Let’s say someone botched the index duplication process (missed a particular backup jobs index). Now there is a need to restore from that set of tapes. Does the software you are using provide a method to scan the tapes and do a restore? I just spoke to a company who said that their software won’t do it-without the index on the server there isn’t a way to get to that data. I’m not up on tape based backups, but I know I’ve done it in the past. This seems odd to me. What’s your experience?
Question about backup software: can your software do a restore from a tape set without an index?
- Thread starter Demani
- Start date
We don't use tapes anymore but yes. Any sane system should be able to recover from the media only.
BareOS/Bacula and Amanda have methods to scan volumes(be it tape or otherwise) to reconstruct the index or restore data directly. BackupExec similarly(or did, it's been a while) has methods for re-cataloging tapes.
Backup software that stores zero metadata on tape that prevents even a "restore raw files" operation strikes me as vaguely odd.
Backup software that stores zero metadata on tape that prevents even a "restore raw files" operation strikes me as vaguely odd.
This is what Archiware Support said:
"Since this is a Backup pool, it is not an option to run the available Command Line Interface inventory commands against the database that is possible with an Archive set, job, pool, etc. "
The issue it turns out is that the retention date was extended after the tapes were initially written with the first pass (from 28 days to 3 years). But the change only takes effect for subsequent writes (though the interface doesn't show that). So the tapes were left in, and supposedly were reused. (right, so that set is toast). HOWEVER: the initial write was done in duplicate to two sets of tapes simultaneously, and that second set was removed relatively quickly for offsite storage (though we don't know if it was before or after the 28 days: it was a 15 tape LTO8 set and took a while to get completed). So the hope was that at least the removed set may have the data, but since the index thats on the box shows the tapes as returned to the general pool we would want to do a full rescan to see what is actually on them as they are now (and yes, they had write protect tab enabled when they were pulled).
"Since this is a Backup pool, it is not an option to run the available Command Line Interface inventory commands against the database that is possible with an Archive set, job, pool, etc. "
The issue it turns out is that the retention date was extended after the tapes were initially written with the first pass (from 28 days to 3 years). But the change only takes effect for subsequent writes (though the interface doesn't show that). So the tapes were left in, and supposedly were reused. (right, so that set is toast). HOWEVER: the initial write was done in duplicate to two sets of tapes simultaneously, and that second set was removed relatively quickly for offsite storage (though we don't know if it was before or after the 28 days: it was a 15 tape LTO8 set and took a while to get completed). So the hope was that at least the removed set may have the data, but since the index thats on the box shows the tapes as returned to the general pool we would want to do a full rescan to see what is actually on them as they are now (and yes, they had write protect tab enabled when they were pulled).
The other part I'm realizing is that means there is no way to actually know what the data expiration is on a tape in P5. If someone changes it after the initial set up, only that new value is shown, even though the old value is in place. That seems like a recipe for disaster (as we are seeing) since you can't trust what you are seeing in front of you. It also seems like a bad design choice to keep that attached to the files at first backup rather than being able to modify it to extend that duration later.
(my tape work these days is almost all straight LTFS archiving of material, standard archive stuff with minimal complications-backup software has never been easy to use, but I'm just reminded why I hated it so much)
(my tape work these days is almost all straight LTFS archiving of material, standard archive stuff with minimal complications-backup software has never been easy to use, but I'm just reminded why I hated it so much)
Here's the last it of back and forth:
This doesn't inspire confidence. But maybe it's progress. Of course inventorying 15 tapes will be a bit of a process.
So now I'm looking at the CLI options they offer (none of which are supposed to work, and which the support person wasn't even aware might work).
This doesn't inspire confidence. But maybe it's progress. Of course inventorying 15 tapes will be a bit of a process.