Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] running bpbackupdb from a cron job on Solaris

2002-09-04 12:03:46
Subject: [Veritas-bu] running bpbackupdb from a cron job on Solaris
From: david AT datastaff DOT com (David A. Chapa)
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 11:03:46 -0500
Someone asked me a question about this offline and it got me thinking about
alternative methods for backing up your catalog.  Here's what I wrote to
him.  Anyone see any problems with this?

---Begin Excerpt---
What I haven't seen any one do, YET, is to split up their catalog backup
into multiple streams.

<This is just off the top of my head, so bear with me here.>

bpbackupdb -tpath MEDIAID1 /usr/openv/volmgr/database
/usr/openv/netbackup/db/media /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/$MASTER_SERVER
bpbackupdb -tpath MEDIAID2 /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/[a-lA-L]*
bpbackupdb -tpath MEDIAID3 /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/[m-qM-Q]*
bpbackupdb -tpath MEDIAID4 /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/[r-zR-Z]*
/usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/[0-9]*

You could also work some logic in there so you wouldn't backup the ACTIVE
server's DB entries until they had finished and when they had finished, and
all IMAGEDBs have been backed up generate a Recovery report with all of the
Catalog MEDIA ID's listed in order necessary for recovery.

Really bpbackupdb is merely invoking "tar".
---End Excerpt---

Thoughts?

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
David A. Chapa
Backup Storage Consultant
DataStaff, Inc.
http://www.datastaff.com
312 683 1144
---------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu]On Behalf Of Jeff
Kennedy
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 10:12 AM
To: David A. Chapa
Cc: Snodgrass John; Veritas-Bu (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] running bpbackupdb from a cron job on Solaris


That's kinda the problem, not enough free time to have it all quiet.  In
those environments where backups/duplications are running 24x7 you can't
get that quiet time.

In those cases you run bpbackupdb from cron and understand that anything
in progress is "questionable" (I prefer to say unrecoverable, but thats
just me).  Everything that has already finished is fully recoverable and
happy.

~JK

David A. Chapa wrote:
> John:
> the only problem with running the catalog backup from cron is in the event
> that a backup or duplication (or some process writing to the DBs) is still
> active.  In that case your catalog backup will be "questionable".
>
> I suggest that you terminate the request daemon
>
> /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bprdreq -terminate
>
> And then make sure all of the ACTIVE jobs have completed successfully.
>
> bpdbjobs -report | grep ACTIVE
>
> When everything seems quite and bprd has in fact been terminated, then it
> should be okay to kick off your catalog backup.
>
> When that finishes just restart bprd
>
> /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/initbprd
>
> David
>
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> David A. Chapa
> Backup Storage Consultant
> DataStaff, Inc.
> http://www.datastaff.com
> 312 683 1144
> ---------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> [mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu]On Behalf Of Snodgrass,
> John
> Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 9:49 AM
> To: Veritas-Bu (E-mail)
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] running bpbackupdb from a cron job on Solaris
>
>
> Is it OK to run the NetBackup image catalogs backups from a cron job?  The
> only options on the xbpadm configuration screen do not fit my current
> schedules very well.  I have about 35 classes that run on a given night
and
> over the weekends.  I've had problems where backups get delayed for 30-45
> minutes waiting for the bpbackupdb job to complete after other classes had
> completed and it started automatically.
>
> As my catalogs have gotten larger, the situation is getting worse.  The
> catalog backups are taking longer and longer to run.  It still fits on one
> tape, so I have not had to deal with that situation as described in the
> system admin manual.  The only thing I can find about running it from the
> command line is the description of the command itself.  I'd like to
manually
> schedule the catalog backups for a time that I know the system is idle.
> Other then having to manually run the job everyday, the best option I can
> come up with is to run it from the command line with a cron job.  I  plan
to
> leave the configuration in xbpadm as is to make the process as simple as
> possible.  I've manually run a test, and it appears to work fine.  Anyone
> else doing/done this that would care to comment on their experiences pro
or
> con.
>
> ======================
> John Snodgrass
> Siemens ICN
> Lake Mary, FL
> 407-942-5583
> ======================
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--
=====================
Jeff Kennedy
Unix Administrator
AMCC
jlkennedy AT amcc DOT com

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