Netbackup 7.0.1 How long images are staying on Disk vs. Tape

[curcloin]

We have added a lot of new machines recently and I was wondering how to view the actual retention of images on disk prior to moving to tape.  Our retention in the policy is set to 2 weeks, does this mean 2 weeks between disk and tape or just disk.  I the event of recovery I want to ensure we have recent information on disk for at least 3 days.

Thanks,

Mike

[mph999]

... by example

bpimagelist -L -backupid womble_1409825488

Under Copy section ...

Copy number:       1
 Fragment:         1
 Kilobytes:        3136
 Remainder:        0
 Media Type:       Disk (0)
 Density:          qscsi (0)
 File Num:         0
 ID:               @aaaal
 Host:             womble
 Block Size:       262144
 Offset:           0
 Media Date:       Thu Jan 01 01:00:00 1970 (0)
 Dev Written On:   -1
 Flags:            0x0
 Media Descriptor:        1;AdvancedDisk;womble;adv_sp2;/sp2;0
 Expiration Time:  Thu Sep 11 11:11:28 2014 (1410430288)
 MPX:              0
 retention_lvl:    1 week (0)
 Try to Keep Time:  Thu Jan 01 01:00:00 1970 (0)
 Copy Creation Time:  Thu Sep 04 11:11:41 2014 (1409825501)
 Data Format:      Tar
 checkpoint:       0
 resume num:       0
 Key tag:          *NULL*
 STL tag:          *NULL*
 Copy on hold:     0

[RamNagalla · Accepted solution]

how long images stay on disk is depends on how Duplications from Disk to tape configured.

if you have configured the duplications with Disk staging storage unit , the image stay 2 week all togehter, how long on disk is depends on the how frequent disk reaches the high water mark.

if you having configured though Vault, that is depends on what are the retenction , that you selected in valut config,and the values set for expire disk copy after duplications.

if duplicaiton is though SLP, depends on the SLP parameters that is selcted.., you can view them by opening the SLP

So now, how your duplications are configured to move to tape?

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

Based on your other thread you are using basic disk staging so your images will stay on disk for up to 2 weeks as long as they have been duplicated to tape.

If the disk fills up (hits its high water mark) then the oldest images that have been duplicated to tape will get removed to free up sapce for more backups.

If the images have not been duplicated to tape they will remain on disk until they have been .. however long that may be, even if it is more than 2 weeks .. that can cause your disk to fill up and further backups to fail.

Hope that explains things OK?

[curcloin]

Mark,

I think you explained the issue exactly.  We have set High and low water marks with a 2 week retention.  The disks seem to always be full and our tape drive isn't able to keep up with the duplications.  This has caused duplications and backups to fail.  What is the best way to treat this, do we just have to much information being backed up?

I have stopped my backup policies for past two days and both days I have over 50 duplications started, should I just let it run its course and catch up with the disk to tape drive?

Thanks,

Mike

[Marianne]

It seems you need more tape drives.

By the sounds of it, you have only 1 tape drive?

If you tell us amount of data backed up on a daily basis, and the current type of tape drive in use, we should be able to tell you the amount of tape drives needed.

Important that your staging schedule checks for duplication often enough - for example every hour from the time that the backup window closes throughout the day.

Some reading matter:

Disk Staging Relocation Behavior: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH44719

Disk Staging Cleanup Behavior: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH66149