Networker

Re: [Networker] reusing clone volumes without affecting original savesets

2009-08-25 16:28:30
Subject: Re: [Networker] reusing clone volumes without affecting original savesets
From: Greg Etling <getling AT STERN.NYU DOT EDU>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:21:42 -0400
Davina Treiber wrote:

   If you recycle a volume, it will delete all save sets on the
   volume, whilst leaving any other clones of those save sets intact. If
   you mark a volume as recyclable, it will mark all save sets on the
   volume (plus any clones on other volumes) as recyclable. The second
   situation is the one you need to avoid.

The first one is not possible to do automatically, although I would imagine that one could simply relabel the volume manually to achieve that effect. The second one was previously the method that had been used, hence the confusion! I have tried setting the clone pool retention in the pool settings, but it appears to inherit the longer retention period of the pool from which the saveset was being cloned.

Davina Treiber wrote:

   Your best solution will be to change the retention of the clones as you
   clone them, then no manual operations will be required. There are a
   number of ways to do this.
One method I've noticed since this email is the nsrclone -y switch - It would appear that if running through a script that 'nsrclone -y "1 month" ' would suffice to set it for the clone without affecting the original?

Thanks,
Greg

Greg Etling wrote:

Our organization has tended to keep only a limited number of clones
available for DR usage, and I think we've been going about it the wrong
way (now that I understand about cloned saveset retentions). After
looking through archives, I seem to think I see a workaround suggested,
but I wanted to see if this is something that others do with current
versions (I'm on 7.4.4) of networker.

Intended outcome: Reuse clone volumes without affecting saveset
retention on the original savesets.

Where before we had been forcibly recycling old clone volumes (which I
now realize will mark the original savesets recyclable), it appears that
if I simply delete the clone volume from the indexes and media db, then
it will leave the original saveset retention as-is and I can insert the
volume into the jukebox and networker will pick it up as a new volume,
write a new label to it, and proceed as usual. Or perhaps I will need to
manually label these volumes since they have valid NW labels already?

Input on this solution or any other workarounds (preferably not the
manual recycling of backup pool volumes as EMC recommends as that would
be a lot more administrative overhead) is greatly appreciated.

I think you may be having a tiny bit of confusion here about the
difference between recycling a volume and marking a volume as
recyclable. If you recycle a volume, it will delete all save sets on the
volume, whilst leaving any other clones of those save sets intact. If
you mark a volume as recyclable, it will mark all save sets on the
volume (plus any clones on other volumes) as recyclable. The second
situation is the one you need to avoid.

Deleting the clone volumes is a little clumsy, since as you say the
tapes will have a NetWorker label on them which is no longer known in
the media database.

Your best solution will be to change the retention of the clones as you
clone them, then no manual operations will be required. There are a
number of ways to do this.


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