In regard to: Re: [Networker] Question regarding NetWorker's recovery...:

As was pointed out, using uasm could work, but I guess it would need to be used in conjunction with something like dd to actually get it to/from tape?

I think you're talking about the opposite of what I was suggesting.  I
was talking about using uasm to restore the data, not uasm+dd to save
the data.

My suggestion was you continue to use NetWorker to back up the data
on whatever client it happens to currently reside upon.  When the day
comes that you want to recover the data, even if there is no longer
a client defined for the client where the data was located at the
time of the backup, it *might* (again, hypothetical!) be possible to
use uasm, potentially in combination with something else, to
restore the data.

Again, all hypothetical and if you were crazy enough to try it you would
certainly want to do significant testing before actually depending on it.

The other virtual client and NFS mount suggestions are a lot safer and
a better bet.  Just keeping around the old client definitions after
they've been retired is also something to consider.  If you do it right,
it won't cost you a license.

Tim

On 2013-07-23 16:34, Clark, Patricia A. wrote:

On 7/23/13 4:05 PM, "Tim Mooney" <Tim.Mooney AT NDSU DOT EDU> wrote:

In regard to: [Networker] Question regarding NetWorker's recovery
strategy,...:

I'm not sure how to phrase this question, but my experience with NW has
always been host based. In other words, if you want to recover a file
from some host from long ago, and that host no longer exists, then you
have to clown around a little bit to recover it to another current host.
In other words, having the physical tape, a drive that can read it, the
NetWorker software and knowing the ssid for the save set is not enough.
It seems there was always some mischief with having to create an NSR
client resource having that same client name and clientid in order to
recover it, maybe even to another host? Is that right? I'm not talking
about a browsable recovery. For that, I believe what I mentioned is the
case. Instead, I'm only talking about a save set recovery, so I may have
my information wrong there?

Pretty much all true, yes.

Here's my question: I want to be able to back up specific directories
on a
given client, and I don't care about the client.

This doesn't fit NetWorker's security model at all, so you're going to
have a difficult time here.

Think about it: in the vast majority of the cases, admins actually *do*
care about what host the data is on.  /var/lib/mysql on hostA isn't
generally going to be the same as /var/lib/mysql on hostB, and unless the
NetWorker admin specifically configures it, hostB should not be able to
recover hostA's data.

In other words, even though NW will
record the client name in the media database, is there a way to recover
the
save set (save set recover, not browsable recover) without having to
know
anything about the client that backed it up (particularly in cases
where the
client is long gone) or having to play any games with making NW think
there's
such a client or named resource or having to know the clientid?

I've never tried to do this (again, you're really off the beaten path
here) but it's possible that you could skip the client creation process
entirely and just use uasm, possibly in combination with dd or some other
command.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076
(Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

I find this to be typical for storage devices where you don't want to do
an NDMP type backup and don't really want a client per se as the owner.
While not ideal, my networker server used NFS mounts and acted as the
client for the backups.  My server was not too busy to successfully manage
it all and it kept the management of the data under my control including
upgrades and migrations.  If not your actual backup server, perhaps a
dedicated client that can be a surrogate?  Possibly a virtual machine.

Patti Clark
Linux System Administrator
Research and Development Systems Support Oak Ridge National Laboratory

--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164