Restoring options - Inventory of tape

[Bruce_Clegg]

I'm now in my 3rd week here - need some newbie help.

I'm responsible for backups - and some of the tapes my predessessor left are not where they belong and/or are not lableled clearly.  How can I put a tape (cryptically labeled for example 'Archive 2011') into the robot and find a list of what is stored on it?

When I go to the Backup, Archive, and Restore tab on the java console, I can see a list of tapes in the backup history that I should be able to restore from - but what if I want to restore something from a tape that isn't listed there?

I think both of these questions may have the same answer. 

I did run vmphyinv successfully for 'phase 1' - but when I come back to the java console for phase II, there is no difference that I can see.

Can you offer advice? Or point me to the correct section of the manual? Thanks in advance for your help.

[watsons]

For data that you do not see in the BAR GUI, yes.. import is required. As you have done phase1 (tape) import, next step is to do a phase2 (image) import.

Once your phase1 is successfully completed, in your GUI go to Catalog, specify that mediaID you just imported and select the correct date range to search, and a list of images (in that tape) will be displayed.

Based on the image you need for restore, select it and right click to do another import (phase2).

Important note:  Above is of assumption all image fragments exist in the same mediaID. if your image fragments span across more than 1 mediaID, you will need to phase1-import all those tapes first, before proceeding to phase2-import the "very first" fragment of the image.

[Marianne]

Are you using unlabelled (non-barcoded) tapes with Standalone tape drive or in a tape library? NBU will assign default media-id (A000..) to a tape first time it is used. It is important to put an external label on the tape with this media-id. When you have this media-id, it is easy to check in NBU if there are valid (unexpired ) images on this tape with reports such as Images on Tape (bpimmedia), Tape List report (bpmedialist) , etc against the media-id.

[Bruce_Clegg]

The tape I'm working with is bar-coded and it does show up when I look at the volume pools - and it has not expired.  But when I go to the restore tab - it isn't listed in the available media. I hoped that vmphyinv would add it to the available media and I could use the GUI to perform phase II.  vmphyinv seemed to work fine - but I still don't see the tape in the available media on the java console (GUI).

I will see what I can learn using bpimmedia and bmmedialist

[Marianne]

You do not select a tape in NBU to restore from. You select a client, policy type and a backup date or range. You will then be presented with explorer type list of filesystems/folders. When you have selected the data to be restored, NBU will prompt you for the media-ids. If the tapes are not in the robot, a pending request will be generated. Once you have inserted the tape(s) in the robot, you can resume the restore. Available_media is a different concept. It lists the tapes that can be used for backups.

[Bruce_Clegg]

Thanks Marianne - that makes perfect sense.  But I still would like a utility to tell me what has been backed up on a specific tape.  I'll try the 'bp' scripts as soon as I can.

[D_Flood]

If it's showing up in the Media list and is unexpired then you can use the main Admin Gui to check it out.  Use Reports / Tape Reports / Tape Contents and pick that tape from the list.  It will then request the tape be mounted and attempt to read it.

[Bruce_Clegg]

Thanks Flood - That looks like it would work - IF the media showed up in the media list.  I think this is my last question on this for now - If a tape is not showing up in the GUI as one of the available media ID's - how do I get it to show up?  I would have thought the vmphyinv would have done it.  When I did run it, I ran it just on the slot numbers of the tapes I had questions about:  sudo ./vmphyinv -rn 0 -slot_range 32 33 -d hcart

It seemed to run successfully - but the media ID's of the tapes in slot 32 and 33 did not show up as Media ID's I can now work with in the GUI.

[Bruce_Clegg]

I was following the instructions from page ~860 of the manual.  What it looks like I should have been doing is described here:  https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH43584

I've been led to believe that the archive tapes I'm importing were created by this same robot and by Netbackup - maybe the reason they need to be imported was they were created on an older version?

I'm through phase 1 and it is looking better.  I'll post another comment when phase 2 is complete.

[Doctorski]

Hi Bruce, hopefully they are in write protect !

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

You may want to read up about Retention levels/periods. It does not matter where the tapes were written - you can only restore from them if the images have not yet expired. Image expiration is determined by the Retention Levels in the policy schedules. If the Retention levels in the schedules are according to business recovery requirements, there should hardly ever be a need to import expired tapes. PS: vmphyinv is "physical" inventory and is actually meant for non-barcoded media. This process mounts each tape, read the internal label, and then updates NBU with location (slot number in robot) of media-id (internal label). When you have barcoded media, you can simply use the Inventory option in Media section of the GUI to update NBU with slot number in the robot.