Do you do backup reporting?

If you’ve used NetBackup, or any other backup tool for that matter, for any length of time, you know how lacking the base product’s reporting has been until the past couple of years. There are several products that fill the void that Veritas/Symantec has, until recently, not addressed very well.

At first glance, you might not think backup reporting tools are worth the money. However, their ability to quickly present readable, well organized charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, even from the most complicated of data sets, starts making up for the cost. Add in the time it would take a normal admin to cobble together requests from management, if it would even be possible, and these products are looking even better.

Let’s face it, management likes pretty reports, but more to the point, management values pretty reports that contain facts.

With a tool of this nature, you can take a top down approach to resolving widespread issues that may have escaped the admins. Further, since the data is historical, you can prove that, in fact, client A has always been slow to backup. If you are a service provider or bill your customers, chances are you are not billing accurately for the backups you are performing. A tool of this nature, either with a built-in chargeback report or just exporting the raw backup usage, can recover these lost dollars. This in turn increases the ROI on the product, turning backups into a profit center. The possibilities are endless, even more so with the ability to create custom reports outside of what is already offered.

If you are at a site of any size, you should definitely consider a product that offers historical reporting and trending of your backup environment.

Here is a listing of the popular products (in alphabetical order):

Aptare Storage Console
Bocada
Solar Winds/Tek-Tools Profiler
Symantec OpsCenter/Backup Reporter (VBR)
WysDM/EMC Data Protection Advisor

Most of the products will support NetBackup, BackupExec, TSM, Networker, and Legato, among others. Many of these also have additional modules for storage and virtualization reporting that makes them even more attractive.

I invite you to answer a quick question on what reporting product you use (if any):

 

NetBackup Documentation Bundle

I figure most of you NetBackup admins are like me and don’t want to download the manuals one by one everytime a new release of NBU comes out. Here’s a link to a zip file of PDF documentation:

NetBackup 7.1 Documentation Zip Bundle

I can’t find any zips for other bundles, so if anyone has these, leave it in the comments or email me!

 

6.5.3.1 Security Update

In March, 2009, Symantec provided a security update to NetBackup. Reportedly, this update fixes a vulnerability with vnetd and also addresses issues with calendar based scheduling and DST. The entire bulletin describing the fixes and known issues can be found here.

 

Media In Use When It Really Isn’t

In NetBackup 6.x, the Resource Broker (nbrb) handles assignment of resources. A known bug exists, which was supposed to be fixed in 6.5.1, where media would not have this assignment released. Most times this is noticed during a restore when a particular tape is required, yet the restore details state that it is waiting on the media. To resolve this, do the following:

1. Verify NBU inventory and library inventory are synced
2. Verify NBU inventory shows tape as in library
3. Verify tape is not already mounted or stuck in a tape drive via robtest or some other method
4. If the above show the tape is in a normal, expected state, continue below; otherwise, resolve the issues above and retry the job
5. Note: running these commands will cancel any job you have running that is requesting this media; be sure to suspend/cancel them beforehand
6. Run /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbrbutil -dump | grep <mediaID>
7. If nbrb still has an open assignment for this tape, you will see quite a few lines of information, but look for the line containing “MdsAllocation“
8. Next to this will be a number so that it looks like this: MdsAllocation allocationKey=4838
9. This is the assignment that needs to be released using this command: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbrbutil -releaseMDS 4838
10. Run the dump command again (step 6) to verify the assignment has been released from the tape
11. Resume/restart the job

 

6.5.4 Estimated Release Date

NetBackup 6.5.4 is estimated to be released early June.

 

Why it’s important to do your homework

I was recently expiring some images that had failed to be expired on their own (due to the known bug in 6.5 that won’t expire old 5.1 images from disk) and it reminded me how very important it is to do your homework when taking drastic steps such as this. As we all know, once you use bpexpdate to get rid of an image, the only way to get it back is to import the tape(s). Before expiring those images, even if it is just one, use bpimmedia and bpimagelist to document what the images are and where they reside.

I find with this, as with most things, the old Murphy’s Law addage applies: If you don’t do the research and documentation, you’ll get burned; if you take care of it, then you will be in good shape (and if you aren’t, you have the necessary history to recover).

 

6.x Java GUI hangs

If your 6.x Java Admin Console GUI hangs when selecting Client Properties, never fear, you are NOT losing your mind! Symantec, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the GUI would most likely be used on a server in the local subnet of every client AND the user would want all the client properties info cached. Riiiiiiggghhht. Anyway, here’s how you turn off caching and save your sanity:

1. Close any open 6.x java consoles
2. Locate the Java admin console config file on the host where you are running the client from (typically a Windows workstation):

   1. Windows: <install location>\Veritas\NetBackup\java\setconf.bat
   2. Unix/Linux: /usr/openv/java/nbj.conf
3. Disable FORCE_IPADDR_LOOKUP

   1. add/change this line on Windows: SET FORCE_IPADDR_LOOKUP=0
   2. add/change this line on Unix/Linux: FORCE_IPADDER_LOOKUP=0

   Note: the difference in the spelling of the parameters is correct. Also, no spaces before or after the equal sign and SET is required on Windows.

4. Restart the console and confirm the problem is resolved.

 

6.5.3 Estimated Release Date

Word on the street is that 6.5.3 will be out in the Fall 2008 time frame.

Update: Since it’s been released, I figured I provide a link to the 6.5.3 download page.

 

Trouble with Vault ejects

When vault fails to eject tapes, there could be a lock file that was not released. Depending on your configuration, the Vault session may error with a 290, 297, or 306 error code. Here are some steps to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

1. Verify no vault sessions are running
2. If none running proceed or wait for jobs to complete
3. Empty the CAP if any tapes are present
4. Rename or remove /usr/openv/netbackup/vault/sessions/vlteject.mstr.lock on the Master
5. For ACS robots rename/remove any /usr/openv/volmgr/misc/EJECT_*.txt files on ALL media servers that use this robot
6. Eject tapes for the session(s) by either re-running vault or using vltopmenu to attempt to eject them again

It is important to note that if you have an ACS robot, you should check all media servers that can control the robot.

 

Hello, Computer

This blog is related to Veritas/Symantec’s enterprise backup product, NetBackup. Here you will find various tips, thoughts and ramblings related to NetBackup. I hope you’re able to find something useful.