Backup Central

Does anyone know how to write script that can tell me what tapes are
required based on the browse and retention polices for any given server at
any specified point in time? For example, if you use Full/incremental
backups for all backups, and a browse/retention policy of say, 4 weeks as
our working parameters (in this case, there's no reason for the retention
policy to exceed the retention policy). If you run a backup on the
following schedule:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Full Incr Incr Incr Incr Skp Skp Incr Full Incr Incr Incr

Then, the Full that was taken on the first Monday can't expire until all of
the incrementals that it depends on expire, in this case the incrementals on
steps 2-8.

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I can't seem to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a report so that I can
verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a script to
infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used for a the full
and incremental backups, but I would like for the report to be based on what
Networker thinks the are the dependencies involved. I suppose I could go to
the Networker User program and see what times it would require to perform a
"full restore" on the date of the last incremental of the chain since that
should show me the same tapes, but again, that is not really what I'm
wanting to do.

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I've poured over the
mminfo and nsrinfo commands, but I don't see anything that can generate this
type of report.

Thanks

David

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I can't seem to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a report so that I can
verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a script to
infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used for a the full
and incremental backups, but I would like for the report to be based on what
Networker thinks the are the dependencies involved. I suppose I could go to
the Networker User program and see what times it would require to perform a
"full restore" on the date of the last incremental of the chain since that
should show me the same tapes, but again, that is not really what I'm
wanting to do.

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I've poured over the
mminfo and nsrinfo commands, but I don't see anything that can generate this
type of report.

I agree. I don't know of any simple report that lists the information
you mention in that form.

I would assume you could deal with 'mminfo' dumps of a lot of
information (savetime, level, etc.) and parse it yourself with a script.

Otherwise, yeah, you'd be automating 'recover' or something, asking for
particular files and seeing what others are required.

Darren Dunham ddunham < at > taos.com
Senior Technical Consultant TAOS http://www.taos.com/
Got some Dr Pepper? San Francisco, CA bay area
< This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

Fields, David wrote:

Does anyone know how to write script that can tell me what tapes are
required based on the browse and retention polices for any given server at
any specified point in time? For example, if you use Full/incremental
backups for all backups, and a browse/retention policy of say, 4 weeks as
our working parameters (in this case, there's no reason for the retention
policy to exceed the retention policy). If you run a backup on the
following schedule:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Full Incr Incr Incr Incr Skp Skp Incr Full Incr Incr Incr

Then, the Full that was taken on the first Monday can't expire until all of
the incrementals that it depends on expire, in this case the incrementals on
steps 2-8.

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I can't seem to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a report so that I can
verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a script to
infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used for a the full
and incremental backups, but I would like for the report to be based on what
Networker thinks the are the dependencies involved. I suppose I could go to
the Networker User program and see what times it would require to perform a
"full restore" on the date of the last incremental of the chain since that
should show me the same tapes, but again, that is not really what I'm
wanting to do.


The best I've found is to run the unix nwadmin GUI and look under the
indexes. That will show you a tree representation of the savesets for a
file system, and will include the ID. If you see something that's
breaking your policies (a tape that's not recycling,) it usually helps
to look at the savesets on the tape with an mminfo command, and then
check the indexes for those clients to see why the dependencies don't
make sense.

AFAIK, there's no text way to get the index information that comes up so
quickly in the nwadmin GUI.

Managing clients in and out of groups to maintain media dependencies is
the biggest single timesink I have as a Networker admin. For example,
if a client always missed your Monday full but was awake for the Tuesday
incremental, every incremental would be based off the original full.
The tapes would never seem to come free. What I do is track certain
failures, and move clients out of those 'normal' groups into failed ones
until I can make a manual backup and put them back in the rotation.

If Networker had some kind of language that said "If a client hasn't had
a full backup in >7 days, make the next backup a full backup," it would
really save me some time.

Dave

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

You could get an ordered list of savesets with something like:
mminfo -c rock -N C:\ -ot -r "level,savetime,volume,client,name" -t "3
weeks ago"
lvl date volume client name
incr 23/11/2004 MBI00163 rock C:\
incr 24/11/2004 MBI00162 rock C:\
5 25/11/2004 MBI00127 rock C:\
full 27/11/2004 MBI00127 rock C:\
full 27/11/2004 MBI00608 rock C:\
5 28/11/2004 MBI00139 rock C:\
5 29/11/2004 MBI00139 rock C:\
incr 30/11/2004 MBI00139 rock C:\
incr 01/12/2004 MBI00137 rock C:\
5 02/12/2004 MBI00137 rock C:\
full 04/12/2004 MBI00202 rock C:\
full 04/12/2004 MBI00613 rock C:\
5 05/12/2004 MBI00193 rock C:\
5 06/12/2004 MBI00180 rock C:\
incr 07/12/2004 MBI00180 rock C:\
incr 08/12/2004 MBI00204 rock C:\
5 09/12/2004 MBI00204 rock C:\
5 12/12/2004 MBI00162 rock C:\
5 13/12/2004 MBI00200 rock C:\
HTH,
Itzik

-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion=20
[mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU] On Behalf Of Dave Mussulman
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 00:33
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Identifying backups, policies, and tapes
=20
Fields, David wrote:
=20
Does anyone know how to write script that can tell me what tapes are=20
required based on the browse and retention polices for any=20
given server=20
at any specified point in time? For example, if you use=20
Full/incremental backups for all backups, and a=20
browse/retention policy=20
of say, 4 weeks as our working parameters (in this case, there's no=20
reason for the retention policy to exceed the retention policy). If=20
you run a backup on the following schedule:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Full=20
Incr Incr Incr Incr Skp Skp Incr Full Incr Incr Incr

Then, the Full that was taken on the first Monday can't expire until=20
all of the incrementals that it depends on expire, in this case the=20
incrementals on steps 2-8.

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these=20
backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I=20
can't seem to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a=20
report so that I=20
can verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a=20
script to infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used=20
for a the full and incremental backups, but I would like for=20
the report=20
to be based on what Networker thinks the are the=20
dependencies involved. =20
I suppose I could go to the Networker User program and see=20
what times=20
it would require to perform a "full restore" on the date of the last=20
incremental of the chain since that should show me the same=20
tapes, but=20
again, that is not really what I'm wanting to do.


The best I've found is to run the unix nwadmin GUI and look=20
under the indexes. That will show you a tree representation=20
of the savesets for a file system, and will include the ID. =20
If you see something that's breaking your policies (a tape=20
that's not recycling,) it usually helps to look at the=20
savesets on the tape with an mminfo command, and then check=20
the indexes for those clients to see why the dependencies=20
don't make sense.
=20
AFAIK, there's no text way to get the index information that=20
comes up so quickly in the nwadmin GUI.
=20
Managing clients in and out of groups to maintain media=20
dependencies is the biggest single timesink I have as a=20
Networker admin. For example, if a client always missed your=20
Monday full but was awake for the Tuesday incremental, every=20
incremental would be based off the original full.
The tapes would never seem to come free. What I do is track=20
certain failures, and move clients out of those 'normal'=20
groups into failed ones until I can make a manual backup and=20
put them back in the rotation.
=20
If Networker had some kind of language that said "If a client=20
hasn't had a full backup in >7 days, make the next backup a=20
full backup," it would really save me some time.
=20
Dave
=20
--
Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker"=20
command via email to listserv < at > listmail.temple.edu or visit=20
the list's Web site at=20
http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.html where you=20
regarding this list should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu=20
=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D=
*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D
=20

*************************************************************************=
*************************
The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential.
It is intended for the named recipient(s) only.
If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager=
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sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any one or make co=
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MBI - System Team
*************************************************************************=
*************************

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu
=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D

Managing clients in and out of groups to maintain media dependencies is
the biggest single timesink I have as a Networker admin. For example,
if a client always missed your Monday full but was awake for the Tuesday
incremental, every incremental would be based off the original full.
The tapes would never seem to come free. What I do is track certain
failures, and move clients out of those 'normal' groups into failed ones
until I can make a manual backup and put them back in the rotation.

If Networker had some kind of language that said "If a client hasn't had
a full backup in >7 days, make the next backup a full backup," it would
really save me some time.

Now that at least is something I've had to do a lot, and to some extent
it's much easier (because I don't care about tracking cycles and
dependencies).

You can easily search for valid fulls in the past 7 days with 'mminfo'.
I've used that for alerts in the past. (Doesn't do any good to send one
full a quarter offsite for 7 years if the client you really want failed
its full backup that week).

If you want to automate it (and you already have schedules set for every
day of the week), it wouldn't be too hard to write a script that did
that.

foreach valid client
if no full in last 7 days
nsrinfo modify schedule to do a full tomorrow

I wouldn't want to do that automatically, or a media manager failure
would move all the clients, even if I didn't want them moved
permanently.

Darren Dunham ddunham < at > taos.com
Senior Technical Consultant TAOS http://www.taos.com/
Got some Dr Pepper? San Francisco, CA bay area
< This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

David,

I already seriously reverse-engineered mminfo/nsrinfo/nsrls=20
to gather/retrieve to which FULL-SSID an differential=20
SSID may refer to or which parent SSID an
incremental or other level differential may have
(It's another wording to your original question).

Up to now, I always failed in getting valid result : It's not always
last full bkp an uncremental/differential may rely on, you can
easily give save command a different nsavetime your last full may have.

I am still working on it. If I find a way, I will let you know.

HTH,

Th



Kind regards - Bien cordialement - Vriendelijke groeten,

Thierry FAIDHERBE

HP Services - Storage Division
Tru64 Unix and Legato Enterprise Backup Solutions Consultant
=20
********* ********* HEWLETT - PACKARD
******* h ******* 1 Rue de l'aeronef/Luchtschipstraat
****** h ****** 1140 Bruxelles/Brussel/Brussels
***** hhhh pppp ***** =20
***** h h p p ***** 100/102 Blv de la Woluwe/Woluwedal
***** h h pppp ***** 1200 Bruxelles/Brussel/Brussels
****** p ****** BELGIUM
******* p ******* =20
********* ********* Phone : +32 (0)2 / 729.85.42 =20
Mobile : +32 (0)498/ 94.60.85=20
Fax : +32 (0)2 / 729.88.30 =20
I N V E N T Email/MSN : thierry.faidherbe < at > hp.com
Internet : http://www.hp.com/=20
________________________________________________________________________

MOBISTAR SA/NV=20

CSO/CTO/CEO/SSD/SBI
SYSTEM Team Charleroi, Mermoz 2 Phone : +32 (0)2 / 745.75.81 =20
Avenue Jean Mermoz, 32 Fax : +32 (0)2 / 745.89.56 =20
6041 GOSSELIES Email : tfhaidhe < at > mail.mobistar.be
BELGIUM Web : http://www.mobistar.be/
________________________________________________________________________

=20

-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU]
On Behalf Of Fields, David
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 10:51 PM
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: [Networker] Identifying backups, policies, and tapes

Does anyone know how to write script that can tell me what tapes are
required based on the browse and retention polices for any given server
at
any specified point in time? For example, if you use Full/incremental
backups for all backups, and a browse/retention policy of say, 4 weeks
as
our working parameters (in this case, there's no reason for the
retention
policy to exceed the retention policy). If you run a backup on the
following schedule:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Full Incr Incr Incr Incr Skp Skp Incr Full Incr Incr Incr

Then, the Full that was taken on the first Monday can't expire until all
of
the incrementals that it depends on expire, in this case the
incrementals on
steps 2-8.

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I can't seem
to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a report so that I
can
verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a script to
infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used for a the
full
and incremental backups, but I would like for the report to be based on
what
Networker thinks the are the dependencies involved. I suppose I could
go to
the Networker User program and see what times it would require to
perform a
"full restore" on the date of the last incremental of the chain since
that
should show me the same tapes, but again, that is not really what I'm
wanting to do.

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I've poured over
the
mminfo and nsrinfo commands, but I don't see anything that can generate
this
type of report.

Thanks

David

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via
email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu
=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D=
*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu
=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D*=3D

Glad to know I'm not the only one that would like to be able to do this. I
could always pull the nsrinfo/mminfo/nsrls info like you are doing and put
it into some kind of database which could track this, but as you said, it
will probably never be right because our logic probably won't match
Networker's logic on how they track that stuff. You would think that this
would be easy to do, but it's not.

Thanks for your reply. If I come up with something, I'll let you know as
well.

-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU] On
Behalf Of Faidherbe, Thierry
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 3:23 PM
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Identifying backups, policies, and tapes

David,

I already seriously reverse-engineered mminfo/nsrinfo/nsrls
to gather/retrieve to which FULL-SSID an differential
SSID may refer to or which parent SSID an
incremental or other level differential may have
(It's another wording to your original question).

Up to now, I always failed in getting valid result : It's not always
last full bkp an uncremental/differential may rely on, you can
easily give save command a different nsavetime your last full may have.

I am still working on it. If I find a way, I will let you know.

HTH,

Th



Kind regards - Bien cordialement - Vriendelijke groeten,

Thierry FAIDHERBE

HP Services - Storage Division
Tru64 Unix and Legato Enterprise Backup Solutions Consultant

********* ********* HEWLETT - PACKARD
******* h ******* 1 Rue de l'aeronef/Luchtschipstraat
****** h ****** 1140 Bruxelles/Brussel/Brussels
***** hhhh pppp *****
***** h h p p ***** 100/102 Blv de la Woluwe/Woluwedal
***** h h pppp ***** 1200 Bruxelles/Brussel/Brussels
****** p ****** BELGIUM
******* p *******
********* ********* Phone : +32 (0)2 / 729.85.42
Mobile : +32 (0)498/ 94.60.85
Fax : +32 (0)2 / 729.88.30
I N V E N T Email/MSN : thierry.faidherbe < at > hp.com
Internet : http://www.hp.com/
________________________________________________________________________

MOBISTAR SA/NV

CSO/CTO/CEO/SSD/SBI
SYSTEM Team Charleroi, Mermoz 2 Phone : +32 (0)2 / 745.75.81
Avenue Jean Mermoz, 32 Fax : +32 (0)2 / 745.89.56
6041 GOSSELIES Email : tfhaidhe < at > mail.mobistar.be
BELGIUM Web : http://www.mobistar.be/
________________________________________________________________________



-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU]
On Behalf Of Fields, David
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 10:51 PM
To: NETWORKER < at > LISTMAIL.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: [Networker] Identifying backups, policies, and tapes

Does anyone know how to write script that can tell me what tapes are
required based on the browse and retention polices for any given server
at
any specified point in time? For example, if you use Full/incremental
backups for all backups, and a browse/retention policy of say, 4 weeks
as
our working parameters (in this case, there's no reason for the
retention
policy to exceed the retention policy). If you run a backup on the
following schedule:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Full Incr Incr Incr Incr Skp Skp Incr Full Incr Incr Incr

Then, the Full that was taken on the first Monday can't expire until all
of
the incrementals that it depends on expire, in this case the
incrementals on
steps 2-8.

Basically, what this means is that the tapes used in these backups also
share these dependencies (and usually others). However, I can't seem
to
find a way to see a list of what tapes are needed in a report so that I
can
verify when a tape is supposed to be expiring. I can write a script to
infer the information by figuring out what tapes were used for a the
full
and incremental backups, but I would like for the report to be based on
what
Networker thinks the are the dependencies involved. I suppose I could
go to
the Networker User program and see what times it would require to
perform a
"full restore" on the date of the last incremental of the chain since
that
should show me the same tapes, but again, that is not really what I'm
wanting to do.

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I've poured over
the
mminfo and nsrinfo commands, but I don't see anything that can generate
this
type of report.

Thanks

David

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via
email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu

Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
should be sent to stan < at > temple.edu