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Searching for images to restore

oolmedo
Level 4

Hello colleagues, I would like to ask you about some strange behaviour that I am experiencing restoring an image from OST storage unit (HP StoreOnce storage system)

I have diary backups that are running properly, their jobs are finishing with status 0, but if I try to restore some images from two weeks ago, they doesnt appear in the catalog. More recently images, and older images are seen without problems.

Browsing the storage system, I can see the image files (ten C1_F files, one TIR file and one HDR files) that are not seen in the catalog. On the other hand, if browsing the image that are seen in the catalog (not for these two weeks that I am not able to restore), the image files are ten C1_F files, one TIR file and three  HDR files. I dont understand why the difference in those header files but it seems to be related to the problem

I appreciate your help and advice

 

Thanks and best regards

oolmedo

13 REPLIES 13

Mouse
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What was the original retention period for those images?

Have you tried to run the import process against this storage unit - has it found anything?

Marianne
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@oolmedo 

When you browse for restore, NBU does not connect to the storage - it checks the images database on the master server.
All depends on the Retention level that was selected in the Policy Schedule.

What is the Retention level of your Daily schedules?

osvaldo_olmedo
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Hello Mouse,

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the retention period is two weeks, according this period, this images should be in the catalog.

Also, I have tried to import those images, but NBU didnt find anything

Best regards

Oolmedo

osvaldo_olmedo
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Hello Marianne,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I know when searching for restores, NBU search in the catalog and it doesnt connect to the storage at that time. 

The retention is two weeks, the images should be in the catalog

Thanks and best regards

Oolmedo

Marianne
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Okay, I am a bit confused now - you said in your opening post 'but if I try to restore some images from two weeks ago,they dont appear in the catalog.'

If your retention is 2 weeks, then images from 2 weeks ago will be expired, right?
Can you see images up to 13 days ago?

Have you tried bpimagelist command on the master server to see what NBU finds since 10 Nov?
Something like :
bpimagelist -client <name> -d 11/10/2020 -U
You can add more options like Policy name, Policy type, etc.

Hello Marianne,

Thanks again for your reply, I was not clear enough when I first write this question.

There is a diary schedule (monday-friday) with 2 week retention period, also threre are other schedules (montly for instance) that regularly back up this client.

I realize this issue on 20th november, in this day, we only see the images backed up on 16, 17, 18 and 19th november, previous backups (13th, 12th, and so on.....)didnt appear in the catalog. Previous images, from montly schedules, were there in catalog.

The thing is that the backup jobs from the 13th, 12th, were finished with status 0, without any problem, also, when I search directly in the Storage System interface I am able to see those images.

The only difference that I see in the storage, that the images from 13th, 12th, have only one HDR files, on the other hand, the images from 16, 17, 18, and 19th  have three HDR files, that was my first question, about if this problem could be related to this "additional" HDR files to the list of files.

 

Thanks again and best regards

Oolmedo

 

Mouse
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Apologies if I am asking an obvious question but what policy and schedule the images beyond 2 weeks' retention belong to?

Do you have any policies or schedules that back up the same backup set with a different retention period?

Not knowing the exact position, I can easily imagine (from experience) three different schedules each with its own retention period belonging to the same policy. In this case, the images those schedules produce will have a different retention period and it will be expected behaviour.

osvaldo_olmedo
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Hello Mouse,

 

thanks for your reply.

Yes, there are different schedules with different retention time backup up the same backup set.

And yes, there are a policy with three schedules with different atributes for this client.

thanks and best regards.

 

Oolmedo

Mouse
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Among those schedules, do you have or have had in the past with a retention period of shorter than two weeks?

Marianne
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@oolmedo 

If nobody expired any images manually, then NBU will not do that either, unless the expiration date was reached according to retention levels set in the backup schedules.

Is there any possibility that retentions were changed after backups were taken? (i.e. backups were taken with short retention and policy schedules increased in the meantime.)
I had this situation about a month ago where I assisted with a new installation.
After initial full backup was taken, the customer changed his mind about retentions and updated the schedules.
I told him that this does not affect existing backups already taken and assisted with bpexpdate commands to extend retention of all Full backups.

There has to be a logical explanation for what you are experiencing.
If you share information, we can try to assist with troubleshooting.

Please share policy config of the client that you are trying to browse for restore:
bppllist -byclient <name> -U

Share image info for this client for the last month:
bpimagelist -client <name> -d 11/01/2020 -U

About image id's still visible on your dedupe storage:
When images reach expiration date, NBU will remove all reference in the catalogs.
The dedupe storage will only remove segments that are no longer referenced in subsequent backups.
Any data still referenced in subsequent backups will not be removed.

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

At this point I would get nbdb_unload and look in the DBM_IMages table to see if the ctime of teh backupid of the image(s) exists.

It's possible the image is in NBDB (hence the catalog) but isn't displaying in the GUI or bplist command for one of various reasons.

If the image not there, it is 100% gone.

osvaldo_olmedo
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Hello Marianne,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, there is a possibility that the images were expired by mistake or the customer (there are several users who admin this NBU environment) change the schedule retention without realize the impact of the change.

Anyway, there are several daily backups that are supposed to be in the catalog, but now they are expired (the backups were run more than two weeks ago, considering today, december first)

One doubt that I had at the time when I tried to import the images from the storage system is that the import wizard didnt "see" those images as candidates to be imported. There are only 1 file with HDR extension. Other images (already imported in NBU catalog) when I browse in the storage images have 3 HDR files, could be related with this ?

I will attach two images, one for the images that I am unable to import and the other is for the images that are imported in the catalog.

Thanks for your help and best regards

osvaldo_olmedo
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Hello mph999

 

Thanks for your reply. Could you give more information about "nbdb_unload and look in the DBM_IMages" procedure?. 

Thanks again and best regards

 

Oolmedo