Netbackup Tape Volume Management

[keeyw5]

Hi all,

I know there are a lot of ppl have asked the same question before but after reading most of the post in this forum I still can't decide which is best for my environment.

We are new to Netbackup, just start the implementation about 1 month. (in fact still in testing phase). Previously we are using Backup Exec, our approach for tape management was very simple. Backup Operator will load the tape to different Backup Exec Server and initial the tape, after backup complete, eject the tape send it to offsite and load the the new tape. We recycle the tape in 2 week retention.

Can I use the same tape management approach in Netbackup and how? will the netbackup able to detect my tape when I reload it after 2 week without inventory again? ( we are using robot). Or should I consider the implementing Vault.

Thank you for your patient and any help will be appreciated as I completely lost my way now.

[Mouse]

The NetBackup Vault option is really what you must have been looking for. Once you decide on rotation strategy, Vault will send picking list for robot to your operations as well as tapes that have to be ejected and sent offsite. It also integrates with shippers like IronMountain and update them that tapes are available for pick up.

Once tape expire, NetBackup returns tape to the original pool (if Scratch pool is not set) or to the Scratch pool.

[Mark_Solutions]

The vault option is quite expensive but if you can afford it then it is handy to have.

To answer your question ... NetBackup uses barcodes to set its media IDs so make sure you library has a barcode reader and that you set up the media ID generation rules so that the media id is set correctly.

Once you have used a tape it is known to NetBackup so will be recognised next time it is loaded and you run an inventory

NetBackup uses retention periods so just set these up so that the backups have expired before they are reloaded into the library - they will then get overwritten.

An easy way to manage things is to ensure you have the "Time Assigned" column shoing on your library and Media Section.

When you want to know which tape to remove from the library after a nights backups just go to the robot section and look for ones with a time assigned - they have been used and can be removed

When deciding which tapes can be loaded just go to the Media or Volume pool section and look for ones that do not have a time assigned and are not shown as having a slot number. These have expired and are not the the library and can safely be put back in

Hope this helps

[J_H_Is_gone]

I don't use vault either.

In the morning I check the backups finished ok - rerun any that failed (if I can)

Look in the GUI media and look sort by (hit time assigned once, a hit robot control twice) get all the tapes in the lib at the top, with the once with an assigned date at the very top - these are the tapes used last night.

highlight and eject them,

send them off site with a return date of 2 weeks

when they come back put them in the day after 2 weeks ( if they backed up on a Monday night they will not expire until Monday night - so they would not really be expired until Tuesday -) so have them come back on a Monday, and put them in on a Tuesday- come back on a Tuesday and put in on Wednesday......

real simple

do your media id generation rules and put the tapes into one volume pool (your catalog tapes in a differnt pool) and set your policy to use that pool

remember to set up the backup of the catalog each morning to be done after backups are done, and take it out and send it offsite too.

[watsons]

I don't know much about BackupExec, but from what I heard from others, in terms of media management, the main difference seems to be the concept of media management. 

In BackupExec you basically assign tapes to your backups to run. In Netbackup, we assign tapes to something called volume pool, and when we run a backup we don't really care what tapes Netbackup is using - it just picks up tapes from the volume pool.

What I meant to say, by design there are some significant changes on how media is associated with storage unit, volume group, volume pool etc. - all these could be new from a BackupExec perspective. This is something that needs further understanding to ensure you don't feel "confused" by Netbackup along the way.

The high-level process will be pretty much similar, you backup jobs, compile the list of tapes you want to send offsite, eject them and physically move them out. After retention period passes, these tapes come back - and yes, Netbackup will see them again and will reuse them. Vault is an additional option which is good if you have it, but you can still manage on your own without it.

[keeyw5]

Thanks Mouse and Mark, agree with both of your answer on Vault. But I think I will use J.Hin method as now. Because eventually this task (tape management) will be pass to the operator and I think the Vault will be too complicated for those folks and they will prefect the second method.

J.Hin, I would like to know more on the follwing :

"do your media id generation rules and put the tapes into one volume pool (your catalog tapes in a differnt pool) and set your policy to use that pool"

Does this mean everytime I will have a new media id generated when I recycle the tape? or can I remain the media Id?

How about when come to restore, If I recall the tape from offsite for restore, do I need to inventory the tape again or just have load it to robot and let Netbackup to search for the tape for restore?

thanks a lot

[Will_Restore]

Does this mean everytime I will have a new media id generated when I recycle the tape? or can I remain the media Id?

>> NetBackup writes the ID to tape header on first use and retains the same media ID for the life of the tape (unless it is erased and relabeled, which is rarely done)

How about when come to restore, If I recall the tape from offsite for restore, do I need to inventory the tape again or just have load it to robot and let Netbackup to search for the tape for restore?

>> after putting the tape in the library, you'll need to do Inventory, Update so NetBackup recognizes it is back in the library (unless your vm.conf includes AUTO_UPDATE_ROBOT entry)

[keeyw5 · Accepted solution]

Hi wr,

Thanks, I have found my answer from Tech note 69855

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH69855

Best regards

[Marianne]

Does this mean that you have a robot without a barcode reader or tapes without barcodes?

If that is the case, rather use the 'physical inventory' utility - vmphyinv.

See http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO67561
and http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO67529  for more links/info.