Unable to see any files to restore in NetBackup

[coffee_drinker]

I'm unable to see any files/folders on client server that were backed up prior my system died. As you can see on the image below (which was taken on the client which needs some files from last year), I only see dates from Jan 7 when the system was fixed. I did import the catalog from the old system, however, apparently something went wrong. All policies were imported from old system but not the NetBackup History.

How do I recover NetBackup History from the old catalog tape? Is there any way to combine the old history with the current one? Please help.

 

[Kernel_Panic]

In order to find a way a solution to your problem I will suggest you to read the troubleshooting guide since there are the procedures steps to recover the cold and hot catalog backups. Regarding an append procedure I believe you wont get a solution, instead of recovering the old catalog backup where you wanna restore the file and after that the latest one you should already have.

Troubleshooting guide for Netbackup 6.5.6 link.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH128469

[Marianne]

What exactly did you do when your 'system died'?

You should have done a catalog recovery before running any new backups.

If you simply installed NBU and added devices, inventoried the robot and 'started fresh' and if the same tapes in the robot were used as before, chances are that your 'old' tapes are overwritten by now, making it impossible to re-import your backups done before the failure.

If your tapes were ejected from the robot on a daily basis, you will be able to but them back in the robot and re-catalog them by doing 'import' on each of them.

[coffee_drinker]

After the old tape loader/drive LTO3 died, we purchased new quantum LTO5 loader and install win 2008 on new server. I imported the catalog backup (I believe I did since backup policies were imported into new system) and start doing backup as nothing happened. Now I need to restore some files from a client server and I don't see any backups prior Jan 7. Importing tapes might be hard to accomplish since we have over 400 tapes.

So there's no way to load the tape from the old system, read the catalog and import the info to a new catalog database?

Thanks for all your help.

[Marianne]

Seems odd that policies were restored but not images... You could log a Support call to try and troubleshoot and get assistance with partial catalog recovery...

Another possibility:

What happened to the old master server? Is it still around? The easiest will be to copy the images folder from the old server to the new one. Or at least compare sub-folders for the client that you are trying to restore now and just copy the missing files/folders to the new server.

The above suggestion is based on Recovery without Import method:
http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/products/White_Papers/Data_Protection/nbu_wp_replicatingbucatalogs_103003.pdf
 

The assumption is that the old LTO3 tapes are out of the robot and can in any case only be used to read from - LTO5 drives can read LTO3 tapes but not write to them.

If you can locate and copy the images to the new server, you can then use the BAR GUI to browse for files/folders and the use the 'preview' icon to list the tapes needed.

You then need to write-protect the tapes (just to be 200% sure) and put them in the robot, followed by an inventory.  Create a new pool (something like RESTORE) and move the newly added tapes into this pool. Ensure media have same density as tape drives. Also ensure that media id is correct - media might have been previously used with 1st 6 characters and now with last 6... media id must match the id that was listed in 'media preview' above.

Submit restore when all of above is done.

GOOD LUCK!!

[coffee_drinker]

Dear Marianne,

I think I'm half way done thanks to your help.

On old server (win 2003) I found these two locations with images folders:

C:\Program Files\VERITAS\NetBackup\db\images

D:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images

I copied them to new server (win 2008) to these locations:

C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\db\images

D:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images

Now when I open BAR GUI, I can browse for files/folders that were backed up prior Jan 7 (when old system died).

And now I have a new problem; I'm unable to inventory old LTO3 tapes in the new quantum SuperLoader (LTO5). On the old system the Media ID and Barcode were identical. On the new system, the Media ID is different from Barcode.

Here's what we had before: 000123L3 would show in NetBackup Administration Console as:

Media ID= 000123

Barcode= 000123

Now with the new system: 000123L5 shows as:

Media ID= 000123

Barcode= 000123L5

So how do I get around this small issue? How do I load/inventory the old LTO3 tapes for restoring files/folders?

Thank you for all your help,

Mark

[Marianne]

Is Media ID on new server 000123 or 0123L5?

If 000123, there is no problem. Images are associated with Media ID not Barcode.

Your old libary could only read and report the 1st 6 characters to NBU.
The new library reads and reports all 8 charaters.

**** EDIT ****

If 0123L5 - let us know. We'll work it out!

[coffee_drinker]

 "Use Robot Inventory to Update Volume Configuration" fails with the error "media ID not unique in database (34)".

One thing that might be causing problems is media type?

Any idea on how to make those old tapes part of current volume group?

Thank you,

Mark

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

As I posted just now, you have to change barcode length setting.

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

This means you have physically replace old barcode label(000123L3) with new one(000123L5). It's odd thing, but here is more major issue - barcode length. Now SuperLoader provides inventory information with 8 characters barcode. You have to change barcode length SuperLoader provides at loader side. Operate panel or management tool and change setting of loader so that SuperLoader provide 6 legth barcode. After take change on loader, you have to restart NetBackup server. By the way, I want to clarify. You have rebuild your master server and perform catalog recovery. Right? Have you checked date range on BAR? It is possible that beggining date range is set to Jan7 and BAR just displays images taken after jan 7. Confirm images from report on NetBackup Administration Console. One more possibility is that backups before Jan 7 have been already expired. I think retention period of these backups is 4 weeks. Although you recovery from older catalog backup, this does not affect with backup expiration date. Expiration date also recovered as it was. To recover expired backups, just perform 'import'.

[Marianne]

I think I know what the problem is -

The catalog recovery has restored the robotic location of the old tapes. You will have to move them to Standalone as an intermediate step before Inventory can update new robot location.

Select all of these old tapes, right-click, Move, select 'Standalone' in the robot drop-down box and click OK. Once completed, do another Inventory. Let us know.

About the hcart density - you will have to change density of one tape drive to hcart to allow NBU to load these hcart tapes. Although the hardware supports LTO3 in LTO5 drive to read from, NBU doesn't know this. In NBU densities must match to allow tape mount.
You can change density back after restore is done.

About the image part of catalog - I think it had something to do with alternate_db on your old server. You probably ran out of space on the old server and implemented ALTPATH to point to new location. I would expect hot catalog backup to follow this path but seemingly did not? I wonder if this is a bug? Only way to know is log a support call, but the catalog restore logs are probably long gone by now...

[Amaan]

I think you should just change your medias barcode. When you did inventory in you old library it used to read only 6 symbols of the barcode which means 000330. And when you install new library it is reading all symbols of the barcode which is 000330L3. To correct this you can do two things: One is do what Yahusika Ishikava said, change librari config to read only 6 symbols of the barcode, or; Second is change you barcode in NB, run this command: Veritas/volmgr/bin/vmchange -barcode 000330L3 -m 000330. If you current library is reading only 6 and old one was reading all symbols you should run: volmgr/bin/vmchange -barcode 000330 -m 000330 Doing that you are telling to netbackup that media id 000330 with barcode 000330 is equal to 000330. Then run inventory. Let us know the status.

[Marianne]

@coffee_drinker, you have been very quiet since Friday...

Have you made any progress with the Inventory and the restore?

If Inventory is still giving errors, just select a 'compare contents' and run.

If mismatch is reported, please copy the text in the Results section and post.

[coffee_drinker]

If I change barcode lenght, will I still be able to use new LTO5 tapes which I've been using since the system was rebuild?

[coffee_drinker]

All LTO3 tapes are in standalone; running inventory fails every single time.

The only difference that I can see is the Barcode length and media type.

[Amaan]

You can update the barcode as i mentione below, or change barcode lenght as Yasuhisa told you above. Did you any one of these changes?

[Marianne]

Please  select a 'compare contents' in Inventory GUI and run.

If mismatch is reported, please copy the text in the Results section and post.

Or else run the equivalent from cmd and post the output file:

<install-path>\veritas\volmgr\vmcheckxxx -rn <robot-number> -rt tld -rh <robot-control-host>  >C:\temp\vmcheck.txt

(the command really has 3 x's)

[coffee_drinker]

1. Load LTO3 tapes

2. Run command: vmchange -barcode 000330L3 -m 000330 for tapes required for this restore

3. Inventory ran successfully

4. Change tape density from HCART2 to HCART

5. Restored files

I guess I will have to "vmchange" all LTO3 tapes and change drive density each time I want to restore; is there any workaround this density?

Thank you Marianne, thank you all for all your help

Mark

[Marianne]

Changing density of one tape drive for the duration of the restore is the recommended way.

Another way will be to change density of the media, but I will not recommend that.

If the LTO3 media matches the density of the LTO5 media, NBU will believe they are the same and try to use them for backup jobs. You will end up with lots of status 84's and frozen tapes.