Unable to find and restore data I know is on tape

[SteveDown]

Hi all,

I have recently duplicated a load of LTO2 tapes onto LTO6, all of which were successfully completed. However, now that I'd like to restore this data I'm not seeing all of the Backup ID's that I know should be there. I can see some of the Backup ID's, but there should be a lot more available. All of the initial import and duplication logs show success during those procedures so I know the data is sitting on the LTO6 tape, I just can't find it. I've tried importing the LTO6 tape(s) to see if that presents the Backup ID's, but no luck.

Cheers,

Steve

[revarooo]

If you have reimported the LT06 tape again and the images are still not there then that is that I am afraid. Double check with bpmedialist -contents -m

[SteveDown]

For what reason would the images become unavailable?

[revarooo]

If not on the tape then they likely did not duplicate. If they had expired reimporting the tapes wouldve showed the image.

[SteveDown]

Odd because I have all the logs showing that duplication was 100% successful.

[Nicolai]

What copy number did the duplicated backup copy on LTO6 get ?

When duplicating a backup image, the duplicated image will get copy number 2, unless copy 2 is promoted to primary image, or copy 1 is expired. All restore will go to copy 1 by default.

Can you show us the duplication logs ?

[mph999]

The only way to find out what is on a tape, for 100% certain, is to read it.

Run a bpmedialist -mcontents -m <media id> on the media, this will list the backupids that are on the tape, by actually reading through the tape.

[Marianne]

 I'm not seeing all of the Backup ID's that I know should be there.

Where are you 'not seeing' the backup ID's?

How are you searching for data to be restored? 

Have you double-checked image/media retention levels and expiration dates after the import?
Is it possible that images have expired in the meantime?

[SteveDown]

If I look in the Catalog and find tape ID DA0032 for example, I would expect to see backup session ********_1409184052 listed as being available on that tape. Likewise, if I go to restore and add this name to the Client List, it's unable to find it. Which I guess is understandable given my circumstance.

I did wonder whether the images have expired...... with the data still on the tape however, I expected to be able to reimport.

[SteveDown]

Nicolai, the log says "creating copy 2 on destination media id DA0032"

[Marianne]

Have you tried to check media/image expiration dates with Media List report? 

[SteveDown]

A couple of the media id's have a retention period of inifinity, and some are 1 month. Using the BPEXPDATE command I've attempted to ensure all are inifinity, but this setting isn't applying to all tapes I choose.

Expiration dates are all 2038, so plenty of time there.

I only have five LTO 6  tapes that I'm working with, they just have loads of LTO images duplicated to them.

[SteveDown]

Okay, looking at the results from running this command, I can see listed on the tape one of the Backup ID's I'd like to restore from. So, it's exists yet it's unavailble for use. It's file number is 31 and it's copy number = 2.

If I try and update the Expiration Date for the Backup ID found on the tape, it says no entity was found.

[mph999]

Read the tape physically - (mcontents command), it's the only way to find out for 100% ...

For a full LTO6 tape, I'd say it would take maybe 30 mins (approx) - it 'skips' through just looking for the headers, which gives the backupids (+ some other info).

[Will_Restore]

January 19, 2038 == infinity

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH190497.html

Hope they fix that bug by December 2037 ;)

[SteveDown]

When I go to Reports and select Media ID DA0028 (this is the LTO 6 tape) the results show that there are plenty of images available. However I can also see the Media ID's of all the original tapes that I'd duplicated to the LTO 6 tape. Does this mean I also need to re-import the original Media ID names that I assume are on the LTO 6 tape?

[Marianne]

This says to me that the original tapes still hold the primary copy of the images and LTO6 probably contain copy 2. You may want to promote the duplicates on LTO6 to primary. I will post a TN a bit later. Here you go : https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH64592.html

[SteveDown]

When I was duplicating the original tapes to LTO 6 I selected the Primary Copy check box, I thought this would make the LTO 6 version the primary. When looking at the report from bpmedialist it says copy = 2.

When looking at Reports for the same LTO 6 tape it says Copy Number 1.

[Marianne]

If you can make a note of some of the image-id's in 'Images on Media' report, please show us output of one or two:

bpimagelist -backupid <backup_id> -L

[SteveDown]

I've spent some time re-importing all my LTO 6 tapes again and can now see sessions again. This is frustrating because I expected everything I'd duplicated onto these tapes to be available whenever I need them, not to vanish so soon and then having to import again. One tape took 2 days to import all the sessions. As this server is purely being used for duplication and restores I'd hoped to retain all tape and session information without having to keep importing them. Since importing I can see that some of the sessions I could have restored have already vanished from view.