>>>>> "Preston" == Preston de Guise <enterprise.backup AT GMAIL DOT COM> writes:

Preston> On 05/05/2008, at 11:07 PM, John Stoffel wrote:
Tim> In regard to: [Networker] Restore script, Rod Pudwell said (at  
>> 8:36pm on...:
>>>> I have been asked to write a script that can be scheduled as a  
>>>> cron job to
>>>> restore a test file from a nightly backup. Scripting skills are  
>>>> OK, but I
>>>> haven't used EBS networker from CLI (gui only). Any tips/help  
>>>> would be
>>>> appreciated.
>> 
Tim> Look at the man page for recover, and pay particular attention to
Tim> the -a flag and probably also the -d flag.  For automated
Tim> recovery, -q and -u may also be interesting.
>> 
>> Wouldn't it be simpler to pick a random saveset on the nights backups
>> and then attempt to just clone it to another tape?  This should verify
>> the saveset and that you've got a good backup.

Preston> It's important to note that using nsrclone to clone your
Preston> backups DOES NOT check that your backups are good. This
Preston> checks to ensure that your original backup media is good, and
Preston> can be read back from. It doesn't guarantee that the data
Preston> that was backed up is usable in a recovery scenario.

That is true.  But I feel that it's a simpler step to implement than
an arbitrary restore of a file, esp on a Windows box.  On Unix I'd use
an expect script to run a restore if need be.  

Preston> There's two key styles of tests in this scenario: media
Preston> testing and functional testing. nsrclone is a very good media
Preston> test utility in this scenario (as is, for that matter,
Preston> scanner). True functional testing however is only going to be
Preston> achieved through actually recovering and confirming that the
Preston> data is usable.

Sure, that's a good distinction to make.  Thanks!

John

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