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Is there a way to restore files from backups before the valid retention time?

CCBNZ
Level 4

Hi all,

I am new to Netbakcup.

I lost some files between 15th May to 22 May. It seems the files I want to restore are gone from the earliest backup date as the retension interval was set to one month only... I run the command bpcatlist.ext and it give me the result as attached screenshot 1.jpg. And I did some reseach online and tried to use the "import" fuction from Catalog menu and search on it, nothing shows up.

So I wonder if there is a way I can find the files back? Is the virtual tapes a good starting point? I have attached a screenshot 2.jpg of the view of all virtual tapes. How can I view the contents inside each of them? 

Thank you

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
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You will need to import expired images.

Phase 1 will recreate header info, phase 2 will recreate file-level info. 

Steps to Import Netbackup Images
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100017201.html

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Genericus
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Please note - if you are trying to use expired media, it is absolutly imperative you save the media - either move it to another pool or freeze it, if disk - you cannot run a clean against it - you have to prevent it from being overwritten.

Once images expire, they can get overwritten, for example, tapes are placed back in the scratch pool and reused. Once they are overwritten, you are out of luck.

 

 

NetBackup 9.1.0.1 on Solaris 11, writing to Data Domain 9800 7.7.4.0
duplicating via SLP to LTO5 & LTO8 in SL8500 via ACSLS

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10 REPLIES 10

RiaanBadenhorst
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Hi,

When dealing with tape, virtual or physical, NetBackup won't (physically) remove the backup image from the tape, it only removes (expires) the reference to that image in the catalog. The space that it occupied on the tape therefore becomes available again. 

Depending on your setup, and as image expire you might have a tapes that have some "blank" sports (expired images) on them while there are still other images on the tape that have not expired. In this case you'd be lucky and you can import the images from the tape since they would not have been overwritten. 

In other cases all the images might expire at the same time and the tape would become "available". In the media view from the GUI this would be when the tape has no "assigned time". If a tape is unassigned (or available) other backups will use it and the old images would overwritten. In this case the images you wanted to restore would be gone forever. A good indictor of this having happened would be when the "Assigned time" is after the date you're looking at. Meaning that the tape expired and was assigned again.

So you have the option to import all media that is still assigned, but with an assigned date that is ealier than the date that you want to restore.  If the images you're looking for match the first scenario I mentioned, you'll find them.

Cheers

Thank you very much, Riaan.

As I can see, there is a virtual tape's Time Assigned is May 4th, 2019 which is exactly I need, you can also see it from my screenshot 2.jpg, the topest line. The question will be what is the procedure to restore files from this virtual tape?

Thank you

Marianne
Moderator
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You will need to import expired images.

Phase 1 will recreate header info, phase 2 will recreate file-level info. 

Steps to Import Netbackup Images
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100017201.html

Thank you, I will give a try and let you know how it works.

Hi Marianne,

I tried the procedures from the link. 

It stucks after step 2 "2.  Enter the Media ID and Media Server in the Initialize Import box."

It shows below message for few hours already and still hanging there:

11:17:09 INF - Waiting for mount of media id 632XXX on server XXXXXXX for reading.

Shoule I just wait?

Regards

Marianne
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Are there drives available on server XXXXXXX that matches the  density of media id 632XXX?  

Genericus
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP   

Please note - if you are trying to use expired media, it is absolutly imperative you save the media - either move it to another pool or freeze it, if disk - you cannot run a clean against it - you have to prevent it from being overwritten.

Once images expire, they can get overwritten, for example, tapes are placed back in the scratch pool and reused. Once they are overwritten, you are out of luck.

 

 

NetBackup 9.1.0.1 on Solaris 11, writing to Data Domain 9800 7.7.4.0
duplicating via SLP to LTO5 & LTO8 in SL8500 via ACSLS

sclind
Moderator
Moderator
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I always write-protect the media - just in case

Hi Marianne,

Actually Netbackup 7.7.3 can't auto refresh, I have to manually refresh it. It is actually working like a charm.

Thank you so much to save my life:)

Regards

Thank you for the advice, will keep an eye on it.