can catalog files of a backup to be moved manually to different domain for restore?

[FlyMountain]

Since the tape import takes long time, i am wondering after backup completed, if we can move some catalog files from master to different domain for restore instead of importing tapes. We are on 7.5.0.6. We have Netbackup configuration and database restored in new domain. The new domain is configured with same name. Thanks in advance.

[mph999 · Accepted solution]

Yes, it's known as recovery without import.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH28722

However, you cannot write to the tape on the 'remote' system, only restore.

[Marianne]

We are on 7.5.0.6. We have Netbackup configuration and database restored in new domain.

I am missing something here...

Why do you need anything else if database is already restored?

All catalog info is restored when a full catalog recovery is done. 

[FlyMountain]

When i say databases, i excluded out the image database. Currently our image database is about 700GB. it takes a few hours to restore. But everything else from catalog is pretty small only need a few minutes to recover.

[FlyMountain]

It is interesting stuff. but different with my case.

looks this is for migrating whole catalog and relational database to totally different domain by some adjustments to aviod any tape imports.

my case, the alertnative domain is exactly same, we recover relational databases but not image database to save a few hours (800GB). to aviod the tape import step, i wonder if we can copy the images files manully to new DR domain for recovery.

thanks

[mph999]

It is the image DB you want + a few bits from NBDB.

You can be selective, and only copy over the image DB for the backups you require, or for a single client.

Eg.

/usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/womble/1421000000
root@womble 1421000000 $ ll
total 64
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root        1024 Jan 22 01:55 .
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         512 Jan 14 12:05 ..
drwx------   2 root     root         512 Jan 14 12:05 catstore
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         512 Jan 22 01:55 tmp
-rw-------   1 root     root        1312 Jan 21 12:53 womble_slp_1421844783_FULL.f
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           0 Jan 21 12:53 womble_slp_1421844783_FULL.lck
-rw-------   1 root     root       13187 Jan 22 01:54 womble_tape_1421891604_FULL.f
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           0 Jan 22 01:53 womble_tape_1421891604_FULL.lck
-rw-------   1 root     root       13187 Jan 22 01:55 womble_tape_1421891710_FULL.f
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           0 Jan 22 01:55 womble_tape_1421891710_FULL.lck

I could here, just take across the womble_tape_1421891710_FULL.f file, and providing I cat_export / cat_import the corresponding 'header' file from NBDB I will have achieved what O believe you are trying to do.

YOu are correct in that NBDB is small compared to images, but apart from cat_export/ import there is no way to take across bits, though you could just cat_export /import everything I guess, but even then you need the images files as well, as these contain what is in the backup and, where on the media the files are, whereas the header file is ''which media is the backup on'.

Unfortunately you cannot have one without the other.

[Marianne]

I agree with Martin -  you need images as well as header info in NBDB in order to perform a restore.

Recovery without Import covers this exactly - the images folders for relevant clients as well as header info that you can extract with cat_export.

Recovery without Import can be used for different master server name as well as for DR master with the same name.

If you need to do this on a regular basis, consider implementing catalog replication between Prod and DR server. 
See NetBackup in Highly Available Environments Administrator's Guide  for details.