Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] bparchive

2006-03-08 11:03:42
Subject: [Veritas-bu] bparchive
From: wts AT maine DOT edu (Wayne T Smith)
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 11:03:42 -0500
NetBackup "archive" has always been a pet-peeve of mine.  Most people, I 
think, have images of the Smithsonian or Louvre when they think of the 
word "archive" and get a warm, fuzzy feeling about keeping important 
things, forever, in an archive.  But NetBackup archive just gives me a 
chill!  Allow me to explain, please ...

Right now, you have your data, and it is backed up, with probably 
multiple copies in your backup/restore system(s).  When you use 
NetBackup "archive", NetBackup makes a copy of the files and ERASES your 
primary copy.   NetBackup now has the primary copy of your data, and it 
is a completely untested copy -- maybe you can restore it, maybe you 
can't.   Now, unless and until you make copies of your archived data, 
you have no backups.  Data with no backup is data that you can afford to 
lose.  Oh yes, ... and NetBackup will happily expire your archive.  
Maybe that's good ... maybe not.   Finally, there is no connection 
between your original system and data and the data in NetBackup, except 
the rather independent NetBackup catalog and any manual records you 
might make.   Those NetBackup catalog entries are based on the machine 
that last held the data, not the application that might find the data 
important.

To answer your questions. (1) bparchive is probably as safe as your 
backups, except you've probably been using your backup policies for a 
while and your archiving appears new, and (2), as should be quite clear 
by now, I have no use for bparchive.

However, the tech note you quote is only important if a directory you 
archive is changing during the archive process ... something that would 
appear intrinsically  dangerous for backup or bparchive.

Hope this helps!

cheers, wayne

Shyam Hazari wrote, in part,  on 3/8/2006 8:45 AM:
> I am planning to archive some of the old files on my unix servers( 
> user related files). I already generated the file list and kept it in 
> a file. My intention is to backup first(bpbackup), next use bparchive 
> to archive the files. But after reading the following technote, I am 
> little concerned. Now the questions is, How safe is bparchive ? Anyone 
> used bparchive recently ?
>  
> This is the technote I was referring to. The technote talks about 
> archiving directories, but in my case I am arching individual files.
>  
> http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/281323.htm

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