NetBackup Catalog is a very important thing that should be protected. This is the internal database that contains information about NetBackup backups and configuration. Backup information includes records of the files that have been backed up and the media on which the files are stored. The catalogs also contain information about the media and the storage devices. Without regular catalog backups, you risk losing regular backups if there is a problem with the disk that contains the catalogs. I wrote some posts about Disaster Recovery possibilities for NetBackup Catalog already. This post covers how to create (step by step) a backup policy to protect NetBackup Catalog.
Some assumptions:
- Full Backup once a week (Sunday)
- Incremental Backup everyday except Sunday.
To protect NetBackup Catalog, please follow the below steps:
- In the NetBackup Administration Console, create a new policy. Select policy type: NBU-Catalog (1), specify Storage Unit (2). Then click the Schedules tab (3).
- Type a name of scheduler. Select type of backup - Full Backup (1) and Frequency - 1 weeks (2). Specify retention - how long to keep the backup of Catalog (3). Then click Start Window tab (4).
- Define a time window during which full backup job can start. Then click Add.
- Type a name of scheduler. Select type of backup - Differential Incremental Backup (1) and Frequency - 1 day (2). Specify retention - how long to keep the backup of Catalog (3). Then click Start Window tab (4).
- Define a time window during which incremental backup job can start. Then click OK.
- Click the Disaster Recovery tab (1).
- Specify a path where NetBackup DR file will be stored (1). The catalog disaster recovery file is useful during recovering NetBackup Catalog. You can select local path or remote. Specify E-mail address (2) where the DR file will be sent (recommended). If you have critical policies (that should be recovered before backups from other policies are recovered), you can add them now (3). Then click OK to save policy.
That's all. Now you can run the policy manually. The next posts will cover:
- How to recover NetBackup Catalog using GUI?
- How to recover the NetBackup Catalog using CLI?