> As far as I know once images expire they are deleted from the Netbackup
> catalog - as a result (and as you state) it is not possible to unexpire
> images within the catalog via bpexpdate.  The only option is to manually
> import the images off the tapes, assuming you know what tapes have the
> images you need and they haven't yet been overwritten.  If you are able
> to do the import then you can assign whatever retention you want.

Yes.  I think he's looking for something like the default behavior of
EMC Networker, where the image's expiration is suspended if there
haven't been any later successful backups.  So not recover (via import)
after the fact, but prevent the last backup from being expired at all.

I can think of how using some scheduled scripts could get pretty close.
Examine the catalog for the last full backup of all the
machine/filesystem.  If it's approaching expiration, push the expiration
date back.

As long as the script runs (successfully) at least once within the
"pushback" period, it'll prevent the expiration.  

Finding the image corresponding to a particular filesystem isn't
necessarily trivial though.  And you really need to track by filesystem.
If the machine has done recent successful full backups, but one
filesystem failed each time, you'd like to delay that filesystem's
expiration.

-- 
Darren Dunham                                           ddunham AT taos DOT com
Senior Technical Consultant         TAOS            http://www.taos.com/
Got some Dr Pepper?                           San Francisco, CA bay area
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