Transfer data from 8mm tape to LTO3 tape

[jv_2]

I have 900 tapes on window master/media (Netbackup 5.1) server attached to 8mm  tape library. I want to transfer all the data to Solaris 10 master an media server (Netbackup 6 MP4) with LTO3 librabrary. What is easy and quickest way to do it?

[CY]

You can use bpduplicate command to duplicate the images from 8mm tapes to LTO3 tapes.  Read the man page for bpduplicate in "NetBackup 5.1 Commands for Unix" for more details.

[DavidParker]

Yes, use bpduplicate to move your images to the new tapes.
This will, of course, require you to hook both libraries up to the server at the same time.

Ah, hold that thought.
You're migrating to a new master server.
You'll need to migrate the catalogs (media and image) from the old server to the new one.
You may also need to upgrade the old server to 6.0 in order to convert the catalogs on it to something the new server can read.

Once you've migrated the catalogs, you can then hook both libraries up and use the bpduplicate command.

This whole process may be very complicated; you should see about getting a Symantec Consultant to assist with it.

Also consider this:  How long are your retentions on the old 8mm tapes?  Will you be required to restore something from them before their images expire?  If the retention is short, why not just leave that old system in place (available for restores, while everything starts backing up to the new system) until everything has expired?  If your retentions are long, then you're going to have a long road ahead of you.

Message Edited by David Parker on 05-02-200705:51 PM

[CY]

We actually have done this in our environment to duplicate the old backup images from 8mm tapes to LTO-2 tapes:

8mm tape library ---(SAN)--- old NBU media server ---(Gbps LAN)--- new NBU media server ---(SAN)--- new LTO-2 tape library

If you have a lot of old backup images on 8mm tapes, write a script to ease the bpduplicate job.

[DavidParker]

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@CY wrote:

8mm tape library ---(SAN)--- old NBU media server ---(Gbps LAN)--- new NBU media server ---(SAN)--- new LTO-2 tape library

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It looks like he's moving from 1 master to another master.
How does duplicating to the new media inform the new master server of the existance of the images?
You would have to do an import at some point in the process.

[CY]

You are right David -- I missed that he mentioned new MASTER server.  I thought he was talking about adding a new Solaris Media server to the environment and just need to migrate data from 8mm to LTO.

It's true that now the situation is more complicated.  Plus it's a migration from Windows NBU to Unix NBU.  I have done before to migrate NBU catalog from one Solaris Master/Media doamin to another Solaris Master/Media domain.  But I don't like to do that from Windows to Solaris.

Yeah, it's probably easier to keep both NBU domains for a while.... and cheaper.

[DavidParker]

You want pain and suffering?
My company just had a Symantec Contractor on site (for over a month) to convert 22 independant Windows Masters into Media servers under a Solaris master.  He was able to migrate the catalogs successfully (dos2unix command helped), but it was definitely painful!