I'll add a couple of items of information.

You can use links in the path when specifying them for catalog backups.  
However, the last entry in the path can't be a link.  If it's a link, then 
the file will get backed up, not the directory structure.  I might not be 
doing this topic justice, but I know there's more info in the NBU SAG.

Let me give an example.

If you have a mount point of /nbu_catalog and under that you have an 
images directory and /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images is a link to 
/nbu_catalog/images, here's what would happen:

With /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images in the catalog paths, you'd end up 
backing up the images file that is a link.  This results in losing all 
your images if the disk fails... That's bad.

Now, if you specify /nbu_catalog/images instead, then you'll be fine.

The problem is that NBU can't determine when the LAST part of the path is 
a link.

Now, on to verification...

There's a -stdout option on bprecover... Using that along with tar will 
allow you to list the contents (including specific files) of the tape/disk 
path.

Another example:

# bprecover -l -tpath /dev/rmt/2cbn
Database Backup Information from CAT001

Created:      12/22/04 00:16:06
Server:       nbumaster
Block size:   32768

            Path
            ----
IMAGE1      nbumaster:/usr/openv/netbackup/db
IMAGE2      nbumaster:/usr/openv/volmgr/database
IMAGE3      nbumaster:/usr/openv/var
IMAGE4      nbumedia01:/usr/openv/netbackup/db
IMAGE5      nbumedia01:/usr/openv/volmgr/database
IMAGE6      nbumedia01:/usr/openv/var
IMAGE7      nbumedia02:/usr/openv/netbackup/db
IMAGE8      nbumedia02:/usr/openv/volmgr/database
IMAGE9      nbumedia02:/usr/openv/var

Now, all that does is tell me which directory is supposed to be part of 
which file on tape.  To actually SEE what's in each file on tape, use 
bprecover -stdout:

# bprecover -r 1 -tpath /dev/rmt/2cbn -stdout |tar tvf -

That will list all the files in "IMAGE1" on the tape.

It might look a bit odd in terms of the fields (owner, perms, etc), so you
could use NBU tar to actually make the fields human readable (all on one
line):

# bprecover -r 1 -tpath /dev/rmt/2cbn -stdout 
|/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/tar tvf -

Another thing to note is that you might see things like @@MaNgLeD.xxx 
files in the listing.... It's my understanding that this file is used when 
the file/directory is more than a certain number of chars.  When you 
actually perform a recovery, the file/directory will be recovered 
correctly.

HTH
-Tim

 On Wed, 22 Dec 2004, Espen Martinsen wrote:

> Hi,
> 
>   How can I really verify what files is going to tape
>   on a catalog-backup.
> 
>   I have moved/linked /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images to
>   somewhere else, and is not sure if images/* is really
>   going to the tapes.
>