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WHICH MEDIA/TAPE IS SAFER TO EXPIRE

Dolapo1223
Level 3

hello All,

My master server is netbackup 7.0 and the OS is solaris 10/09.

My clients run solaris 10/09 as well.

I am running out of medias, my backups are failing with error 96 and my superior are yet to make arrangement to buy new medias.

In the mean time, i'll like to expire tapes but i need help on which of below medias are safer to expire and how to know.

root@NBU # pwd./bpmedialist -summary |more
root@TSS-NBU # ls./bpmedialist -summary |more

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER GROUP UNRESTRICTED_SHARING_GROUP ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
    0      0        0        0        0       0       0          0

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER raven ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
    1    110        0        0        0       0       0          0

Number of NON-ACTIVE media that:
       6 - will expire within 1 week
            000418 expires 03/01/2012 15:41
            000082 expires 03/02/2012 20:11
            000115 expires 03/03/2012 04:12
            000157 expires 03/04/2012 15:42
            000428 expires 03/04/2012 23:10
            000432 expires 03/07/2012 23:38
       7 - will expire between 1 and 2 weeks
            000436 expires 03/08/2012 13:55
            000120 expires 03/09/2012 02:23
            000008 expires 03/14/2012 21:26
            000449 expires 03/11/2012 13:53
            000166 expires 03/11/2012 01:55
            000152 expires 03/10/2012 02:50
            000440 expires 03/15/2012 00:35
       6 - will expire between 2 and 3 weeks
            000066 expires 03/16/2012 23:33
            000065 expires 03/22/2012 01:14
            000492 expires 03/20/2012 16:43
            000460 expires 03/18/2012 07:07
            000404 expires 03/20/2012 17:31
            000139 expires 03/21/2012 19:18
      10 - will expire between 3 weeks and 1 month
            000041 expires 03/23/2012 02:56
            000057 expires 03/31/2012 00:33
            000419 expires 03/23/2012 18:01
--More--
            000417 expires 03/25/2012 21:29
            000416 expires 03/24/2012 03:55
            000183 expires 03/27/2012 12:14
            000170 expires 03/28/2012 05:18
            000164 expires 03/28/2012 03:13
            000162 expires 03/25/2012 21:37
            000058 expires 03/31/2012 00:02
      43 - will expire between 1 month and 2 months
            000441 expires 04/01/2012 11:41
            000420 expires 04/02/2012 00:50
            000145 expires 04/02/2012 02:05
            000112 expires 04/03/2012 01:47
            000029 expires 04/10/2012 01:20
            000450 expires 04/09/2012 01:45
            000439 expires 04/07/2012 20:01
            000438 expires 04/06/2012 01:18
            000421 expires 04/08/2012 13:15
            000389 expires 04/07/2012 01:51
            000192 expires 04/04/2012 01:16
            000184 expires 04/04/2012 22:27
            000024 expires 04/11/2012 22:14
            000030 expires 04/11/2012 02:35
            000034 expires 04/23/2012 07:07
            000413 expires 04/14/2012 22:20
            000407 expires 04/17/2012 01:53
            000403 expires 04/18/2012 19:02
            000172 expires 04/19/2012 07:50
            000171 expires 04/19/2012 22:15
            000156 expires 04/21/2012 18:35
            000149 expires 04/22/2012 03:50
            000104 expires 04/14/2012 10:55
            000103 expires 04/15/2012 13:48
            000101 expires 04/13/2012 19:41
            000100 expires 04/13/2012 00:05
            000079 expires 04/12/2012 12:57
            000067 expires 04/20/2012 14:33
            000054 expires 04/16/2012 02:42
            000051 expires 04/21/2012 02:38
            000081 expires 05/01/2012 13:53
            000180 expires 04/28/2012 14:23
            000178 expires 04/28/2012 14:02
            000168 expires 04/27/2012 23:33
--More--
            000167 expires 04/27/2012 19:59
            000163 expires 04/26/2012 07:52
            000160 expires 04/26/2012 08:02
            000144 expires 04/25/2012 14:25
            000143 expires 04/25/2012 13:22
            000142 expires 04/23/2012 08:47
            000097 expires 04/30/2012 08:49
            000117 expires 05/01/2012 18:36
            000126 expires 05/02/2012 08:43
      38 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000080 expires 05/02/2012 11:43
            000023 expires 05/07/2012 07:40
            000194 expires 05/06/2012 15:08
            000136 expires 05/06/2012 04:17
            000132 expires 05/05/2012 21:50
            000130 expires 05/05/2012 03:28
            000128 expires 05/04/2012 07:14
            000125 expires 05/04/2012 14:07
            000121 expires 05/03/2012 18:51
            000022 expires 05/31/2012 01:53
            000498 expires 05/30/2012 02:35
            000464 expires 05/17/2012 19:33
            000462 expires 05/24/2012 00:20
            000458 expires 05/29/2012 13:50
            000429 expires 05/22/2012 01:26
            000425 expires 05/10/2012 16:07
            000424 expires 05/18/2012 20:56
            000422 expires 05/17/2012 20:29
            000412 expires 05/14/2012 12:26
            000411 expires 05/13/2012 12:16
            000408 expires 05/12/2012 20:13
            000402 expires 05/12/2012 16:45
            000387 expires 05/11/2012 21:59
            000359 expires 05/20/2012 07:45
            000199 expires 05/08/2012 02:53
            000191 expires 05/27/2012 13:23
            000181 expires 05/30/2012 16:43
            000179 expires 05/24/2012 14:01
            000177 expires 05/23/2012 18:03
            000159 expires 05/26/2012 00:53
            000158 expires 05/19/2012 06:22
            000131 expires 05/11/2012 22:05
--More--
            000118 expires 05/29/2012 02:20
            000099 expires 05/19/2012 06:22
            000095 expires 05/10/2012 00:59
            000046 expires 05/10/2012 06:24
            000434 expires 06/01/2012 20:59
            000437 expires 06/02/2012 02:25

Number of ACTIVE media that, as of now:
       1 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000155 expires 06/02/2012 06:05

Summary by retention level of ALL media
     Level   # Media        Megabytes
       5       111        232120466.0

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER kingfisher ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
    0      0        0        0        0       0       0          0

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER eagle ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
   13     81        0        0        0       0       0          0

Number of NON-ACTIVE media that:
       5 - will expire between 2 and 3 weeks
            000059 expires 03/20/2012 16:30
            000133 expires 03/21/2012 09:09
            000448 expires 03/21/2012 03:48
            000405 expires 03/20/2012 22:59
            000381 expires 03/21/2012 11:28
       1 - will expire between 3 weeks and 1 month
            000042 expires 03/23/2012 18:45
       3 - will expire between 1 month and 2 months
            000116 expires 04/21/2012 18:01
            000175 expires 04/28/2012 18:43
            000431 expires 04/26/2012 23:04
--More--
      47 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000452 expires 05/03/2012 18:01
            000087 expires 05/05/2012 06:15
            000060 expires 05/13/2012 21:00
            000499 expires 05/10/2012 11:17
            000455 expires 05/11/2012 20:46
            000010 expires 05/14/2012 09:30
            000409 expires 05/14/2012 00:01
            000007 expires 05/21/2012 10:51
            000494 expires 05/18/2012 18:33
            000459 expires 05/21/2012 09:22
            000423 expires 05/21/2012 10:44
            000414 expires 05/18/2012 10:03
            000410 expires 05/19/2012 18:01
            000198 expires 05/21/2012 04:46
            000056 expires 05/16/2012 00:16
            000052 expires 05/15/2012 21:58
            000045 expires 05/16/2012 09:52
            000044 expires 05/17/2012 18:01
            000040 expires 05/18/2012 11:22
            000019 expires 05/19/2012 19:36
            000011 expires 05/19/2012 18:33
            000005 expires 05/27/2012 18:46
            000493 expires 05/26/2012 18:01
            000489 expires 05/23/2012 18:23
            000086 expires 05/25/2012 18:01
            000083 expires 05/25/2012 03:50
            000031 expires 05/23/2012 11:07
            000025 expires 05/24/2012 18:01
            000013 expires 05/22/2012 21:25
            000049 expires 05/28/2012 17:34
            000430 expires 05/28/2012 11:31
            000383 expires 05/28/2012 04:40
            000189 expires 05/28/2012 05:33
            000070 expires 06/02/2012 05:16
            000388 expires 06/01/2012 18:01
            000176 expires 05/28/2012 23:09
            000153 expires 06/01/2012 18:44
            000105 expires 05/29/2012 09:57
            000098 expires 05/29/2012 02:33
            000096 expires 05/29/2012 02:11
            000093 expires 05/30/2012 18:01
--More--
            000090 expires 05/30/2012 23:01
            000089 expires 06/01/2012 18:01
            000085 expires 05/31/2012 06:24
            000084 expires 05/31/2012 08:41
            000074 expires 06/02/2012 05:25
            000076 expires 06/02/2012 05:38
      25 - will expire in greater than three months
            000069 expires 06/05/2012 22:01
            000064 expires 06/06/2012 02:53
            000091 expires 06/24/2012 06:57
            000399 expires 06/22/2012 15:40
            000398 expires 06/22/2012 02:36
            000396 expires 06/20/2012 15:54
            000394 expires 06/20/2012 06:44
            000393 expires 06/20/2012 06:23
            000392 expires 06/20/2012 07:15
            000391 expires 06/22/2012 06:38
            000390 expires 06/22/2012 05:55
            000358 expires 06/09/2012 00:32
            000357 expires 06/07/2012 03:13
            000356 expires 06/07/2012 18:01
            000355 expires 06/07/2012 18:01
            000352 expires 06/12/2012 22:50
            000351 expires 06/13/2012 02:01
            000350 expires 06/10/2012 07:35
            000349 expires 06/10/2012 06:30
            000348 expires 06/10/2012 05:41
            000122 expires 06/24/2012 06:50
            000138 expires 06/26/2012 23:49
            000196 expires 06/26/2012 18:01
            000150 expires 06/26/2012 18:01
            000147 expires 06/24/2012 07:59

Number of ACTIVE media that, as of now:
       1 - will expire between 1 and 2 weeks
            000446 expires 03/13/2012 00:01
       1 - will expire between 3 weeks and 1 month
            000109 expires 03/23/2012 19:57
       6 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000451 expires 05/04/2012 10:12
            000385 expires 05/10/2012 11:17
            000075 expires 05/23/2012 02:29
--More--
            000123 expires 05/28/2012 23:09
            000127 expires 05/26/2012 19:39
            000129 expires 06/02/2012 06:15
       5 - will expire in greater than three months
            000113 expires 06/29/2012 22:58
            000053 expires 06/30/2012 03:42
            000073 expires 06/30/2012 10:24
            000111 expires 06/30/2012 07:18
            000107 expires 06/30/2012 11:34

Summary by retention level of ALL media
(* means media that contain multiple retention levels)
     Level   # Media        Megabytes
       3         1            48100.8
       5        19         43201823.9
       8        46        117745881.2
       *        28         61562231.9

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER TSS-dtb1 ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
   21     32        0        0        0       0       0          0

Number of NON-ACTIVE media that:
       2 - will expire between 1 and 2 weeks
            000386 expires 03/08/2012 18:00
            000380 expires 03/15/2012 08:01
       4 - will expire between 3 weeks and 1 month
            000063 expires 03/28/2012 00:02
            000154 expires 03/31/2012 01:17
            000457 expires 03/28/2012 17:53
            000435 expires 03/28/2012 06:22
       7 - will expire between 1 month and 2 months
            000491 expires 04/01/2012 18:01
            000188 expires 04/03/2012 10:00
            000110 expires 04/04/2012 02:00
            000043 expires 04/11/2012 06:14
            000442 expires 04/04/2012 10:00
            000048 expires 04/21/2012 06:15
            000141 expires 04/30/2012 10:01
--More--
      10 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000050 expires 05/11/2012 05:27
            000028 expires 05/21/2012 10:01
            000426 expires 05/16/2012 18:02
            000165 expires 05/12/2012 01:20
            000061 expires 05/18/2012 23:59
            000027 expires 05/31/2012 19:49
            000382 expires 05/29/2012 04:27
            000174 expires 05/22/2012 02:21
            000037 expires 05/28/2012 02:14
            000033 expires 05/25/2012 18:01
       9 - will expire in greater than three months
            000026 expires 06/05/2012 20:58
            000032 expires 06/16/2012 04:11
            000077 expires 06/14/2012 02:04
            000035 expires 06/29/2012 06:10
            000397 expires 06/24/2012 19:44
            000102 expires 06/16/2012 06:10
            000071 expires 06/19/2012 06:11
            000055 expires 07/02/2012 03:46
            000161 expires 07/02/2012 13:35

Number of ACTIVE media that, as of now:
       1 - will expire within 1 week
            000151 expires 03/08/2012 07:04
       2 - will expire between 1 and 2 weeks
            000190 expires 03/08/2012 18:00
            000173 expires 03/14/2012 18:03
       1 - will expire between 2 and 3 weeks
            000415 expires 03/21/2012 10:00
       4 - will expire between 3 weeks and 1 month
            000496 expires 03/28/2012 06:15
            000134 expires 03/28/2012 17:53
            000137 expires 03/31/2012 02:26
            000427 expires 03/31/2012 02:15
       4 - will expire between 1 month and 2 months
            000454 expires 04/03/2012 10:00
            000078 expires 04/10/2012 10:00
            000463 expires 04/04/2012 02:00
            000169 expires 05/01/2012 00:00
       5 - will expire between 2 months and 3 months
            000490 expires 05/02/2012 14:19
--More--
            000124 expires 05/22/2012 02:00
            000021 expires 06/01/2012 19:37
            000497 expires 06/01/2012 06:20
            000182 expires 06/02/2012 06:18
       4 - will expire in greater than three months
            000185 expires 07/05/2012 00:56
            000186 expires 07/05/2012 19:45
            000187 expires 07/05/2012 09:55
            000193 expires 07/05/2012 19:51

Summary by retention level of ALL media
     Level   # Media        Megabytes
       0         1          1688349.0
       1         4          4494936.1
       3         7          9157800.4
       5        20         24141671.0
       8        21         47764265.2

*******************************************************************************
MEDIA SUMMARY FOR SERVER TSS-NBU ON Thu Mar 01 09:55:44 2012
*******************************************************************************

ACTIVE   FULL  SUSPENDED  FROZEN  IMPORTED  WORM  BE_MEDIA  ENCRYPTED
    0      0        0        0        0       0       0          0 

 

thank you all for your anticipated help.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

By default level 5 retention is 3 months. About to expire in 1 week.

Your tape is FULL with 190 valid images. 190 images that your users may request a restore from within the next week.

If you need to know more about the clients backed up to this tape, you can run 'images on media' report in the GUI or bpimmedia -mediaid <media-id> -L

So, if your management give you the go-ahead to expire all the images on this tape, you at least know which clients cannot be restored from backup taken on 6 Dec.

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

All very much down to any Service Level Agreements you have - data is backed up to do restores - if you expire and overwrite them you can no longer do those restores

Before doing anything ensure that those on high who wont buy the tapes authorise your actions so that when a restore cannot be done it is not your fault

Saying that, and to answer your question having looked at your list, in general the answer would be to expire those due to expire within 1 week so that you are only using then a few days earlier than you would have done anyway - if that is not enough then go to 2 weeks - but it also depends on the retention periods used

For example, it is no good expiring one that will expire in 2 weeks if the back was done with a 2 week retention as it would mean it only actually did the bakcup last night

Hope this all makes sense - just cover your self and look logically at what is on the tapes and when the actual backups were done

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

In addition to Mark's excellent reply, consider Media Sharing if all your media servers are Solaris/Unix and are attached to the same robot. This will save on media usage as more than media server will be able to append to the same media.

You can either enable Unrestricted Media Sharing or create a Media Server sharing group.

Read up on Media Sharing in Admin Guide for UNIX,Linux, I   http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127081

Look for these topics:

Enable unrestricted media sharing for all media servers
About server groups
Configuring a server group
About media sharing
Configuring media sharing with a server group

Dolapo1223
Level 3

Hi, thanks you for your replies. one more thing please. "condidering your statement mark:  For example, it is no good expiring one that will expire in 2 weeks if the back was done with a 2 week retention as it would mean it only actually did the bakcup last night"  ho 

how do i know each of these medias retention period considering to when they are expiring.

Actually, i am pretty new in netbackup environment.

thank you all once again.

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

You will need to run a report on each tape to get this info. The above report is exactly what it says - a summary.

For example, 000418 expires 03/01/2012 15:41 run:
nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 000418

This will give long output with amount of data, amount of images, last written, retention level, etc...

(Oh, if we are more or less on the same timezone, this tape is about to expire...)

Dolapo1223
Level 3

Thank you Marianne.

below is an example of the command you just gave me:

 # ./nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 000436
NBEMMCMD, Version:7.0
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     9d7b4f66-d0ce-11e0-8000-f97d0521d473
Media ID:                       000436
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART
Volume Group:                   000_00000_ACS
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    ---
Barcode:                        000436
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                raven
Created:                        08/27/2011 16:04
Time Assigned:                  12/03/2011 13:55
First Mount:                    08/29/2011 06:16
Last Mount:                     12/06/2011 14:08
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                03/08/2012 13:55
Last Written:                   12/06/2011 13:55
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     ACS
Robot Control Host:             NONE
Robot Number:                   0
AcsAcs:                         0
AcsLsm:                         0
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               14
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   FULL
Kilobytes:                      2333463776
Images:                         190
Valid Images:                   190
Retention Period:               5
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      1024
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             35293937
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    TSS-NBU
Server Group:                   NO_SHARING_GROUP
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    1
Volume Pool:                    NetBackup
Previous Pool Name:             Scratch
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

 

This means this tape was last written 12/06/2011 13:55 . Since data expiration is 03/08/2012 13:55 and retention period is 5, please what can we deduce from here?

Thank you very much.
 

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

This means that the tape was written on 6th December 2011

It is due to expire on 8th March (7 days time)

So the question on this one is are you happy to reuse it a week early?

Dolapo1223
Level 3

Since the last time data was written into this tape  was 6th of Dec,2011, i believe it is safe to re-use this tape earlier. Another reasons i felt so is, current and resent data containing same information on this tape would have been written else where. Please correct me if am wrong.

Thank you.

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

By default level 5 retention is 3 months. About to expire in 1 week.

Your tape is FULL with 190 valid images. 190 images that your users may request a restore from within the next week.

If you need to know more about the clients backed up to this tape, you can run 'images on media' report in the GUI or bpimmedia -mediaid <media-id> -L

So, if your management give you the go-ahead to expire all the images on this tape, you at least know which clients cannot be restored from backup taken on 6 Dec.

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Your only issue would be if something written to that tape was deleted before the next full backup ran

In that case that tape would hold the only copy of that data.

I appeciate what you are saying but your situation just needs someone to make the decision about reusing those tapes

We are unable to know if you have any statutory requirements on data retention that may also come into play here - there may be legal requirements for you backup retention which would be breached if you expired it early.

As I have said you are on the right track but if you are just the NetBackup Admin (well not just! - you know what I mean!) then it should not be your decision - make those upstairs make it!

Dolapo1223
Level 3

Thank you Marianne & Mark for your dedicated support without collecting an inch.

God bless you guys.