Netbackup 5.0 - probably simple but I am struggling

[Jayson_kramer]

I inherited a Netbackup Server with an Out of Warranty Exabyte x80 drive. It holds 40 tapes. Currently most of my backups fail because it cant find media. However, I run the available_media.cmd and i show plenty of media available for that Volume Pool "SFOFull". At least 2 should should still be in the drive and available for this Volume pool .

I would like to put new tapes into the x80. What do I need to do to replace Tapes 000171 through 000190 (in the tape device) with new tapes, of course that belong to the SFOFull Volume pool (i.e. 000010 through 000030)

I am also not understaning when a tape say's FROZEN/MPX or FULL/MPX. What is MPX?


media media robot robot robot side/ ret size status
ID type type # slot face level KBytes
----------------------------------------------------------------------


SFOFull pool

000174 8MM TLD 0 6 - 1 43233792 ACTIVE
000001 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000002 8MM TLD 0 2 - - - AVAILABLE
000003 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000008 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000010 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000014 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000017 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000018 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000022 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000024 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000025 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000026 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000027 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000029 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000030 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000031 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000032 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000033 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000034 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000035 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000042 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000043 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000044 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000046 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000047 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000049 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000050 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000051 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000052 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000053 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000054 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000055 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000056 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000057 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000058 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000059 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000060 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000061 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000062 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000063 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000064 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000065 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000066 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000068 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000069 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000070 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000071 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000072 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000074 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000075 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000096 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000097 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000098 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000099 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000100 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000101 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000102 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000103 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000104 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000105 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000106 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000107 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000108 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000109 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000110 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000111 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000112 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000113 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000114 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000115 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000116 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000117 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000118 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000119 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000120 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000121 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000122 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000123 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000124 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000132 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000138 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000146 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000192 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000193 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000194 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000195 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000196 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000197 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000198 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000200 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000201 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000202 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000203 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000204 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000205 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000206 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000207 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000208 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000209 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000210 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000211 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000212 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000213 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000214 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000215 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000216 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000217 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000218 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000219 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000220 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000221 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000222 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000223 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000224 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000225 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000227 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000228 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000229 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000230 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000231 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000232 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000233 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000234 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000235 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000236 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000237 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000238 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000239 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000240 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
000241 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
A00000 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
A00001 8MM NONE - - - - - AVAILABLE
A00003 8MM TLD 0 1 - - - AVAILABLE
000007 8MM NONE - - - 8 0 FROZEN
000011 8MM NONE - - - 8 0 FROZEN
000015 8MM NONE - - - 8 0 FROZEN
000048 8MM NONE - - - 8 0 FROZEN
000125 8MM NONE - - - 8 0 FROZEN
000226 8MM NONE - - - 8 27177984 FROZEN
000176 8MM TLD 0 8 - 5 2320512 FROZEN/MPX
000191 8MM TLD 0 23 - 8 23315219 FROZEN/MPX
000199 8MM NONE - - - 8 635609 FROZEN/MPX
000128 8MM NONE - - - 8 36606021 FULL
000130 8MM NONE - - - 8 36377600 FULL
000131 8MM NONE - - - 8 36241215 FULL
000134 8MM NONE - - - 8 37165761 FULL
000004 8MM NONE - - - 8 55626581 FULL/MPX
000005 8MM NONE - - - 8 55046976 FULL/MPX
000006 8MM NONE - - - 8 54498890 FULL/MPX
000009 8MM NONE - - - 8 54973120 FULL/MPX
000012 8MM NONE - - - 8 54864006 FULL/MPX
000013 8MM NONE - - - 8 55591616 FULL/MPX
000016 8MM NONE - - - 8 59029369 FULL/MPX
000019 8MM NONE - - - 8 59369000 FULL/MPX
000021 8MM NONE - - - 8 57909719 FULL/MPX
000023 8MM NONE - - - 8 54903172 FULL/MPX
000037 8MM NONE - - - 8 55128512 FULL/MPX
000040 8MM NONE - - - 8 56828486 FULL/MPX
000041 8MM NONE - - - 8 55963252 FULL/MPX
000076 8MM NONE - - - 8 55424113 FULL/MPX
000077 8MM NONE - - - 8 54928512 FULL/MPX
000078 8MM NONE - - - 8 55012672 FULL/MPX
000079 8MM NONE - - - 8 55429679 FULL/MPX
000080 8MM NONE - - - 8 56661127 FULL/MPX
000081 8MM NONE - - - 8 59384051 FULL/MPX
000082 8MM NONE - - - 8 57904688 FULL/MPX
000083 8MM NONE - - - 8 55547648 FULL/MPX
000084 8MM NONE - - - 8 55365504 FULL/MPX
000085 8MM NONE - - - 8 55967814 FULL/MPX
000086 8MM NONE - - - 8 59836160 FULL/MPX
000087 8MM NONE - - - 8 55687296 FULL/MPX
000088 8MM NONE - - - 8 57871370 FULL/MPX
000089 8MM NONE - - - 8 57725504 FULL/MPX
000092 8MM NONE - - - 8 57796137 FULL/MPX
000093 8MM NONE - - - 8 58243537 FULL/MPX
000094 8MM NONE - - - 8 55407840 FULL/MPX
000095 8MM NONE - - - 8 59708423 FULL/MPX
000126 8MM NONE - - - 8 36645449 FULL/MPX
000127 8MM NONE - - - 8 36515392 FULL/MPX
000129 8MM NONE - - - 8 37331128 FULL/MPX
000133 8MM NONE - - - 8 36813578 FULL/MPX
000135 8MM NONE - - - 8 36442836 FULL/MPX
000136 8MM NONE - - - 8 37094812 FULL/MPX
000137 8MM NONE - - - 8 36878336 FULL/MPX
000139 8MM NONE - - - 8 37574976 FULL/MPX
000140 8MM NONE - - - 8 37162304 FULL/MPX
000141 8MM NONE - - - 8 37047488 FULL/MPX
000142 8MM NONE - - - 8 39720512 FULL/MPX
000143 8MM NONE - - - 8 37072030 FULL/MPX
000165 8MM NONE - - - 8 59583552 FULL/MPX
000166 8MM NONE - - - 8 55050176 FULL/MPX
000167 8MM NONE - - - 8 55701696 FULL/MPX
000169 8MM NONE - - - 8 54782149 FULL/MPX
000170 8MM NONE - - - 5 63948283 FULL/MPX
000171 8MM TLD 0 3 - 5 63758828 FULL/MPX
000172 8MM TLD 0 4 - 8 55200836 FULL/MPX
000173 8MM TLD 0 5 - 8 55719827 FULL/MPX
000175 8MM TLD 0 7 - 8 55030592 FULL/MPX
000177 8MM TLD 0 9 - 8 55965376 FULL/MPX
000178 8MM TLD 0 10 - 8 55801984 FULL/MPX
000179 8MM TLD 0 11 - 8 59050610 FULL/MPX
000181 8MM TLD 0 13 - 8 55014784 FULL/MPX
000182 8MM TLD 0 14 - 8 55361522 FULL/MPX
000183 8MM TLD 0 15 - 8 56278100 FULL/MPX
000184 8MM TLD 0 16 - 8 59985214 FULL/MPX
000185 8MM TLD 0 17 - 8 55463879 FULL/MPX
000187 8MM TLD 0 19 - 8 68609112 FULL/MPX
000188 8MM TLD 0 21 - 8 68977889 FULL/MPX
000190 8MM TLD 0 22 - 8 55155845 FULL/MPX
000020 8MM NONE - - - 8 54045844 MPX
000028 8MM NONE - - - 8 54196529 MPX
000090 8MM NONE - - - 8 54401046 MPX
000091 8MM NONE - - - 8 33953869 MPX
000168 8MM NONE - - - 8 36091007 MPX
000180 8MM TLD 0 12 - 5 11706056 MPX
000189 8MM TLD 0 20 - 8 36028012 MPX

[Stumpr2]

>i show plenty of media available for that Volume Pool "SFOFull".
NetBackup also splits up volume pool use by retention. In other words it is possible that the retention of the images on a tape is 3 months and if you want to create a backup with a retention of 1 year, then it can not use the tape that has backup images that have only the 3 month retention. You cannot mix retentions on a tape in the default setup of NetBackup.

>What do I need to do to replace Tapes
simply remove the old tapes and insert the new tapes and then run an inventory. The old tapes will be moved to a new volume group and the new tapes can be added to the library's volume group.

>What is MPX?
MPX=multiplexing. It is important to know that the tape potentially contains only segments of a backup image and that other tapes may be needed to complete a restore.

A frozen tape cannot be written to until it is manually unfrozen.
A full tape cannot be written to until ALL images on it expire.Message was edited by:
Bob Stump

[Dennis_Strom]

FROZEN media will not be used and the images will not expire until the media is UNFROZEN. It can be unfrozen with the bpmedia -unfreeze -m mediaid command. However I for the most part have quit unfreezing media. When I took over my current enviroment it was a mess a failures were a daily occurance. I quit unfreezing media and started to retire it. It took a while but I seemed to cycle through a bunch of tapes. Now I rarely get frozen media. It can be caused by bad medai, bad drives, or even dirty drives. Take your frozen media out put in new media and sync up your library. Use the GUI. try a test backup with new media.

[Jayson_kramer]

Thankyou gentleman for your reply.


I tested pulling out a tape yesterday (slot 2) and replacing it with another tape that was 000002 that belonged to the SFOFull Volume pool. When I ran an Inventory, it found the tape, but relabled it A00003 and placed it in the Netbackup Volume pool. ???

Another thing I have been seeing is that when running a backup, a tape will load in the drive and show in Netbackup up as writing, but the completed percentage never moves. When looking at the x80, it has the tape and is at a Ready state.

[Stumpr2]

> and the images will not expire until the media is UNFROZEN.

Not entirely true. The images will still expire in the Netbackup database as normal. However, since the tape will not be written to, it is possible to bpimport the expired images back into the NetBackup database.

If you want to make sure the images do not expire then you will need to do a bpexpdate -recalculate....

[Jayson_kramer]

So, I was thinking. Since I inherited this netbackup duty. Keep in mind It has not worked right since the last guy was let go. December. The only backup that is successful is the Exchange server.

I was contemplating starting over. It was setup years ago when that location had a majority of the servers. Most of the Volume pools and Backup Jobs are obsolete and inactive. However, it seems to me that there would be alot of work to completely wipe all the tapes and Database. What are your thoughts? At this point I can't even get a good backup of any server except Exchange.

I also have a 7 tape drive here in my location. I completley started over last month. I am just now starting to get some good backups....

[Stumpr2]

First discuss the risk with the data owner or else it may be you that is next reffered to as "the last guy was let go."

If they buy into it then simply set the tapes that contain good backups for the exchange server on a sturdy shelf. You can always run bpimport on them if you need to restore a mailbox from the current system.

Next simply uninstall Netbackup and reinstall it as you desire it to be from the ground up. Think of it as an adventure. It'll be fun!

[Jayson_kramer]

So I am prepared to Tell the business that we do not have any good backups in that location. We do have Shadow Copies working. which should help with all but complete failure. With that said, So what do I do with/to the tapes that I want to reuse. We have about 300. When reinstalling Netbackup, I am assuming it will create a new Database. But when I Inventory the tapes, won't it see that each of them belong to a Volume Group / Volume Pool in another database. I truley wish there was a way to just run a magnet over each of them and start from scratch.

[Stumpr2]

>But when I Inventory the tapes, won't it see that each of them belong ....

How could it? The new installation knows nothing about the tapes. However, I would run bplabel on each tape before using it. You could create a pool called cess_pool and place all of the tapes in that pool. Then, at your leisure you could place the tapes into your scratch pool and run bplabel.

[Jayson_kramer]

Bob, Thank you soooooo much for all of your replies. As you can probably tell this is has been a complete and udderly messy learning experience. You have replied alot so I am going to make this my last question then I will close this so you get credit. I want to make this fair for you.

Do you know of any Great documents on how to setup a new NetBackup Environment? The Admin Guide is a gazillion pages and seems a little over my head right now. When I used Backup Exec 10 it was very helpful with explaining everything. Unfortunately, I feel as though I need a 3 day course on setting up a good Backup Solution with Net Backup.

Again, thank you for all of your help :?)

*I will close this after your reply

[Stumpr2]

NetBackup versions 5 and 6 have an install wizard that can be trusted. I suggest using it in order to minimize the amount of time to start getting backups. You will learn enough by troubleshooting failures. If you have Netbackup 4 or earlier then your simply gonna have to do it by the book. There is a wizard in NB 4 but I don't trust it. I know of no good primers for NetBackup. But this forum is usually very helpful to grateful posters.

[Dennis_Strom]

By default netbackup will put all tapes (volumes) into the Netbackup pool. If you want your tapes to be put into a specific pool then you have to setup barcode rules. Keep the number of volume pools to a minimum. Also I use a generic tape (G00000) the letter usually corolates to the library name. I then setup a scratch pool. Then setup a barcode rule so that all tapes are put into the scratch pool. Netbackup will take them out of the scratch pool and assign them to the pool that needs a tape ( full, inc, archive). If they do not start out in the scratch pool then you will have to put them back them back into the scratch pool manually when the images expire.

If you start from scratch.. This is tempting but I did not. Take the known good tapes that you have import them to a disk location then copy that data to a new tape. That way you get to keep you old data. I am in the process of doing that to 5 years worth of data.

[Chia_Tan_Beng]

> I truley wish there was a way to just run a magnet over
> each of them and start from scratch.

Hi Jayson,

I understand how you feel as I was put into similar situation a few years ago on Legato Networker. A mess which everyone avoids and became a hornet nest.

Letting the business know is what you should do but be prepared. Take stocks of what is recoverable (e.g. restorable images, retention, media, etc) and assess the damage (e.g. non-functional backups, failed jobs per day, percentages, non-retrievable images, media, etc) and implications (e.g. backup reliability, etc). But this is only the initial part, next would be proposing your resolution.

Think twice for setting up from scratch (on existing hardware), unless you're setting up on a new backup domain or you understand netbackup well enough to retrieve the good backup images (i.e. import, etc) in expected time frame and meanwhile ensuring the successful backup continue. Or else, you'll be taking the full responsibility on losing those good backup and images.

A lesser risk approach which you may consider is to setup a new set of storage unit, volume pool, backup policies on the existing setup and acquire certain number of new media to eliminate potential media issue (I would not reuse those frozen media).

There're 101 things to mention but basically, do not loose sight of taking account of present situation and risk involve before jumping into action. Develop an action plan as well as contingencies and get backing/approval before executing.

Wish you good luck.

[Stumpr2]

Thank you for the points.

Here is a good resource for planning any Netbackup environment, not just 6.0

VERITAS NetBackup (tm) Enterprise Server / Server 6.0 Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide for UNIX, Windows, and Linux

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/281842.htm