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NBU Scheduled Policy Problem

blurred365
Level 3

Hi,

New to NBU, and having a few small issues. One of which is quite annoying so was hoping someone may be able to tell what I'm doing wrong?

I'm running NBU 7.0.1 under Windows 2003 Standard 64Bit SP2, I have 1 Master and 3 Media servers (all running same OS and patch level).

The issue I'm having is when I create a policy and schedule it to run in say 30 Min, this is still post production before you ask why, the policy does not always run. It doesn't fail or error just sits.. If I run the job manually it works fine so I'm confident the Policy it's self is ok. If I've set the policy schedule to run every day at the same time it runs on the second and subsequent days ok.

It's almost seems that NBU only updates periodically as to when a schedule has been created or changed.

If anyone can help it would be most appreciated.

 

Regards 

14 REPLIES 14

SRP
Level 4

Hello

Is the job calendar or frequency based?  If frequency, then is the frequency of the policy set too high?  If you've got it to run every 1 day, then tomorrow's backup might not run if today's backup does not kick-off for 5 mins after the scheduled start.  If you want it to run every day, then set the frequency to to something less than 1 day - 7 hours.  Just make sure that the frequency is set higher than your backup window.

eg If you've got a backup window of 8 hours, set the frequency to 9 hours - this avoids the backup running more than once in a day.

 

Regards

blurred365
Level 3

Hi,

Thanks for the response. What I am trying to do is test certain policies and integrate them with Vault, to do this I am setting my Policy to back up a given set of files on a server and then to get Vault to copy this to tape to be taken off site.

My process is: Create a policy to back up a directory on server 'x', I then set the schedule on that policy to start in 30 min time with a Frequency of 1 week, that way I can simulate what will happen in the real environment, i.e. not doing a manual backup. The reference to the job running every day was just so you know it does run but not on the first day, i.e. in 30 min's, sorry if that has confused the issue. In these tests I'm basically just trying to get NBU to start a backup in 30 Min time.

I would then schedule the Vault job to run in say 60 Min time but obviously if the backup doesn't start the vault has nothing to do.

Regards

RiaanBadenhorst
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Hi,

 

You're correct, it only updates periodically, but it should update every 10 minutes. Take a look at this note

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH43169

 

Have a look at the nbpem logs using vxlogview. Might give you a clue as to why its not starting.

 

These policies you're creating, are the permanent or just once off?

 

Can you post the bpplist "policy name" -U and explain when you actually want it to run in terms of start day, start time, and frequency.

blurred365
Level 3

Hi,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I've looked through the link provided, it's strange but am I the only one running NBU on windows, it's not a criticism, but everyone seems to presume that it's running on Unix!

 

I've run bppllist <policy> -U , I've changed a few things so start time is not as discussed earlier, now set to run at 21:00.

 

C:\>bppllist vmware_virtual03 -U

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Policy Name:       vmware_virtual03

 

  Policy Type:         FlashBackup-Windows

  Active:              yes

  Effective date:      12/15/2010 13:29:46

  File Restore Raw:    yes

  Mult. Data Streams:  no

  Client Encrypt:      no

  Checkpoint:          no

  Policy Priority:     0

  Max Jobs/Policy:     2

  Disaster Recovery:   0

  Collect BMR info:    no

  Residence:           Storage_Unit_NB01_Disk_02

  Volume Pool:         NetBackup

  Server Group:        *ANY*

  Keyword:             (none specified)

  Data Classification:       -

  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:    no

 

Granular Restore Info:  no

Ignore Client Direct:  no

  HW/OS/Client:  vmx-04        winNetStandar Space%20Observer

                 vmx-04        winNetStandar ras01

 

  Include:  ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES

 

  Schedule:          Full

    Type:            Full Backup

    Frequency:       every 7 days

    Maximum MPX:     1

    Synthetic:       0

    PFI Recovery:    0

    Retention Level: 0 (1 week)

    Number Copies:   1

    Fail on Error:   0

    Residence:       (specific storage unit not required)

    Volume Pool:     (same as policy volume pool)

    Server Group:    (same as specified for policy)

    Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:     0

    Daily Windows:

          Sunday     21:00:00  -->  Sunday     23:10:00

 

The policy I am trying to run are not permanent, they are just to check they do what I expect when I expect it to. I've had no training on NBU at all so am trying to get to grip with a very complex product in what is a relatively large environment, estimate that I will be backing up some 17Tb a night.....

 

What I am trying to do is test different policies and incorporate them with vault. I'm setting them to run shortly after creating the policy just to prove what I have done works, hence setting the schedule 30 min into the future.

 

I have run 'nbpemreq -predict_all -date 02/27/2011' this has given me the answer to why the policy has not run according to the schedule, copy below;

 

Predicted worklist including all jobs due to run between now and 27/02/2011 23:59:59

rl client               policy               schedule             type       due time

-- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------- ------------------

00 nb_master            Vault_Test_Policy_TLD0_1 Full                 0          Sun Feb 13 15:0

0:00 2011

00 ras01                VMware_virtual03     Full                 0          Sun Feb 13 21:00:00

 2011

00 Space%20Observer     VMware_virtual03     Full                 0          Sun Feb 13 21:00:00

 2011

 

As you can see from above the job is scheduled but for Sunday Next week, that's the bit the eludes me at the moment. If I create a policy today Sunday 6th Feb at 20:00 and schedule that policy to run at 21:00 why does NBU assume that its next week?? If it's a time in the future even on the same day, it should run it today at 21:00 not next week!

 

Regards

Marianne
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You have kicked off a manual backup today, right?
Your backup schedule is set for every 7 days.  That means another automatic backup is due once 7 days have passed since the previous successful backup (today...).

blurred365
Level 3

No, this is a long running issue not just a one off. I've run jobs manually that I've had this issue with just to prove they do run. However in this case no, not yet anyway.

I see your logic however and yes that would have explained it.

RiaanBadenhorst
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Hi,

 

It seems you're using an old policy and you're making changes to it.

Effective date:      12/15/2010 13:29:46

That is usually when the policy was created unless you manually set it to that date.

 

I'd suggest creating a new policy with the same specifications, setting it to run 30 mins in the future and see what happens.

Marianne
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I have just done a test on our 7.0.1 lab master:

At 07:20, I modified an old test policy to start @ 07:50. Settings are similar: Frequency set to 1 week. I know for a fact that this policy hasn't run in the last week.

After clicking OK, I waited a minute or so an ran nbpemreq -predict_all...  As expected, my test policy didn't show up.

Next, ran  nbpemreq -updatepolicies, followed by:
 nbpemreq -predict_all -date 02/07/2011 10:00:00

Still nothing (just Catalog backup).

Ran another nbpemreq -updatepolicies, followed by:
 nbpemreq -predict_all -date 02/07/2011 10:00:00

This time it showed up:

Predicted worklist including all jobs due to run between now and Mon Feb 07 10:00:00 2011
rl client               policy               schedule             type       due time
-- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------- ------------------
00 v240-2               test1                test                 0          Mon Feb  7 07:50:00 2011
00 sdb-nbu-mas          test1                test                 0          Mon Feb  7 07:50:00 2011
00 v240-1               test1                test                 0          Mon Feb  7 07:50:00 2011
00 nbuclus              Hot_Catalog          Hot_Catalog          0          Mon Feb  7 10:00:00 2011
root@v240-2 #

I will let you know within 30 minutes if my policy actually started. I expect it to start within 10 minutes of 07:50.

Amit_Karia
Level 6

I've faced similar problems in the past , where policy update interval was set too low or too high .. by default it is 20mins.. You should change it According to number of policies and the changes being made in policy database..

to check current policy update interval go to host properties->master server->global attributes->policy update interval

Another good practise is to run nbpemreq -updatepolicies every time new policy is created , for this instance

1)create a similar policy with similar schedule

2) run nbpemreq -updatepolices command to ensure pem is aware about new policy

3) Check output of nbpemreq -predict_date and see if new policy is reflected in nbpem

Marianne
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My test policy kicked off as expected:

root@v240-2 # bpimagelist -hoursago 1 -U

Backed Up         Expires       Files       KB  C  Sched Type   Policy
----------------  ---------- -------- --------  -  ------------ ------------
02/07/2011 07:50  02/14/2011     3058    64000  N  Full Backup  test1
02/07/2011 07:50  02/14/2011     3805   103968  N  Full Backup  test1
02/07/2011 07:50  02/14/2011     3734   125632  N  Full Backup  test1

blurred365
Level 3

Many thanks to all,

 

I don’t think this was a fault as such more my lack of knowledge of how NBU schedules policies. Thanks to you all, I now have a much better understanding of this process.

I have repeated my test this morning using a new policy and ‘nbpemreq’ to see that the policy will run when required, and yes it did.

 

I have voted for all, as all have helped but not marked as a solution as it was a group effort from my point of view. Please let me know if this is the wrong protocol and I will change.

 

Again Many Thanks..

Marianne
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There used to be an excellent flow-diagram in NBU 5.1 Admin Guide II (and older NBU versions) that made me understand how the scheduler works. For some or reason a short, watered-down version was included in 6.5 manual and totally dropped from 7.0 manuals.

The 'magic' test that is done when backup is due:

Has enough time elapsed since the
last successful full backup for this
client (check frequency)?

Look for this topic in Admin Guide II:

How NetBackup Builds Its Automatic Backup Worklist

Building the Worklist (Queue)
When the backup window opens for an automatic backup schedule, NetBackup proceeds to determine whether or not to add the client backups for that schedule to the worklist (queue). The following figure shows this process:

blurred365
Level 3

Thanks for the info I’ll certainly search it out and have a read through.

 How are you on Vault? It was actually Vault I was trying to test when I ran into the problems we have been discussing. I’ll explain the problem and leave it up to you if feel you are able to assist.

 As I mentioned I have run a policy to back some data to disk (advanced), this has worked and was successful. The vault job starts at its appointed time and copies the data to tape from the disk. This works fine, the bit I just can’t get to work is the ‘Eject’. I just cannot get the system to eject the media to go off site and mail me.

 I have a ‘Volume Pool’ called Off_Site_Volume_Pool all the media for this job is in this pool, and when the job runs it uses the media from this pool. When I run ‘available_media’ from the command prompt it tells me that the media used is active, I would have thought that this should have been suspended, or ejected!

 In the Vault profile I have "suspend the session’s media" set to "time of eject" and "eject mode" set to "immediate".

 I’ve included the job log for ref but I don’t see anything that’s in error.

07/02/2011 10:00:00 - requesting resource nb_master.NBVAULT.MAXJOBS
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - requesting resource nb_master.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.Vault_Test_Policy_TLD0_1
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - granted resource nb_master.NBVAULT.MAXJOBS
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - granted resource nb_master.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.Vault_Test_Policy_TLD0_1
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - estimated 0 Kbytes needed
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - begin Parent Job
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - begin Vault, Start Notify Script
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - started process RUNCMD (5684)
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - ended process 0 (5684) Status 0
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - end Vault, Start Notify Script; elapsed time: 00:00:00
07/02/2011 10:00:00 - begin Vault, Execute Script
07/02/2011 10:00:01 - vault waiting for session ID lock
07/02/2011 10:00:01 - started process bpbrm (7056)
07/02/2011 10:00:01 - requesting resource nb_master.VAULT_CREATE_SESSION_ID.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_VAULT_01
07/02/2011 10:00:01 - granted resource nb_master.VAULT_CREATE_SESSION_ID.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_VAULT_01
07/02/2011 10:00:02 - vault session ID lock acquired
07/02/2011 10:00:02 - vault session ID lock released
07/02/2011 10:00:04 - vault waiting for duplication lock
07/02/2011 10:00:04 - requesting resource nb_master.VAULT_DUPLICATION.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:00:04 - granted resource nb_master.VAULT_DUPLICATION.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:00:05 - vault duplication lock acquired
07/02/2011 10:00:05 - begin Duplicating
07/02/2011 10:00:05 - starting duplication batch 1 of 1 for 2 images
07/02/2011 10:00:10 - duplication batch 1 started. Job ID: 2366
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - duplication batch 1 of 1 completed. 2 of 2 images duplicated
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - end Duplicating; elapsed time: 00:03:55
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - vault duplication lock released
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - vault waiting for assign slot lock
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - vault assign slot lock acquired
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - vault assign slot lock released
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - catalog backup skipped
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - vault waiting for assign slot lock
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - requesting resource nb_master.VAULT_ASSIGN_SLOT.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - granted resource nb_master.VAULT_ASSIGN_SLOT.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - requesting resource nb_master.VAULT_ASSIGN_SLOT.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:04:00 - granted resource nb_master.VAULT_ASSIGN_SLOT.LOCK_TLD(0)_TLD0_Vault_01
07/02/2011 10:04:01 - vault assign slot lock acquired
07/02/2011 10:04:01 - vault assign slot lock released
07/02/2011 10:04:01 - before eject, waiting for media to be unmounted; sleeping for 360 seconds
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - starting eject operation
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - begin Eject/Report
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - connecting
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - connected; connect time: 00:00:00
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - vault waiting for eject lock
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - requesting resource nb_master.VAULT_EJECT.LOCK_0
07/02/2011 10:10:01 - granted resource nb_master.VAULT_EJECT.LOCK_0
07/02/2011 10:10:02 - vault eject lock acquired
07/02/2011 10:10:02 - vault eject lock released
07/02/2011 10:10:05 - vault global lock released
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - end writing Status 0
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - end Eject/Report; elapsed time: 00:00:08
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - begin Vault, Validate Image Status 0
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - end Vault, Validate Image; elapsed time: 00:00:00
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - begin Vault, End Notify Script
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - started process RUNCMD (6100)
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - ended process 0 (6100) Status 0
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - end Vault, End Notify Script; elapsed time: 00:00:00 Status 0
07/02/2011 10:10:09 - end Vault, Execute Script; elapsed time: 00:10:09
the requested operation was successfully completed(0) 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Regards

RiaanBadenhorst
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Check the detail logs under the session id of the vault operation (INSTALL_PATH\NetBackup\Vault\)