R2

Tape library - Dell TL4000 - LTO4 - 4 drives

I have a backup that runs twice a year.  Currently, it's being handled by our previous backup software.  The job runs directly to tape, and the data size is currently 11.1 TB.  We currently retain these backups for 400 days, then the tapes are recycled.  I want to transition this backup to my Netbackup software, but I'm not sure the best path.

1)  Simple, straight-forward backup policy, going to the tape library, and set the retention within that policy to 400 days.  The only question on this one, is:  once I export the media, to go to Iron Mountain, is NBU aware of where the tapes went, and when they're due back?  Reporting is important to me, and I definitely need the tracking.

2)  Should I make a Vault job, or SLP?  It's not a duplication job, as the original job will be going directly to tape anyway.  Can the Vault job be setup to just export tapes already copied to?

Finally, and I know this is probably a dumb question, but how can I have the job send data to multiple tapes at once?]

Thanks,

Joe

[watsons]

Your first option seems to fit into what you need - except for the offsite (export) tracking. If you want, add it into a Vault profile for tracking/reporting purpose. In Vault, duplication is optional so you can just setup a profile: "choose backup" for this policy, skip duplication and catalog backup, perform only "eject" and "report", that's all.

Job send data to multiple tapes? Pre-requisite is you need to define multiple paths in your backup selection, or use ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES, then enable "multiple data stream".

[Marianne]

I am 100% sure I replied to this post last night... This morning my reply is gone!

My 2c:

1 & 2:
Customize a retention level for 400 days. Select ret level for this policy.
Create a vault profile ensuring that selection criteria will just pick up this policy.
Configure eject only. The vault report will contain the return date.

3:
See NBU Admin Guide 1 http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC3653 Chapter 16 for instructions to configure Multiple copies.

Multiple copies (schedule attribute)
When the Multiple copies attribute is enabled, NetBackup can create up to four
copies of a backup simultaneously. The storage units must be on the same media
server with sufficient resources available for each copy. For example, to create
four copies simultaneously in a Media Manager storage unit, the unit needs four
tape drives. (This option is sometimes referred to as Inline Copy, Inline Tape Copy,
or ITC.)

The HOWTO can be found under the topic Configuring multiple copies in a policy schedule.

[J_H_Is_gone]

NB will still know about the tape, and when you look at the gui it will tell you the date the tape was made and when it will expire.  In the GUI nb will know if it is or is not in the library.

When you send the tape off to Iron Mountain - don't you tell them when to bring it back at that time?

I know by my retention or the gui when a tape will expire - so when I send the tape off I tell them the return date, so that they bring the tape back on that date with no extra work from me.

(Am I missing something here - this is the second post I have seen where it seems they have to tell someone each day when to bring a tape back - am I the only person who sets a return date with storage when I send the tapes out - without the use of Vault?)

[JHeaton]

Marianne,

As usual, thank you for your reply.  My last part is not asking about multiple copies.  I'm asking how to backup a single job to multiple drives at once, to reduce the backup time.  The term I'm used to is multiple streams, but not sure if that's the same here with NBU.

[J_H_Is_gone]

multiple streams is more than one job coming from a client

multiplexing is more than one job going to to the same tape/drive at the same time.

that is setup in your storage unit and your schedule.

[JHeaton]

I'm looking in my gui, under Media, and the Volume Expiration column doesn't have any info in it.  Is there another column I should be looking at?  Yes, when I'm setting up the Iron Mountain case, I go online, and I create an OM Distribution List, which has the list of tapes, and the return date.  But I also like being able to verify that what does come back from Iron Mountain matches what I'm expecting.

[JHeaton]

Hmmm....

Neither of those is what I'm talking about.  We moved to NBU from CommVault, and with CV, I could have a single job broken up into multiple streams, and sent to multiple tapes at once, thereby reducing the copy time.

[Mark_Solutions]

You may need to add a column in, named "Data Expiration" - Volume Expiration is when the tape is considered as too old to use any more.

You comparison with Commvault is exactly what has been covered above.

If you select ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES as a directive and the select "Multiple Data Streams" on the attributes tab the job will automatically split into streams for logical areas - so System State, C:\, D:\, E:\ etc. will all run as a seperate stream so that you get multiple jobs running at the same time.

If in your tape Storage Unit you then select to enable multiplexeing (any value up to 32 but 6 generally works best) then six of those jobs can run to a single tape drive at the same time.

You do however need to set the same multiplexing figure in each schedule of the policy to allow it to do its stuff.

What you can also do with NetBackup is set your own streams and i have many customers using this very successfuly for slow systems (your docs servers are the typical example)

So say you have a large docs or users directory and have multiplexing and schedules set to six, and you have 2 tape drives then you can run twelve jobs from one server at the same time and really boost throughput on these notoriously slow clients.

To do this you select Allow Multiple Data Streams on the attributes tab of the policy and the in the selections list you start with the directive of NEW_STREAM, next add a path then another NEW_STREAM and so on.

If you have more stream than 12, in this example, then the others would queue until a stream became free.

So a typical policy could look like:

NEW_STREAM

D:\Users\a*

NEW_STREAM

D:\Users\b*

and so on through to z* and not forgetting 0* through to 9* just in case (quite often done without a NEW_STREAM between the numbers so all 10 run as one job).

If any fail with a status 71 just create a text file so that it has something to work with until the day a user (in this example) starting with that letter is created.

So if q* failed just create D:\Users\q.txt

Hope this makes sense and explains some of the capabilities of NetBackup

Lots of other options also can be used but i think this may give a broad idea

[J_H_Is_gone]

with multiplexing you have your choice.

you can have mulit streams - and your storage unit is set to 1 for multiplexing  - meaning only 1 stream per tape drive.

you set your policy to multi streams.

So now your policy comes out with say 5 streams - and your storage unit has 5 tape drives and you are now sending 5 jobs to 5 tapes at once..

the bad of that is Shoe Shining - if each stream cannot keep that tape drive spinning it will shoe shine and you will have early death in your tapes and drives.  Example     send data to tape | tape starts spinning | no more data waiting | tape has to stop and go back and find the spot where he last wrote data and wait for more | more data comes | tape starts spinning | nor more data waiting | shoe shine again.

Where multiplexing - is you have 3 tape drives in your storage unit - you set multiplexing to 3.  Same policy of 5 streams - you now have 3 streams going to one tape/drive at the same time; and 2 going to a second tape/drive at the same time.  With more than one stream going to the same tape drive it should not have to stop as often waiting for data.  So you still get 5 streams running at once to make your backup go faster, but you use fewer tapes (allowing them have a chance to get FULL before sending them offsite)  and you can have more jobs running now.   You could have many servers running to the same tape drives up the multiplexing to 5 or 10  (max is 32 but fewer is better)  so with 5 tape drives at 10 multiplexed streams at once you can have 50 jobs running at once.

With NB you have to set up the ability to get more than one stream.  You can say ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES with multi - streams checked.

or in the Backup selection you can pick your streams

NEW_STREAM

C:\

System state

NEW_STREAM

E:\

F:\

NEW_STREAM

G:\[a-f]*

NEW_STREAM

G:\[g-p]*

[J_H_Is_gone]

Mark is right - add the Data Expriation - that will tell you when ALL of the images on a tape will be expired.

Like I know how long my retention is say 3 weeks - so I eject my tapes from last night and when I send them off I set them to come back in 3 weeks

Example last night was 12/7/2011  so those images will expire some time in the morning of 3 weeks from 12 /8/2011   - I would have the tapes come back on 12/29/2011 and put then in the library on 12/30/2011 - at that point they would all be expried/scratch tapes.