Regarding your request and the responses, some thoughts:

If you HAVE to HAVE the DATA...

1. immediately FREEZE ALL SCRATCH TAPES AND/OR MOVE THEM to an unused pool - so 
you don't overwrite the tapes. You will need to leave them there until you find 
the tape. Restoring the catalog from a week ago should allow you to search it - 
but turn off cleanup process or it will just clean it out...

2. make sure when you reimport the image - you update the retention, I had a 
funny experience where another tech was importing an image that was expired, 
and he kept the two week retention - it is based on the original backup date, 
so his copies kept expiring as soon as a cleanup job ran! For a temporary task, 
use infinite retention and a temp tape (disk is better) and manually expire it 
once it is restored. Better yet, throw it on a one year retention and keep it - 
you never know...

Why you might NOT want to restore it!

1. explain what "retention policy" is to your customer! You should have a 
documented one! Perhaps it needs to be redefined and extended.

2. When you reimport an expired image - you are voiding your retention policy - 
which is your legal obligation to maintain images. Be prepared to explain why 
you have this one extended image, and not the ones the lawyers are requesting. 
My understanding is once you start the import process, you may be required to 
reimport ALL your scratch tapes during a litigation.


Message: 5
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:20:36 -0400
From: Brandon35 <netbackup-forum AT backupcentral DOT com>
Subject: [Veritas-bu]  Reintroduce Expired Image
To: VERITAS-BU AT MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN DOT EDU
Message-ID: <1280863236.m2f.340097 AT www.backupcentral DOT com>

Here's the situation,

I have a user who needed a file restored. As I checked to pull up the file I 
have found that image that has his file expired only 4 days ago.

Is it possible to A) Find out what image/tape it could possible be on and B) 
Reintroduce or at least retreive data from it?

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