Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an interview *interesting*

2004-04-02 10:59:58
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an interview *interesting*
From: ckstehman AT pepco DOT com (ckstehman AT pepco DOT com)
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 10:59:58 -0500
This is a multipart message in MIME format.
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Ed,

I agree.  I would prefer someone who was able to work with others and use 
documentation 
and other sources to find and correct problems, rather than be able to 
spout specific details. 
And know when to call tech support rather than spend days trying to figure 
out a problem
The person would need to have some experience working with Netbackup 
coupled with
a background in solving problems and working on the systems that host the 
Netbackup
master and media servers. And be willing to learn!

There are so many different options and environments that no-one would 
know all of them. 
 Some sites have Windows and Unix mixed, some have large libraries with 
SSO, others may be
 all UNIX or Windows, with master and media servers on the same system or 
split... etc, etc.

my 2 cents.

Carl
=============================
Carl Stehman
PHI Services Company
202-331-6619
Pager 301-765-2703
ckstehman AT pepco DOT com





Ed.Toner AT eu.nabgroup DOT com
Sent by: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
04/02/2004 10:30 AM

 
        To:     veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on 
an interview 
*interesting*



If your looking for a netbackup contractor for a short spell then fine, 
but
if you are looking for a permanent employee I would agree that most of
those are too specific.

If met plenty of guys who can quote chapter and verse but cannot work with
other people and seem unable to do problem solving. Problem solving will 
be
much more useful in 5 years than what the spec of a DLT library is.

What if you've spent 5 years doing netbackup with LTO and STK drives so
I've never used a DLT library ? Is the answer somewhere I can look it up ?
In which case why would I carry that info around.

My 2 pence
Ed





"Jim Horalek" <jimh AT federaledge DOT com>@mailman.eng.auburn.edu on 02/04/2004
15:53:01

Sent by:    veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu


To:    <scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com>, "'Goldfarb, Josh'"
       <Josh.Goldfarb AT blackrock DOT com>
cc:    <veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>
Subject:    RE: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an
       interview *interesting*


So by looking at your questions you would exclude a Networker expert who
has
never seen Netbackup?




-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of
scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 11:25 PM
To: Goldfarb, Josh
Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an
interview
*interesting*



I know there have already been a number of posts for this and I agree with
the folks about looking for someone who can think and not just recite
things, but at the same time am completely tired of hearing from people 
who
claim to know "NetBackup Exec" or "NetBackup 8.6" (the Backup Exec
version).


If they say they have NetBackup experience on their resume and they can't
tell me the difference between a volume pool and a volume group, then
there's a problem.

Asking the error number questions can be ok because when they do get stuck
you can always ask what they would do to figure it out (or see if they
bring
this up on their own).  I can't count the number of times someone has
automatically answered "pick up the phone and call support" instead of
looking in the manual or using bperror or something first.

Anyway, since I already had it typed up somewhere, here are some of mine.
many are leading questions, where the answer could be simple or turn into
something really long (depending on their level of knowledge of the
item)...


How do you configure a client for automatic backups?
What's the difference between diff incr and cumulative incr?  What happens
when I mix them on Windows client... Unix client?
How is a changed file determined on Windows and what happens afterwards 
for
each type of backup?  How is a changed file determined on Unix?
When would I, or would I not, use cross mount points?
What is the difference between a Volume Group and a Volume Pool?
How do you back up the catalog?  Why is this important?  What do you have
to
do if you don't have a catalog backup?
How do you recover the catalog?
How do you configure retention levels for a backup?
If I install the Admin client on an NT workstation, what else has to be
done
for it to work... be an authorized server?
What is multiplexing?  What is multiple data streams?  Are they the same?
Can I have one without the other... both... ?  where are they configured?
What determines the number of jobs a client can run?  What determines the
number of jobs that will go to a single drive?
What is OTM?  TIR?
What format does NetBackup write the tape in?
How does NetBackup tie together with Media Manager?
How do I create a Storage Unit that will only be used by one client?
What is the difference between the expiration date for a volume in
NetBackup's media catalog and Media Manager's volume database?
What is the process in which NetBackup decides if a tape is available and
which one it will use?  Will media servers share tapes?  Will retention
levels be mixed on a tape?  What happens if the requested pool is out of
tapes?
What is the difference between a frozen volume and a suspended volume?
How many Robot Control Hosts can a DLT tape library have?
What does the bpbkar process do?  bpsched?  bpbrm?  bpdbm? ltid?  What
process controls a DLT tape library... a DLT tape drive?  What is the AVRD
process?


- Scott




 "Goldfarb, Josh" <Josh.Goldfarb AT blackrock DOT com>
Sent by: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu


03/26/2004 11:56 AM



        To:        <veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>
        cc:        <david.chapa AT adic DOT com>
        Subject:        [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on
an interview *interesting*



Please tell me if you think these questions are suitable and if you have
any
additions, please let me know.

Basic:
Why is the catalog the most important component of Netbackup?
What does status 59 mean in the activity monitor?
If you have an exchange database backup with a status 1 in the activity
monitor what would you do?
On a windows box if you encountered a status 11, what is the problem?
Why is a binary catalog more efficient than an ASCII catalog?
--------
Intermediate:
What is BPRD?
If you have a SCSI attached robot and in device monitor you see the drives
marked as AVR, what does that mean and how would you fix it?


If I asked you to tell me if a client has Netbackup on it just by using a
telnet command what would you do?
If you wanted to know what IP address netbackup was using to perform
backups
what command would you run and where would you run it?


If an exchange server has four storage groups, how would you set it up so
that all four databases get sent to a different tape drive at the same
time?



If you have an Exchange database on box ab1 and you want to set NBU to
backup both the database and "C:\, F:\, System_state" how would you set up
the policy and or polcies to do this while using the same volume pool?


If a media ID A04567 comes back and it is frozen, what are the steps to
unfreeze it and move it back to scratch from the command line?


----------
Expert:
If you wanted to bypass netbackup commands and move a tape from slot 1 to
drive 3 how would you do that?
What does this command do? Vmcheckxxx -rt tld -rn 0 brnyc-eb01 -vmhost
brnyc-eb01 -list?
If your last catalog backup was two days ago and the master server crashed
what would you have to do to bring your environment back up to present
time?



How do you find a disk based image via the command line and then delete 
it?
>From the expert himself - Dave Chapa
-----------------------------
How do you import an NBU image that has been written to a disk storage
unit?

What are the critical catalogs or databases on a Media Server?
How would you tune NetBackup to increase backup performance?









Josh Goldfarb
BlackRock Financial Management Inc.
BlackRock Solutions - Technology USA
40 East 52nd Street
NY, NY 10022
Phone: 212.409.3702









<< Attachment Removed : C.htm >>



===============================================================
National Australia Group Europe Limited (Company Number 02108635,
Registered Office 88 Wood Street, London EC2V 7QQ) (NAGE) is a subsidiary
of National Australia Bank Limited (an Australian registered company). The
following UK subsidiaries of NAGE are authorised and regulated by the
Financial Services Authority: Clydesdale Bank PLC, Yorkshire Bank PLC,
Northern Bank Limited, Northern Bank Executor and Trustee Company Limited,
MLC Savings Limited, MLC Trust Management Company Limited, Clydesdale Bank
Insurance Brokers Limited, Yorkshire Bank Financial Services Limited,
Northern Bank Insurance Services Limited, National Australia Bank Limited.
In Ireland National Irish Bank Limited and National Irish Investment Bank
Limited are regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory 
Authority.

The views and opinions expressed in this email may not reflect the views
and opinions of any member of the group of which NAGE forms part. The
information contained in this message is confidential and may also be
privileged. It is intended only for the addressee named above. The
unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is
strictly prohibited. If you are not the addressee (or responsible for
delivery of the message to the addressee), please notify the originator
immediately by return message and destroy the original message. This
message and any attachments have been scanned for viruses prior to leaving
the NAGE network. However, NAGE does not guarantee the security of this
message and will not be responsible for any damages arising as a result of
any virus being passed on or arising from any alteration of this message 
by
a third party. NAGE may monitor emails sent to and from the NAGE network.



_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu




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Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"


<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Ed,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I agree. &nbsp;I would prefer someone who 
was able to work with others and use documentation </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">and other sources to find and correct 
problems, rather than be able to spout specific details. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">And know when to call tech support rather 
than spend days trying to figure out a problem</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The person would need to have some 
experience working with Netbackup coupled with</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">a background in solving problems and working 
on the systems that host the Netbackup</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">master and media servers. And be willing to 
learn!</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">There are so many different options and 
environments that no-one would know all of them. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">&nbsp;Some sites have Windows and Unix 
mixed, some have large libraries with SSO, others may be</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">&nbsp;all UNIX or Windows, with master and 
media servers on the same system or split... etc, etc.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">my 2 cents.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Carl<br>
=============================<br>
Carl Stehman<br>
PHI Services Company<br>
202-331-6619<br>
Pager 301-765-2703<br>
ckstehman AT pepco DOT com</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<table width=100%>
<tr valign=top>
<td>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><b>Ed.Toner AT eu.nabgroup DOT com</b></font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Sent by: veritas-bu-admin AT 
mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu</font>
<p><font size=1 face="sans-serif">04/02/2004 10:30 AM</font>
<br>
<td><font size=1 face="Arial">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; To: &nbsp; 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu</font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; cc: &nbsp; 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Subject: &nbsp; 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;RE: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an 
interview *interesting*</font></table>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"><br>
If your looking for a netbackup contractor for a short spell then fine, but<br>
if you are looking for a permanent employee I would agree that most of<br>
those are too specific.<br>
<br>
If met plenty of guys who can quote chapter and verse but cannot work with<br>
other people and seem unable to do problem solving. Problem solving will be<br>
much more useful in 5 years than what the spec of a DLT library is.<br>
<br>
What if you've spent 5 years doing netbackup with LTO and STK drives so<br>
I've never used a DLT library ? Is the answer somewhere I can look it up ?<br>
In which case why would I carry that info around.<br>
<br>
My 2 pence<br>
Ed<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
&quot;Jim Horalek&quot; &lt;jimh AT federaledge DOT 
com&gt;@mailman.eng.auburn.edu on 02/04/2004<br>
15:53:01<br>
<br>
Sent by: &nbsp; &nbsp;veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu<br>
<br>
<br>
To: &nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com&gt;, &quot;'Goldfarb, 
Josh'&quot;<br>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;Josh.Goldfarb AT blackrock DOT com&gt;<br>
cc: &nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu&gt;<br>
Subject: &nbsp; &nbsp;RE: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on 
an<br>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; interview *interesting*<br>
<br>
<br>
So by looking at your questions you would exclude a Networker expert who<br>
has<br>
never seen Netbackup?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu<br>
[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of<br>
scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com<br>
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 11:25 PM<br>
To: Goldfarb, Josh<br>
Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu<br>
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on an<br>
interview<br>
*interesting*<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
I know there have already been a number of posts for this and I agree with<br>
the folks about looking for someone who can think and not just recite<br>
things, but at the same time am completely tired of hearing from people who<br>
claim to know &quot;NetBackup Exec&quot; or &quot;NetBackup 8.6&quot; (the 
Backup Exec<br>
version).<br>
<br>
<br>
If they say they have NetBackup experience on their resume and they can't<br>
tell me the difference between a volume pool and a volume group, then<br>
there's a problem.<br>
<br>
Asking the error number questions can be ok because when they do get stuck<br>
you can always ask what they would do to figure it out (or see if they<br>
bring<br>
this up on their own). &nbsp;I can't count the number of times someone has<br>
automatically answered &quot;pick up the phone and call support&quot; instead 
of</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">looking in the manual or using bperror or 
something first.<br>
<br>
Anyway, since I already had it typed up somewhere, here are some of mine.<br>
many are leading questions, where the answer could be simple or turn into<br>
something really long (depending on their level of knowledge of the<br>
item)...<br>
<br>
<br>
How do you configure a client for automatic backups?<br>
What's the difference between diff incr and cumulative incr? &nbsp;What 
happens<br>
when I mix them on Windows client... Unix client?<br>
How is a changed file determined on Windows and what happens afterwards for<br>
each type of backup? &nbsp;How is a changed file determined on Unix?<br>
When would I, or would I not, use cross mount points?<br>
What is the difference between a Volume Group and a Volume Pool?<br>
How do you back up the catalog? &nbsp;Why is this important? &nbsp;What do you 
have<br>
to<br>
do if you don't have a catalog backup?<br>
How do you recover the catalog?<br>
How do you configure retention levels for a backup?<br>
If I install the Admin client on an NT workstation, what else has to be<br>
done<br>
for it to work... be an authorized server?<br>
What is multiplexing? &nbsp;What is multiple data streams? &nbsp;Are they the 
same?<br>
Can I have one without the other... both... ? &nbsp;where are they 
configured?<br>
What determines the number of jobs a client can run? &nbsp;What determines 
the<br>
number of jobs that will go to a single drive?<br>
What is OTM? &nbsp;TIR?<br>
What format does NetBackup write the tape in?<br>
How does NetBackup tie together with Media Manager?<br>
How do I create a Storage Unit that will only be used by one client?<br>
What is the difference between the expiration date for a volume in<br>
NetBackup's media catalog and Media Manager's volume database?<br>
What is the process in which NetBackup decides if a tape is available and<br>
which one it will use? &nbsp;Will media servers share tapes? &nbsp;Will 
retention<br>
levels be mixed on a tape? &nbsp;What happens if the requested pool is out 
of<br>
tapes?<br>
What is the difference between a frozen volume and a suspended volume?<br>
How many Robot Control Hosts can a DLT tape library have?<br>
What does the bpbkar process do? &nbsp;bpsched? &nbsp;bpbrm? &nbsp;bpdbm? ltid? 
&nbsp;What<br>
process controls a DLT tape library... a DLT tape drive? &nbsp;What is the 
AVRD<br>
process?<br>
<br>
<br>
- Scott<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
 &quot;Goldfarb, Josh&quot; &lt;Josh.Goldfarb AT blackrock DOT com&gt;<br>
Sent by: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu<br>
<br>
<br>
03/26/2004 11:56 AM<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;To: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;veritas-bu AT 
mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu&gt;<br>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;cc: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;david.chapa AT 
adic DOT com&gt;<br>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Subject: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;[Veritas-bu] 
Questions to ask a Netbackup Admin on<br>
an interview *interesting*<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Please tell me if you think these questions are suitable and if you have<br>
any<br>
additions, please let me know.<br>
<br>
Basic:<br>
Why is the catalog the most important component of Netbackup?<br>
What does status 59 mean in the activity monitor?<br>
If you have an exchange database backup with a status 1 in the activity<br>
monitor what would you do?<br>
On a windows box if you encountered a status 11, what is the problem?<br>
Why is a binary catalog more efficient than an ASCII catalog?<br>
--------<br>
Intermediate:<br>
What is BPRD?<br>
If you have a SCSI attached robot and in device monitor you see the drives<br>
marked as AVR, what does that mean and how would you fix it?<br>
<br>
<br>
If I asked you to tell me if a client has Netbackup on it just by using a<br>
telnet command what would you do?<br>
If you wanted to know what IP address netbackup was using to perform<br>
backups<br>
what command would you run and where would you run it?<br>
<br>
<br>
If an exchange server has four storage groups, how would you set it up so<br>
that all four databases get sent to a different tape drive at the same<br>
time?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
If you have an Exchange database on box ab1 and you want to set NBU to<br>
backup both the database and &quot;C:\, F:\, System_state&quot; how would you 
set up<br>
the policy and or polcies to do this while using the same volume pool?<br>
<br>
<br>
If a media ID A04567 comes back and it is frozen, what are the steps to<br>
unfreeze it and move it back to scratch from the command line?<br>
<br>
<br>
----------<br>
Expert:<br>
If you wanted to bypass netbackup commands and move a tape from slot 1 to<br>
drive 3 how would you do that?<br>
What does this command do? Vmcheckxxx -rt tld -rn 0 brnyc-eb01 -vmhost<br>
brnyc-eb01 -list?<br>
If your last catalog backup was two days ago and the master server crashed<br>
what would you have to do to bring your environment back up to present<br>
time?</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"><br>
<br>
<br>
How do you find a disk based image via the command line and then delete it?<br>
>From the expert himself - Dave Chapa<br>
-----------------------------<br>
How do you import an NBU image that has been written to a disk storage<br>
unit?<br>
<br>
What are the critical catalogs or databases on a Media Server?<br>
How would you tune NetBackup to increase backup performance?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Josh Goldfarb<br>
BlackRock Financial Management Inc.<br>
BlackRock Solutions - Technology USA<br>
40 East 52nd Street<br>
NY, NY 10022<br>
Phone: 212.409.3702<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
&lt;&lt; Attachment Removed : C.htm &gt;&gt;<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
===============================================================<br>
National Australia Group Europe Limited (Company Number 02108635,<br>
Registered Office 88 Wood Street, London EC2V 7QQ) (NAGE) is a subsidiary<br>
of National Australia Bank Limited (an Australian registered company). The<br>
following UK subsidiaries of NAGE are authorised and regulated by the<br>
Financial Services Authority: Clydesdale Bank PLC, Yorkshire Bank PLC,<br>
Northern Bank Limited, Northern Bank Executor and Trustee Company Limited,<br>
MLC Savings Limited, MLC Trust Management Company Limited, Clydesdale Bank<br>
Insurance Brokers Limited, Yorkshire Bank Financial Services Limited,<br>
Northern Bank Insurance Services Limited, National Australia Bank Limited.<br>
In Ireland National Irish Bank Limited and National Irish Investment Bank<br>
Limited are regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.<br>
<br>
The views and opinions expressed in this email may not reflect the views<br>
and opinions of any member of the group of which NAGE forms part. The<br>
information contained in this message is confidential and may also be<br>
privileged. It is intended only for the addressee named above. The<br>
unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is<br>
strictly prohibited. If you are not the addressee (or responsible for<br>
delivery of the message to the addressee), please notify the originator<br>
immediately by return message and destroy the original message. This<br>
message and any attachments have been scanned for viruses prior to leaving<br>
the NAGE network. However, NAGE does not guarantee the security of this<br>
message and will not be responsible for any damages arising as a result of<br>
any virus being passed on or arising from any alteration of this message by<br>
a third party. NAGE may monitor emails sent to and from the NAGE network.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Veritas-bu maillist &nbsp;- &nbsp;Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu<br>
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu<br>
</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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