able to see only empty directory structure but not the files in it while restoring

[MadhanKumar]

Hi,

I am currently stuck with a restoration request for which I could see the directory structure in the backup and restore window but all are empty.

Also could see the retention of the backup as 10 yrs till 2014.

Also it is for sure that these directories were never empty when the backup was happened.

Can anybody please help me in analysing the issue here and restore the files successfully ?

Master Server OS - Solaris 5.10

NBU Version - 7.1

Client Server OS - Solaris 5.10

[jim_dalton]

Is there an exclude active? Does the client in queston still exist? Supplying details of the policy and your restore would assist. Maybe theres some symlink activty misdirecting you? I've not seen netbackup missing data in many a year, perhaps I recall seeing a bug where data were omitted, might be worth checking. Jim

[jim_dalton]

Also 10 yrs til 2014 means its images have expired right? Or do you mean from 2014? Jim

[Marianne]

... retention of the backup as 10 yrs till 2014.

I agree with Jim.
You should not be able to restore anything from this backup!

If retention is 10 years as from 2014, then there should be no problem.

If you browse files in BAR, can you expand the folder? Are file names showing up?

If nothing is showing up when you expand, you need to have another look at the Policy and Exclude List.
If same Policy is still active for this client, what do you see after successful backup? Status 0 or 1? 
If Status 1, have you checked to see what is skipped?
If Status 0, is backup size correct? If not, you need to check bpbkar log on client with logging level set to 1 or higher.

If this is a Windows file server, is DFS-R running here?
If so, volumes/folders replicated with DFS will be backed up as part of Shadow Copy Components.

[MadhanKumar]

Hi Jim & Marianne,

First of all thanks for looking into this ...

- Or do you mean from 2014?

Yes its typo error.. The backup was taken in 2014 and retention is till 2024 which is seen in the BAR Backup History option.

- If you browse files in BAR, can you expand the folder? Are file names showing up?

Yes I am able to browse the folders in BAR. But these directories are showing no files in it.

- If same Policy is still active for this client, what do you see after successful backup? Status 0 or 1?

Yes. These policies are still active and running fine with status 0.

Also could see current files in backup with size matching.

....

I have 2 servers in active - passive cluster setup. I checked the data by giving client name as passive server, and I got all empty directory structures in BAR.

When I am checking the same data in active server in client name, could not see the backup information of aug 2014 in BAR "Backup History" option. Could see backup information till 17-08-2013 (retention till 2023) and then directly from 01-01-2015..

Need to restore the files written as on 31 Aug 2014.

Please let me know how can I proceed with this.

All these are solaris 10 servers running on NBU 7.1 version.

- If I checking current backup logs (from 2-Jan-2015), it is showing up the files in the similar dir structures.

but all old dates, showing empty dir structures and backup history not showing for nearly 1 yr backups as mentioned above.

There is no change in policies.

Please let me know what could be the issue here.. ? Also is it possible to restore old backup images which are still having retention for almost 9 + yrs, but not showing up in backup history.

[Amol_Nair]

You mentioned that the backup history for 1 yr is missing.. Are yoy sure that there were successful backup during this period.? Please also take a look if for any reason the name of the client in the policy was modified from shortname to FQDN or vice versa during this time period.. You can verify this by either changing the name of the source client in the BAR gui or looking in the master server in the "Netbackup\db\images" folder. Another way to verify if the files you require were backed up is to check the .f file for this backupid and then run either the "bpflist" command or the "cat_convert" command against the full path of the .f file for this backupid. This will show you a complete list of all the filea that were backed up in the backup you mention. If the file you are looking for is not in this output then it would mean that the file was never backed up and can't be restored..

[Nicolai]

Maybe a long shot ...

Chek the restore type in the GUI - if its set to e.g TIR only directorys will show up. Restore type must be set to "normal".

[jim_dalton]

Heres an idea...you mentioned passive and cluster and the bells start ringing, so what follows is a sanity check.

It isnt the case that the backup runs on the passive node and the data you are trying to back up being part of the cluster is on the active node? This is reinforced by your statement about "I checked the data by giving client name as passive server", so if the data of interest are part of the cluster then ...they might only be on the active node. 

Simply put, login to the client as specfied in the policy, navigate to the directory you are backing up and give us an "ls -la" . I bet its empty.

How do you know what the passive node is? Its a cluster, so targetting a passive node could be tricky...thsi depends on the cluster and how it works but typically you will have an address as part of cluster, but you wont have an address for the passive node as part of the cluster.

I bet you are backing up an empty directory...Jim

[Marianne]

When backing up cluster nodes, you should always backup shared/clustered data using the Virtual hostname associated with the Cluster group.

This way you are 100% sure that NBU backup will always connect to the active node to backup shared data.

Best to check/compare data sizes after successful backup.
Restore time is not the right time to find out that you have not backed up what should've been backed up...

Local filesystems / drive letters on cluster nodes can be added to a separate policy that contains local drives and cluster node names in Clients tab.