Netbackup Tape Drive

[ITBOY]

Hi,
      Could you please help to find out for me if it is possible for Netbackup
and Tape Library:

          If Master server manages 4 tape drive from the Tape Library, can
we set it in such a way that 2 tape drives will be used for
backups run using Netbackup while another 2 tape drives are used
for the tar command triggered from OS level? Can you also check
if to trigger tar command from OS level, can I use any user
account, besides Administrator & root account to handle it?

[Claudio_Veronez]

I think U can set the storage units groups,


put 2 drives only, and use it for all policies.


For example:

here we have 6 drives, 2 of them R reserved for Archieve/logs 

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

The problem is not with tape drives - how will you manage and separate media?
You can separate the drives by adding only two tape devices in NetBackup.
You can have different pools in NetBackup and add O/S media to pool DONOTUSE.
O/S backup will not be able to send mount request to tape library.

I can just imagine if someone accidentally mounts a NetBackup tape in an O/S drive to be overwritten by tar....

tar can be used as any userid, but needs read access to all files/folders that need to be backed up. Write access is needed for restores.

[rjrumfelt]

if you set your storage unit to only use 2 drives, then NetBackup will only ever use those 2 drives, leaving free the other 2 to use for your OS directed tar backups.

As for your user question, I'm not sure if tar and all of the associated commands to write to tape from the OS are open to all users, but you could certainly set up a sudoers file to control access to those commands for different users

[J_H_Is_gone]

This is based on what I know of MY LIBRARY.

I create a virtual library called library_a I only put 2 tape drives in it.
this library_a is added to netbackup
First only add 2 tape drives to netbackup.  When adding tape drives to NB you tell it what library drive number it is.  So drive 1 and drive 2 get added to netbackup.
So now NB only knows of 2 drives.

When I put tapes in the MAP (media access port) I tell it the tape belong to library_a.
So when I do an inventory from NB it sees the tapes in the MAP because they are assigning to the NB library and they get moved and the NB database is updated with the location.

Now my library has web access.

I add tapes to the MAP and I say they belong to the system - library (MEANING I HAVE NO WAY TO TRACK THEIR USAGE)
Now I use the web interface to move a tape from storage slot 112 to drive 3.
I do my tar stuff from my os.
when done I eject the tape from the drive and move it to the MAP and I take it out of the library and some way tag it so I know what it is)


This is just a theory - not tested - just what come to my mind when I read what you wanted.
Maybe someone else can improve on the thought.

[ITBOY]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. Now  I'd like to know the tape status. When I use the "tar" command to backup the 900GB of data , Is the Redhat OS or "tar" command able to generate the error message that the tape is full ( LTO 4 native capacity is only 800 GB )? Pls take note that I haven't deployed the tape drive to test backup using the "tar" command.
Pls.advise.

[ayodeji]

i am aware that tape library drives can be zoned at the drive level then you can then zone one of them to either NBU or OS.

[Deepak_W]

This section is from NBU admin guide page number - 231, hope this helps you to use only 2 drives out of 4.

Maximum concurrent write drives

The Maximum concurrent write drives setting specifies the number of tape drives that NetBackup can use at one time for jobs to this storage unit. The number of tape drives available is limited to the maximum number of tape drives in the storage device. If a job contains multiple copies, each copy applies toward the Maximum concurrent write drives count.

Select one number for a:
 

■ storage unit that contains only stand-alone tape drives. Specify a number that is less than or equal to the number of tape drives that are in the storage unit.

■ robot. Specify a number that is less than or equal to the number of tape

drives that attach to the NetBackup media server for the storage unit. Assume you have two stand-alone drives of the same density and specify 1. Both tape drives are available to NetBackup but only one drive can be used for backups. The other tape drive is available for restores and other non-backup operations. (For example, to import, to verify, and to duplicate backups.)

Caution: To specify a Maximum concurrent write drives setting of 0 disables the storage unit.

[J_H_Is_gone]

In this example, all 4 tape drives are known to NB, and if you are busy doing things with the tape drives that NB does not know about ( like tar from os command) then you are going to be have conflicts with NB trying to use a tape drive that it does not know is in use.

Best to NOT have NB know about the drives and NB not know about the tapes.