Migrating Master from 5240 Appliance to RHEL

[Alexis_Jeldrez]

We're trying to migrate the Master Server from a 5240 Appliance with NetBackup 3.1.2, into a RHEL with NetBackup 8.1.2. Both servers have the same hostname.

We backup up the catalog into a tape and tried to recover it from the target tape. We skip the whole DR section that recreates certificates: we just want the catalog back. The process ends immediately after recovering /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images and ends with a generic error:

EXIT STATUS 1: the requested operation was partially successful.
ERR - Failed to execute command /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bprestore -w -T -X -C <Master-Hostname> -t 35 -p <Catalog-Policy> -e <Catalog-Backup-Date> -priority 90000 -L "<path>/<date>.log" / on host <Master-Hostname> (1)

I checked the Java Console and noticed only the Policies and the "SLP Windows" were restored. Everything else including the catalog (no old backups were registered) and the long list of tape (media) used was missing.

I noticed that the content of /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images was deleted during the next "Image Cleanup" job. It was never accesible through the Java Console "Catalog" interface, not before nor after rebooting the NetBackup services and PBX. I checked the logs in user_ops and bpdbm and couldn't find anything strange.

Are any aditional steps required to migrate from an Appliance? I could only find the thread about a 5220 that mentioned making symbolic links for the image database using the /cat filesystem:

https://vox.veritas.com/t5/NetBackup/Migrating-Catalog-off-Appliance-5220/m-p/666750

[quebek]

hello

Can you show what is inside this file 

-L "<path>/<date>.log"

It should have more meaning full information as from above it is not clear what went wrong.... Maybe not supported file system for /usr/openv|/cat related catalog files and it could not apply ACL's?? Just thinking out loud.

[sanket_pathak1]

This restore may not have any meaning to it because the source is Appliance and target is plain RHEL. I am sure you have MSDP or ADV configs created on Appliance which will eventually created after catalog recovery but for obivious reason they wont be available.

if you really need this to work. I think you should adapt a catalog manipulation approach with help of Veritas Professional Services. it would be a seamless migration of your data and catalog. 

Hope it helps. 

[Alexis_Jeldrez]

Thank you for your reply. Here's the Restore Log "jbpRestore-20230519113752.log", from /usr/openv/netbackup/logs/user_ops/root/logs. It's 37MB.

[Alexis_Jeldrez]

All the funcions of the Appliance were recreated from zero in another Appliance. Therefore the old one must be decommissioned, but we'll keep a "restore-only" backup in the form of this RHEL. All the complicated stuff like MSDP and SLP are dormant and have no data.The only thing of value in the old Appliance is its catalog which records the still valid backups in tape.

We have successfully done Catalog Recovery from different hardware before, so we were surprised to find no data for cases involving an Appliance as source. We found recommendations on using A.I.R. but I'm pretty sure that replicates backups on MSDP: our 65,000 backups are in 1,500 tapes so I don't think AIR is for us. We also saw some Migration Utilities but they seem to be about moving the data to an Appliance, not a RHEL.

If we cannot properly migrate the catalog, then our "Plan B" is to use an Excel sheet to check what tapes we need and import the backups we need to restore.

[StefanosM]

"Modern" netbackup appliances much more links than before. This is why the restore failed.
If you only need the catalog for indexing purposes, you can copy the data manually.

Copy the data from /usr/openv/db/staging and /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images to the Red Hat server.
and run the command.
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbdb_restore -dbn NBDB -recover -staging

I have not tested the procedure, but it should work. Maiby, you have to run some tests.
check
https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/15179611-127304775-0/v95649259-127304775

another option is to use cat_export and cat_import (recovery without import). This will export and import the catalog data stored to the emm. You have to copy the image files also.
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100016138
this procedure now is named "partial catalog recovery"