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Backup Exec 12.5 deleting catalog files

MeJdaNKiD
Level 2

Hi,

 

So can someone explain this scenario to me please:

 

Example:

 

Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 will periodically delete catalog files out of C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backupexec12\Catalogs\. I have spoken to Symantec support and the explanation i received is "well Software will see that there is nothing in those catalog files so it will delete them if there is nothing in those files".

 

Now i find that like a complete BS excuse and it does not make any sense because:

 

  1. Every catalog file has files associated with them (*.bkf)
  2. These catalog files are used when running a backup restore job
  3. If you cannot keep backup jobs for at least 3-6 month then what good is BE12.5
  4. Who determines how the catalog files get erased, and if so can that be over written
  5. Now you can make changes in your Media, how long to keep the backups, when to over write them but if the catalog is not there or “erased” by the software than what good is that

 

I’d like to hear users thoughts and hopefully a Symantec rep will look at this and help answer/clarify this mystery because I just spent 4 hrs trying to determine what happened to my backup that ran successfully, that I have the *.bkf files on the correct media but for some reason I cannot see it.

1 REPLY 1

NeerThadarai
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified

Let me try to explain one by one.

1. Every catalog file has files associated with them (*.bkf)

- *.bkf is nothing but a disk media which contains your backup. It should have it's corresponding catalog. If you don't have one you can catalog .bkf file which in Bakcup Exec would appear as B2D0000x

2. These catalog files are used when running a backup restore job

- These catalog files are created at the time of backup which contains the indexed informtion of what was backed up so that you can use them at the time of restore.

3. If you cannot keep backup jobs for at least 3-6 month then what good is BE12.5

- The catalog files are kept as long as you want. There is some default maintainace that happens everyday and if you have selected to delete catalogs older than x days those catalogs would be deleted. You can check and change those options from Tools | Options | Catalog and see if you have the option selected for Truncate catalog after x days or month.

4. Who determines how the catalog files get erased, and if so can that be over written.

- If any media that contains the data is overwritten the catalog files are automatically overwritten. Also any media is deleted from Backup Exec, catalogs corresponding to that media would be deleted.

 5. Now you can make changes in your Media, how long to keep the backups, when to over write them but if the catalog is not there or “erased” by the software than what good is that

- If you have the media (Tape/disk) which contains data and is not overwritten you can always generate catalog information out of those media to restore the data. As long as you have your media intact you should be able to get your data back by just running the catalog job and restoring the data.

 

I’d like to hear users thoughts and hopefully a Symantec rep will look at this and help answer/clarify this mystery because I just spent 4 hrs trying to determine what happened to my backup that ran successfully, that I have the *.bkf files on the correct media but for some reason I cannot see it.

- You might need to create a backup to disk folder and point that to the location where you have those *.bkf files. Than inventory those medias and re-ran the catalog job to get the catalog information and probably after that you should be able to see and restore the data that you need.

Let us know if this helps