moving backup images from datadomain to tape

[evo]

Hi all,

My datadomain is nearly so I want to move backup images, which are older then 2 months and newer then 4 months, from datadomain to phisical tape and then expire the backup images on datadomain. Until now, all my backups was going to datadomain. And my datadomain is installed as a virtual tape library with 48 LTO4 virtual tape drives.

It will be very hard to do this with catalog search, because there are a lot of images. So I have to do this with vault option.

I created a profile. In "Choose Backups" tab I only entered the time which is 60-120. I did not change anything in "Attributes" and "Locations" sections.

In duplication tab, I choose the destination settings. I want the backup images to expire immediately after the duplication finishes successfully. So what will I do? Write "0" (zero) to "Expire Original Disk Backup Images" or "Expire Original Tape Backup Images"? or both? Or is there a different way to automatically expire backup images after successful duplication?

Regards

Evo

[C__Bryant]

In NetBackup, these are tape images.  You're using the DD as a VTL (a choice I would not have made), so NBU understands it all as tape.

You'd really be better off using Storage Lifecycle Policies to make your duplications to tape and expire them.  Those are guaranteed.  If it doesn't work for whatever reason (like a media error on tape), your original image won't expire.  SLP will wait until it is successfully duplicated.

If you use Vault, there is no guarantee that the original image won't expire if the duplication job fails.

You can't go back and do SLP for backups you already have, but I would seriously consider using them going forward and not get yourself into this spot.

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

To answer your question you tick expire original tape images after 0 hours as the DD is tape as far as NBU is concerned

As pointed out SLPs would be a better way forward. Maybe manually duplicate the existing images and then expire them (copy 1 only!!!!) until you acheive what you want

#EDIT# The SLP can have the backup retention on the DD VTL as just 1 day / 1 week or what ever works for you and the duplicate copy set to what ever you want it to be (yoru existing retention period)  .. nothing will actually expire until the duplication has been successful so the data is safe

[evo]

I configured an SLP which is going to backup to DD with 1 month retention and then duplicate to tape with 6 month retention.This is OK for future backups.

But do you think that vault will duplicate old the backup images to tape and then expire the backups on DD immediately after successful duplication, when I tick "Expire Original Tape Backup Images after 0 hours"? 

Regards

[Marianne]

Yes, images will expire immediately, but please bear in mind that image cleanup only runs every 12 hours.

Please see this extract from Vault Admin Guide:

Expire Original Tape Backup Images

The delay (in hours) until duplicated backup images become eligible to expire after the Vault
session runs (applies only if the backup images are on disk and the duplication job has selected
that copy as a source copy for duplication).
You may choose to set this option to expire original VTL images. You can use this option to set
an earlier time for the images to become eligible to expire, however, the imageDB cleanup
process performs the expiration of eligible images as a separate operation. The imageDB cleanup
process is run every 12 hours by default. You can change this default value using the Image
DB Cleanup Interval option on the Cleanup node of Master Server Host Properties on the
NetBackup Administration Console or the bpconfig -cleanup_int command. Refer to the
NetBackup Commands document for more information about this command.
If the duplication of a tape backup image is not successful, the tape image does not expire. In
addition, if the number of hours (X) equals zero, then the images expire immediately after a
successful Vault duplication occurs.

[evo]

Thank you all for the comments.