Thanks very much for taking the time to clarify and summarize this
issue.

If there was a legato single document that explained what you just did,
I wouldn't be bothering anyone with these seemingly basic questions. 

This would be another great example of confusing legato topics that
someone was asking for a long time ago.

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 6:28 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Bootstrap and Index Question

I will attempt to summarise all the options regarding index and 
bootstrap backups, since it seems to be causing Bruce some confusion.

(1) Creating indices for backups (setting on pools called
     "Store index entries"). This is nothing to do with backing up the
      indices, just whether you have indices in the first place.
   Pros: You will be able to restore individual files.
   Cons: You will only be able to do save set recoveries unless you
         later scanner the tape.


(2) When to save indices to tape?
* Immediately after backup (with original groups).
   Pros: Indices backed up as soon as possible.
   Cons: NW server may be mounting/unmounting tapes much more
frequently.
         If a client is in multiple groups you will backup its index
         many times.

* At a later time using savegrp -O (may need to select
         "no index saves" in group resource).
   Pros: All indices backed up together - better for DR of server.
   Cons: Delay in backing up.
         Possible to omit adding a client to index group.

* Both immediately after backup AND later with savegrp -O.
   Pros: Best of both worlds:
   Cons: Uses more media than strictly necessary.


(3) Whether to use a dedicated index pool?
   Pros: Server backs index up to a small number of tapes, minimising
         mounts and unmounts. If you don't do this, all the pools need
         to have volumes available on the server as well as the
         storage nodes which means you will have very many
         under-utilised tapes.
   Cons: All eggs in one basket. If an index tape goes bad you may lose
         many days of indices (can be overcome by cloning).

   Note that if you are only using savegrp -O method, your indices will
   go to one pool in any case, so this is unnecessary.


(4) Whether to backup your bootstrap with every group?

   Pros: None.
   Cons: Media DB locked while bootstrap backup in progress causing
         potential backup failure.
         If you are backing up bootstrap with every group your server is
         probably mis-configured such that your NW server is not being
         backed up. It could be that you are using an external
scheduler,
         in which case you probably need to schedule a dummy group
         including the server to prevent this happening.


(5) Whether to suppress your bootstrap backups?

Trick question, because you can't actually do this from NetWorker. 
However, there have been cases where a NetWorker server suffers many 
backup failures due to the media DB being locked during a bootstrap 
backup. This occurs when the NW server has many local backups to do. The

only way to stop the bootstrap backup is to replace the save command 
with a wrapper script that selectively omits the bootstrap backup. This 
is a very rare situation, but has happened.

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