NetBackup™ in Highly Available Environments Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.2)
  1. About in this guide
    1.  
      What's in this guide
    2.  
      Documents related to NetBackup in highly available environments
  2. NetBackup protection against single points of failure
    1. Protecting against component failures
      1.  
        Network link failures
      2. Storage device connection failures
        1.  
          SAN connection failures
        2.  
          Robotic control connection failures
      3.  
        Storage device failure
      4.  
        Media availability failures
      5.  
        Primary server failures
      6. Media server failures
        1.  
          Dedicated media server failures
        2.  
          Non-dedicated media servers failures
        3.  
          SAN media server failures
        4.  
          Restoring tape backups using an alternative media server
        5.  
          Restoring disk backups using an alternative media server
      7.  
        LAN client failures
      8.  
        SAN client failures
    2.  
      Site failures
    3.  
      Protecting the catalog in highly available environments
  3. About site disaster recovery with catalog backup and recovery
    1.  
      Disaster recovery packages
    2. About catalog recovery
      1.  
        About full catalog recovery
      2.  
        Performing full catalog restore
      3.  
        Making the DR environment consistent after a full catalog restore
      4.  
        About partial catalog recovery
      5.  
        Performing a partial catalog restore
      6.  
        Making the DR environment consistent after a partial catalog restore
    3. About disk recovery in DR domain
      1.  
        Disk recovery in single-domain replication DR environment
      2.  
        Auto Image Replication
      3.  
        Disk recovery in cross-domain replication DR environment
  4. About site loss protection with auto image and catalog replication
    1.  
      About Auto Image Replication (AIR)
    2. About NetBackup catalog replication
      1.  
        About conditions for support of replicated NetBackup catalogs
      2.  
        About catalog synchronization
      3. About multi-site single domain replication
        1.  
          About multi-site single domain with stretched SAN
        2.  
          About multi-site single domain with optimized duplication
      4. About multi-site cross domain replication
        1.  
          About multi-site cross domain and BasicDisk storage
        2.  
          Planning a cross domain replication disaster recovery domain
      5. About full catalog replication
        1.  
          Recovering the catalog with full catalog replication
        2.  
          Making the DR environment consistent with full catalog replication
      6. About partial catalog replication
        1.  
          Preparing an environment for partial catalog replication
        2.  
          Recovering the environment with partial catalog replication
        3.  
          Making the disaster recovery environment consistent with partial catalog replication
        4.  
          Considerations for managing tapes with partial catalog replication
  5. Deploying NetBackup primary servers with full catalog replication
    1.  
      About replication considerations
    2. About non-clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
      1. Installing and configuring non-clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
        1.  
          Installing and configuring the main NetBackup primary server
        2.  
          Installing and configuring an alternate NetBackup primary server
        3.  
          Upgrading NetBackup primary server in a non-clustered replicated configuration
    3. About globally clustered NetBackup primary servers with catalog replication
      1. Installing and configuring a globally clustered NetBackup primary server with catalog replication
        1.  
          About clustering considerations
        2.  
          Installing and configuring the main NetBackup primary server cluster
        3.  
          Installing and configuring an alternate NetBackup primary server cluster
      2.  
        Populating the server tables in the NetBackup database
      3.  
        Upgrading NetBackup in a clustered replication configuration
      4.  
        Failing over to an alternate primary server cluster
      5.  
        Testing the NetBackup primary server cluster in clustered replication environment
  6. Using NetBackup to perform backups and restores in a cluster
    1. About backups and restores with NetBackup in a cluster
      1.  
        Performing user-directed backups with NetBackup in a cluster
      2. About restoring data in a cluster
        1.  
          Example: Performing a user-directed restore in a NetBackup cluster
    2.  
      About supported NetBackup application agents in a cluster

Restoring disk backups using an alternative media server

NetBackup can share disk storage pools between multiple media servers. During restore, by default, NetBackup balances the job load and automatically directs the restore to the least busy media server rather than the one that made the backup. However, this process can cause problems if the media server selected to perform the restore is licensed as a SAN media server or does not have network access to the client which requires a restore.

If you encounter this problem, configure the force restore media server setting, with one of the following methods.

Configure the force restore media server setting

To configure the failover restore media server in the bp.conf file (UNIX)

  1. Sign in to the primary server.
  2. (UNIX) In the bp.conf file, create an entry FAILOVER_RESTORE_MEDIA_SERVER.

To add a media host override (Windows)

  1. Sign in to the primary server.
  2. On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
  3. Select the primary server and click Connect.
  4. Select the primary server and click Edit primary server.
  5. Click General server.
  6. Locate Media host override. Then click Add to add a media server.

    This setting works on a per-server basis. It lets you specify a media server for restore operations based on the media server that is used to make the backup. To ensure that the same media server is used to make the backup and the restore, specify the same name for the backup and restore server.

Create the touch file USE_BACKUP_MEDIA_SERVER_FOR_RESTORE

Note:

When the USE_BACKUP_MEDIA_SERVER_FOR_RESTORE touch file is created, all FAILOVER_RESTORE_MEDIA_SERVER and FORCE_RESTORE_MEDIA_SERVER settings are ignored.

Create the touch file as follows:

  • (Linux) On the primary server, create the file in /usr/openv/netbackup/db/config

  • (Windows) On the primary server, create the file in <install path>\veritas\netbackup\db\config.

    USE_BACKUP_MEDIA_SERVER_FOR_RESTORE is a global setting and always forces the restore to the server that did the backup.

Use the bprestore -disk_media_server command

Run the restore from the command line using the bprestore -disk_media_server command. This setting works on a per job level. It also lets you specify the media server that is required for the specific restore job. Unlike the other two options, this setting is dynamic and can be applied when needed.