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How to prevent image from splitting over two medias when backup (Warning bpverify ...there is no fragment 1)

Nogal
Level 2

Hi all,

I'm running NB 7.6 on Linux.
I have a script in which I backup few files, then label and expire 5% of the medias, and eventually I verify some medias.
I have 5GB medias and ~4GB files (None of them is bigger then 5)

The problem occures when trying to verify:

05/05/2015 15:59:56 - begin Verify
05/05/2015 15:59:56 - Warning bpverify (pid=8930) Skipping backup id vh_dd5-x_2_1430804615, there is no fragment 1

 

So what happend is I backed up a file, and it splittes over two medias. Then I erased one media, and tries to verify a fragment that it's other half is delted.
I'm looking for a way to backup those files without splitting them over two medias. is there a way to do it? Please notice that I want to verify by media id and not by images.
If not, how can I expire those fragments?

Thanks for your help!

 

I'm attaching the comamnds I'm using of my script:

"/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbackup -p %s -i -h %s -S %s -t 0 -w 0" %(policy_prefix+str(i), client_name, client_name)    #backup the files
"/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpmedialist -l |awk '{print $1,$9}               #for creating list of files I'll expire or verify
"/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpexpdate -d 0 -m %s -force" %(cart_id)   #label some medias
"/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bplabel -m %s -d hcart3 -o" %(cart_id)      #expire some medias
"/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpverify -id %s" %(cart_id)                        #verify the rest of the medias from the list

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
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Why expire VALID, unexpired backups? There should never be a reason for doing this.
Rather verify BEFORE expiring media and run Images on Media report (bpimmedia) to get an indication of images spanning media.

NBU will append to media that is not full, frozen, or suspended.
So, if media is not full, NBU will append to tape with other backups written to it. When EOM is reached, it will request another tape.

There is a media setting that will prevent backups from being split over 2 media's, but there is NO way to check beforehand if backup will fit onto available space on media. This means that backup will write till EOM, but instead of continuing on another piece of media, it will discard the backup, load another tape and start again. Is this what you want?
The setting can be disabled in Host Properties -> Media Server -> Media -> Allow backups to span tape
media.
The setting is enabled by default.

PS:
According to the manual the setting will cause the backup to fail when EOM is encountered.

Think carefully before you disable the setting - I have in 16 years with NBU never seen any customer who disabled this setting.

Rather ensure sufficient media so that you do not need to expire any media.

 

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5 REPLIES 5

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Why expire VALID, unexpired backups? There should never be a reason for doing this.
Rather verify BEFORE expiring media and run Images on Media report (bpimmedia) to get an indication of images spanning media.

NBU will append to media that is not full, frozen, or suspended.
So, if media is not full, NBU will append to tape with other backups written to it. When EOM is reached, it will request another tape.

There is a media setting that will prevent backups from being split over 2 media's, but there is NO way to check beforehand if backup will fit onto available space on media. This means that backup will write till EOM, but instead of continuing on another piece of media, it will discard the backup, load another tape and start again. Is this what you want?
The setting can be disabled in Host Properties -> Media Server -> Media -> Allow backups to span tape
media.
The setting is enabled by default.

PS:
According to the manual the setting will cause the backup to fail when EOM is encountered.

Think carefully before you disable the setting - I have in 16 years with NBU never seen any customer who disabled this setting.

Rather ensure sufficient media so that you do not need to expire any media.

 

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Master Server and Media Server 'host properties', on the 'Media' tab there is an option 'Allow backups to span tape media'.

If you disable this, and all tape media are 5GB then you will never be able to store anything over 5GB to any tape.  And most backup will fail, because most backups will attempt to append to media, and get only so far, and then have a request for additional media denied, and so will fail.

It is highly unusual to disable this feature.  I don't understand why you would do that.  Please explain?

Nogal
Level 2

Thanks Marianne and sdo,

Indeed it shows an error when backuping, so my idea was not succesfuul.

My solution would be labeling a cartridge, and expiring all it's FILES (the fragmentes on other medias as well) instead of expire by media.
Than, I assume that when verifying a media, it will not try to verify the fragmented, expired part.

Do you think that direction would work? Could you help me with finding the relevant command, that shows me the files on each media, including it's size? and perhaps the command that expires by files, raher than by media id?

Thanks alot,
Noga

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
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Hi Nogal - I'm not sure how to get this point across - but NetBackup is not meant to be forced to work quite like that.  Please take this the right way, I'm not trying to be condescending - but once you've probably had a bit more experience with NetBackup, then you'll find that you think differently about where backup is residing, and what its retention is... which is the crux of NetBackup 'think'.  I hope this helps. 

What I can add is to say that NetBackup admins are not typically expected to manage discreet pieces of backup data, or discreet pieces of media.  Instead, what we do manage, are the 'policies' (i.e. backup policies, and storage lifecycle policies) i.e. the 'rule sets' which govern where backup data resides (i.e. the 'storage units'), and for how long (i.e. the 'retention').

 

Marianne
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And I still don't understand why you want to expire backups. Retention periods are there because data need to be kept until expiration date.