How to transport files between 2 Unix servers by tape.

[JD1402]

Recently we had a network problem which prevented us to copy databases between 2 locations. So the obvious solution put the 150 GB databases on tape(s) and transport the tape(s) the other location.

"No" said the system administrator that is not a good solution because the restore will take ages, because first we have to rebuild the catalog on the other location and only after this is finished we can begin to restore. I've asked can't you make a backup or copy or archive or what ever you want to call it, without a catalog. "No" was the answer.

Because the Unix servers don't have a local tape-unit we have to use the "netbackup" units on a Windows server.

So my question to the Netbackup community :

Is it possible to just copy some files from a Unix server to a Netbackup tape(unit) and on the other end just copy all the files from the Netbackup tape(unit) to a Unix server, without the need to rebuild a catalog ? We use netbackup 6

[Will_Restore · Accepted solution]

Normal method is to import the tape (2-step process) and then do the restore. 
It can be time consuming but it is NOT rebuilding the catalog as in a DR situation.
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/278948.htm


It is possible to do restore using tar but
"This is not a recommended procedure.  It should be used only in extreme situations and as a last step in attempting to restore data."
http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/205940.htm

[Francis_Doran]

Can you not just use Netbackup to restore the data to te other server?
Netbackup lets you do this if the other server your restoring the Data to is a Netbackup client.

[Marianne]

The Recovery Without Import Whitepaper was created pre-6.x, but it still works.

[stu52]

I know it's not NetBackup, but if you are only talking about 150GB, that would certainly fit onto one LTO-3 tape. 

You should be able to use the UNIX tar command or cpio to do the copy to from tape.


Note this would not work for files that are so large that they won't fit on one LTO-3 (or whatever) tape.

[Stumpr2]

Sometimes we get so focused on NetBackup that we forget to look for other solutions.

[J_H_Is_gone]

I have that issue some times where the two servers are at different locations meaning sending across the WAN.... takes too long.

I the Recovery with out import allows you to put the info on your master server at the other location and restore without import.

and no need to recreate a master server if you already have one there ( but you don't mention if you do)

[Will_Restore]

For ongoing restores I agree but this sounded to me like a one-off thing due to the network trouble.

[Will_Restore]

was in my response above ;)

[JD1402]

Thanks for your valuable input.

@Stu52 : We don't have a local tape drive on the Unix servers so we have to use the drives on the Windows netbackup server. Or is there some smart trick to hijack the drives and use them on Unix as if they were local. And then use the good old Unix tar,mt, dd commands and just put some files on tape.

@Marianne : On the destination site we have working Netbackup infrastucture. If we follow the "the recovery without import" procedure does did mean all the information of the source site will be available on the destination site ? This seems a bit to much for a one-time copy or is there a way to easily remove the information after restoring the files.

I think the best we can do is to buy a removable disk and use this next time we have network troubles.

thanks again,

Dick

[stu52]

I think that a USB drive is probably the most efficient way to transport files of up to 500GB since those drives are widely available.