Vaulting offsite catalog tape

[Jam_Z_3]

Hi,

We used to perform an Onsite Vault job and also an Offsite Vault job over the weekend, but due to the size of the backup the jobs started to overlap and fail and take took long etc; so we've changed the Onsite Vault job to actually do Multiple Copies, one set of tapes for Onsite, one set for Offsite. The first copy is assigned to our Weekly_Onsite pool, the second copy to the Weekly_Offsite pool. This has been tested and seems to be working fine so far.

My question is mainly about the Catalog. Now the Volume Group is configured for a particular Vault, in our case this is configured as the Onsite Volume Group. Is there a way to specify the Volume Group for the 2nd copy of data tapes and the catalog tape? Reason is the Catalog is being assigned to the Onsite Volume Group and I really want it going into the Offsite Volume Group.

Many thanks,
James.

[Joseph_Correia]

James,
How are you making multiple copies of the Catalog?
Have you looked at using the "Multiple Copies" function inside the schedules of your policy?
You can have NBU create multiple copies within a policy and put the tapes into specific volume pools.

regards,

JOE

[Jam_Z_3]

Hi Joe,

Some confusion, I am not making multiple copies of the catalog.

All I am doing is creating two sets of data tapes, using the multiple copies settings in the Duplication tab of the vault profile, one set for Onsite, one set for Offsite.

The catalog tape is being created by the Catalog tab of the vault profile, but it assigns the tape into the Volume Group of the vault, Onsite in this case.

What I wish is the Catalog and 2nd set of data tapes to be assigned to a different Volume Group - the Offsite Volume Group, is this even possible?

Thanks,
James.

[Joseph_Correia]

Maybe you can change the Vault Profile to point to the Offsite VG instead which would effectively put the catalog and dup'ed tapes into the offsite.

But are you ejecting both sets? I'm assuming you leave the "onsite" tapes in your library for restores and such...I think you just need to change the VG for your Vault...it sounds like you no longer need to have both methods/configurations?

JOE

[Jam_Z_3]

Hi,

I did think about doing this, but would this make the Offsite set of tapes the primary set for restores once the images on disk have expired? Or is that governed by the order the copies appear in the Multiple Copies table?

For background info, the Onsite set are moved to a fire safe, the Offsite set go to a different premises.

Would this be a possible way around it -

- Set the Volume Group for the Vault to Offsite,
- In the Vault Profile's Multiple Copies, make sure the first copy is the Onsite copy (Onsite Pool),
- Set the Offsite Pool to be ejected.

The Onsite set would need to be manually ejected and assigned to the Onsite Volume Group.

Would this ensure the Onsite set is still the first used for restores if we needed to do one? (i.e. Restore presidence = Disk > Onsite > Offsite).

Many thanks,
J.

[Joseph_Correia]

Yes I believe your right.
To force a specific set to be primary use the checkbox for setting the primary copy in the multiple copies area within vault, you just need to put the check next to the set of tapes you want treated as the primary.