NetVault 11.4.5 - Administration Guide

NOTE: On NetVault Backup Server 10.0.5 and later, the Plug-in for Data Copy creates index version 4, which is incompatible with earlier versions of NetVault Backup. A client running NetVault Backup 10.0.1 or an earlier version cannot read these index files. To restore Data Copy savesets generated from NetVault Backup Server 10.0.5 or later, the client must also be running NetVault Backup 10.0.5 or later.

Run copy job on

By default, the secondary copy job runs on the NetVault Backup Server. If you want to run the job on a particular client, select the target client.

You can use this option to perform backups on a client with a locally attached physical or virtual tape device.

Use Schedule Set

Select an existing Schedule Set, or click Create New, and configure the schedule type and schedule method. For more information, see Creating Schedule Sets.

NOTE: You cannot use the Repeating and Triggered schedule types to run Secondary Copy jobs. A Secondary Copy job can run only after the Phase 1 job completes successfully. The Repeating and Triggered schedule types can cause a situation where a Secondary Copy job is configured to start before the source saveset is available.

Use Target Set

Select an existing Target Set, or click Create New, and configure the target device and media options for the job. For more information, see Creating Target Sets.

NOTE: When performing Duplicate and Data Copy backups, you cannot use media items that contain the original saveset or a copy of the same backup. NetVault Backup excludes these media items to ensure that copies and original backup do not exist on the same media item. The concept of media does not apply to disk-based devices. If the original saveset is stored on a disk-based device, NetVault Backup does not exclude that device when you run a Duplicate or Data Copy job for that backup.

NOTE: We recommend that you select the same drives for all secondary copy jobs. For example, in a library with four drives, select drives 1 and 2 for the primary backups and drives 3 and 4 for the secondary copies targeted to tape devices. This type of selection avoids deadlocks when running several duplication jobs at the same time.

Use Source Set

Select an existing Source Set, or click Create New, and configure the source device options for the job. For more information, see Creating Source Sets for backup jobs.

Configure the required additional options.

Table 32. Additional options for Secondary Copy

Option

Description

Maximum Streams for Data Copy

Type or select the maximum number of parallel streams that can be generated for the Data Copy job. By default, a single data stream is generated to copy the data items in a sequential manner.

Media Request Timeout

Type or select the amount of time NetVault Backup waits for the backup media. The timeout value is specified in number of minutes. The default value is 10 minutes.

If the required media item is not available within the specified interval, the job is automatically aborted.

If you set the value to zero (0), the Secondary Copy job waits indefinitely until the media is provided or the job is manually aborted.

The maximum timeout period that can be set is 1440 minutes (24 hours), which ensures that current instance is aborted before NetVault Backup runs the next instance of a Daily job.

NOTE: The media request timeout for Phase 1 Data Copy jobs (created using the Plug-in for Data Copy) is controlled by the Media Request Timeout setting in the Backup Options Set; it is not controlled by the Media Request Timeout setting in the Target Set. The media request timeout for Phase 2 (Secondary Copy) Data Copy and Duplicate jobs is controlled by the Media Request Timeout specified in the Backup Advanced Options Set.

Encrypt Secondary Copy Only

To perform job-level encryption for a secondary copy, select the Enable Encryption check box.

This option can only be used with the Data Copy method. To use this option, the Plug-in for Standard Encryption or the Plug‑in for Advanced Encryption must be installed on the client.

Note the following:

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If the primary copy is encrypted, the Data Copy method automatically creates an encrypted saveset whether you select the Encrypt Secondary Copy Only check box or not. Therefore, this option is only useful when you want to create an encrypted secondary copy from an unencrypted primary copy.

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Encrypted primary backups are not encrypted again if you select the Encrypt Secondary Copy Only check box for a Data Copy.

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To restore data from an encrypted Data Copy, you must use the primary copy’s Encryption Key.

For more information about using job-level encryption for a primary backup, see Enable Encryption.

Migrate (Discard Original)

To migrate the backup instead of creating a copy, select this check box. After copying the data, NetVault Backup deletes the index for the original backup.

NOTE: When creating copies of the Plug-in for FileSystem backups, the Migrate option can only be selected for Full Backups that do not have any associated Incremental or Differential Backups. If you select this option for a Full Backup that has an associated Incremental or Differential Backup, NetVault Backup creates the secondary copy successfully, but it does not delete the index for the primary or original backup. For such backups, after creating the copy, you must manually retire the primary or original backup.

Allow Streams to Share Media

This check box is not selected by default.

When creating a Duplicate or Data Copy of a multi-stream backup, you can use this option to convert multiple data streams into a sequential data stream. If you do not select this check box, each stream is written separately.

If you are using a disk-based device to store the Duplicate or Data Copy backup, multiple streams are recommended. For such jobs, there is no need to select this check box.

If you do not select the Allow Streams to Share Media check box for tape devices, each data stream targets a separate media item. Any tape that is used to write a stream is excluded from the allowable media items. If enough tapes are not available for the job, the job fails. When using tape devices to store the Duplicate or Data Copy backups, you can select this check box to use minimal media items.

Use Optimised Replication Between Devices that Support this Feature

Optimized replication enables transfer of deduplicated data directly from one device to another device of the same type during a Data Copy or Duplicate operation. It provides an efficient method to create secondary copies and offers the following advantages:

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Copies data in its deduplicated form, which greatly reduces the amount for data transferred over the network.

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Copies data directly from the source to the destination without using any resources on the NetVault Backup Server.

The following storage devices support optimized replication:

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Quest DR Series Systems: To perform optimized replication, both the source and target Quest DR Series systems must be running the same release version of the DR OS. Replication is not supported between systems that run different releases of the OS.

For example, to replicate data from a source system that is running DR OS 3.x, the target system must be running the same OS release version. Replication is unsuccessful if the target system is running DR OS release 2.0.x or 3.0.x.

NOTE: When optimized replication and backups are performed simultaneously on a Quest DR Series system, the backup throughput is affected.

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NetVault SmartDisk devices: To perform optimized replication, you require NetVault SmartDisk 2.0 or later.

If the login credentials configured for the source and destination NetVault SmartDisk Servers do not match, replication fails. To ensure a successful replication, do one of the following:

- Disable WebDAV authentication on both NetVault SmartDisk Servers.

- Enable WebDAV authentication only on the source server.

- Configure the same login credentials on both servers.

NOTE: When copying a backup from a NetVault SmartDisk to a different device type (for example, VTL, Quest DR Series System, or Data Domain System), you must clear this check box. If you do not clear this check box, the Data Copy or Duplicate job fails or stops responding.

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DD Boost-enabled Data Domain Systems: The secondary copy backups between two DD Boost-Enabled Data Domain Systems use the managed file-level replication feature provided by DD Boost.

File-level replication requires the DD Boost Replicator license, which must be installed on both the source and destination Data Domain systems.

NOTE: If the source and target Data Domain systems are running different versions of the Data Domain OS, then for replication to be successful, the target system must be running the higher version of the OS.

Select Source Media Before Target Media

When you select this check box, NetVault Backup tries to acquire the source media before it attempts to acquire the target media for the Data Copy and Duplicate backups.

To set retirement period for the duplicate or data copy saveset, configure the following options.

Table 33. Retirement options for Secondary Copy


Option	Description
Use Life of Original	This option is selected by default. To use the original saveset’s retirement period, leave this option selected.
Discard After	To configure a different retirement period for the Duplicate or Data Copy saveset, select this option. Type or select the length of time that you want to retain the backup, and in the associated list, select the Days, Weeks, Months, or Years option. You can set only time-based retirement period for the copy.
Force Expiry	This check box is displayed when you select the Discard After option. By default, if a Secondary Copy has any dependent backups, its retirement is deferred until all dependent backups are ready for retirement. You can select this check box to retire a Secondary Copy according to its retirement schedule. Forcing this behavior can cause early retirement of dependent Incremental and Differential Backups. To apply this rule globally to all backups, you can modify the Media Manager settings. For more information, see Configuring retirement rules for dependent backups. If the Retirement Timing Control option is set to Force Always, the Force Expiry option is used, regardless of state of this check box.

Click Set to save the settings and close the dialog box.

Configuring pre- and post script options for backup jobs

You can use the pre- and post-script options to run user-defined scripts before a job starts or after a job completes. You can use these scripts to perform tasks such as dismounting or shutting down a database before the job starts or mounting or starting the database after the job completes.

Before configuring pre- or post-scripts, review the following information:

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The script should be an executable file, for example, “.bat” files on Windows and “.sh” files on Linux.

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The script file should reside on the target client. It should be available in the scripts directory under the NetVault Backup installation directory.

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The pre- and post-scripts can contain run-time parameters. These parameters are stored in the environment variable NV_USER_ARG. You can also use other NetVault Backup environment variables in the scripts. For a list of available environment variables, see Environment variables in NetVault Backup.

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NetVault Backup provides two predefined script files that can be used as post-scripts:

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psmail: Use this script to send the job completion status to the specified email addresses.

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psmail_logs: Use this script to send the job completion status and job logs to the specified email addresses.

On Linux and UNIX, the predefined scripts do not have any filename extension. On Windows, the scripts have the filename extension “.bat.”

To run these scripts, specify the following in the Post Script box:

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Linux and UNIX: psmail or psmail_logs

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Windows: psmail.bat or psmail_logs.bat

To specify pre- and post scripts:

On the Advanced Options page of the target client, click Pre & Post Scripts, and configure the following settings.

Table 34. Pre- and post script options for backup jobs

Option

Description

Pre Script

This option allows you to run a user-defined script before a job starts. You can use this script to perform any pre -backup preparation, such as dismounting or shutting down a database.

To run a pre -script, do the following:

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In the Pre Script box, specify the script filename.

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In the User Parameter box, provide the values for the run-time parameters. The value should be valid and conform to its usage in the script. NetVault Backup does not perform any validity checks for the user parameters.

Post Script

This option allows you to run a user-defined script after a job completes. You can use this script to perform any post -backup processing, like mounting or starting a database after a job completes.

To run a post -script, do the following:

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In the Post Script box, specify the script filename.

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Click Set to save the settings and close the dialog box.

The following table illustrates the effect of script exit status on the overall execution and job status.

Table 35. Script execution and backup job status


Process	Result
Pre script	Success	Success	Success	Fail	Fail
Backup job	Success	Success	Fail	Does not run	Does not run
Post script	Success	Fail	Success	Success	Fail
Overall job status	Job completes successfully.	Job completes, but a post-script error is reported.	Job fails, but the post-script runs. An error is reported.	Job fails, and a pre-script error is reported.	Job fails; pre‑ and post-script errors are reported.

Configuring user-defined events for backup jobs

When creating a backup job, NetVault Backup lets you configure user-defined events that can be raised when the job completes successfully, completes with warnings, or fails. You can use these options when you want to be notified about the completion status of individual jobs.


	NOTE: NetVault Backup includes several predefined events, which are raised for significant occurrences within the system. For more information, see About NetVault Backup events and Events types. You can also raise user-defined events for individual backup jobs, restore jobs, report jobs, policies, and log messages. You can use various notification methods to receive notifications when the predefined or user‑defined events occur in NetVault Backup. For more information, see Using global notification methods.

You can configure the user-defined events in the Backup Advanced Options Set. Once you create a user‑defined event, you can raise it for any job or backup policy. NetVault Backup adds the user-defined events to the event class Jobs — User defined. You can then set up one or more notification methods for the event to receive notifications when the event is raised.

To raise user-defined events for a backup job:

On the Advanced Options page, click Events, and configure the following settings.

Table 36. User defined event types for backup jobs


Option	Description
Job is Successful	Type or select the event that you want to raise when the job completes successfully.
Job has Warnings	Type or select the event that you want to raise when the job completes with warnings.
Job Fails	Type or select the event that you want to raise when the job fails.