2.4K Posts

May 14th, 2016 10:00

"NDMP" is the key information - as these save sets are special, they must be treated in a special way.

I do not remember any more each and every detail but here are the most important general rules:

1. You can't use the same command for backup clone & recover.

    For example, instead of using "nsrclone" you must use "nsrndmp_clone". See the command reference for details.

2. AFAIR such clones cannot be run by by "savegrp" (an automatic backup) because it will just run the appropriate "nsrclone"

    command.

3. You must use a specific NDMP device.

4. NDMP has its own data format which is different than NetWorker's standard Open Tape Format (OTF).

    NetWorker supports NMDP backups/clones/restores but it cannot control the data format.

    That is special when setting up a NDMP device.

5. As a consequence you should separate OTF from NMDP backups by using separate pools.

    AFAIR you can even mix OTF backups with NDMP backups on the same tape. But if you will later scan such tape

    it will fail because it cannot read an NDMP save set. So it is best practice to clearly separate the data by using

    different pools.

It is most likely that some details might have changed in the meantime - maybe NDMP today can even support B2D.

I simply have not dealt with NDMP backups for years.

Do not forget that there is an alternative which - to the best of my knowledge - was introduced with NetWorker 7.2 about 14 years ago: the NetWorker Data Service Agent (DSA). This free solution 'wraps' NDMP data by using OTF format.

Here are some key features:

  - DSA is easy to use

      No software must be installed - it’s all inside NetWorker already

  - DSA does not need a license

  - Almost all other NetWorker ‘rules’ now will apply in general

      No need for a NDMP specific device any longer - even B2D will be possible

      Target sessions must not be 1 any more

      Consequently, data multiplexing is also possible

      Automatic staging - no problem

      Automatic cloning is also not an issue any longer

  - There is no need for specific pools any longer   

  - To activate DSA, you only need to add the option "-m" for the "nsrndmp_save" backup command

79 Posts

May 15th, 2016 20:00

Hi,

according to your situation , you can try to use "NSRCLONE" command to test . "NSRCLONE" will report the reasons while failed .

Q: I would like to know why I can't clone any ssid/cloneid between pools using the same pools and devices that the old clone job did.

A: A clone job must specify one storage node (  read  node ) using it's drive to read the tape of backups  and another storage node (  write  node )to write clone date into clone pool.  The "access device" of backups'pool should contain read node's devices and  "access device" of clone pool should contain write node's devices. plz ckeck the configuration of clone job .If these were ok , use  "NSRCLONE" to finish it .

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