So basically, for example sake:

-I have a pool called Windows, and assign a group to that pool
-I have one tape in the drive formatted for this pool
-Each night the group kicks off the backup operation at 23:00
-At 23:00 before running the backup, I want it to run a label command (fast and silent...so it is quickly ready) on just the tape that is in the drive right now formatted to that pool. Once the tape is labeled, the backup will run

Over and over and over for eternity. Hope that helps.

As you'll have only one tape for that, you could run a savepnpc script to do something like:

nsrmm -o recyclable

Nw should them re-use (ie., relabel) the tape and use it for the backup.

You must script it. At that point you could run savegrp from script too depending on success of (re)labeling job.

Thanks much, I'm investigating now and will post back if I have any more problems after that.

Thanks for these quick replies, and please be easy on me as I am new with the operations of Legato. It seems anything that is "point and click" in other backup software becomes complicated quickly in Legato.

By scripting are we simply talking about a batch file with these commands?

Is there a way to call a batch file (for example, one to label) before the job starts each night or is this need to be called by a Windows Scheduled Task?

I've noticed in referencing the CLI manual that Legato was intended to perhaps be a Linux/command line software, as most of these GUI process can be done....and also MANY more things can be done at the CLI level. We've been operating under the standard options that the GUI presents, and now that we are looking to do more advanced things the GUI is just unhelpful.

Thanks again for helping out.

Message was edited by:
Gary Rickels

You'll have to use savepnpc to call a script/batch before and after the backup. This is a simple task, and you can find the steps needed in the Administrator's Guide and also somewhere in the KB.

In simple words, you'll set the "Backup Command" in the client to "savepnpc", and this will create (the first time), a file in your client called .res. There you can include the path to a batch file to run before and after the backup.

If you need more details, as I said before, take a look at the Admin Guide. There's a lot of things you can do using commands in Networker, and it would be good to know how to work with some commands, like mminfo, nsrinfo etc

Yes.


savepnpc would be one way - as Daniel explained. I'm not big fan of the setup you are chasing, but with time you will probably get something else instead of this.


GUI will give you basic operating and even maintenance tools (and reporting). CLI will give you all possible details from all these areas. CLI is not intended for Linux/UNIX users, but Windows too. It is correct that Windows users are more used to GUI approach, but the idea here is that once you setup everything GUI should be enough for all the monitoring and operations you need.

My point was that it is simply not just a GUI, the GUI gives basic operating procedures. The CLI adds so much more functionality to the mix.

I'm used to being able to tell a job to overwrite media of the same pool if there are no other empties in the drive. I'm used to being able to schedule a label or format operation at a scheduled time before a job begins. Not via a script, but simply via an option on a job or creating a particular format job.

Concept with NetWorker is different than what you are used to - you will either have to get things according to that new concept approach or script it to work the way you wish. What you will find is that once you setup environment you should not do a single thing anymore with it - that is truth for every backup product I believe. They do have different approach to how they work and each of them has pros and cons. To get max out of it the best thing is to learn how it works and what is the best approach to design your backup environment to be more efficient.

When it comes to label/relabel - NW should resue tapes that are eligible for recycling. In case where you lack appendable tapes and those eligible for recycling - it will wait. It won't relabel tape that does not have yet conditions met to be relabeled. What NW will give you a chance is to relabel tapes from other pools if you configured so, but that is max. Other steps are possible, but you will have to execute them manually and that manual action will be acknowledgement that you know what you are doing. NW in its design is paranoid when it comes to keeping the data and with years I realized there is good reason for that.

I would say the best thing would be to have someone review your setup and give you a suggestion. It might get things configured in a way more efficient that you have now. At least that would be approach I would take if I were you.

Thanks for your replies thusfar.

I certainly respect and understand that all software is different, so perhaps our conversation has delved to far into that respect

I guess I like to keep things simple....that is for sake of if I were to be hit by a bus while walking into the office my documentation and the interface should be good enough for someone else to pick up and administer our rotation. Our current intention is to set certain jobs to pools, our exact example is as follows:

SQL database backups go to pool SQLDB. There is one tape in the drive labeled for the SQLDB pool.

Linux backups go to pool DCC. There is one tape in the drive labeled for the DCC pool.

The remaining C:\ drive backups of the Windows servers goes to pool OSBACKUPS. There are 2 tapes in the drive labeled for the OSBACKUPS pool.

I want the first server in the group to run a label command that is scripted to prepare the tapes for the nights backup. That is to say that I have the backup server itself running first and by itself. It's pre-execute commands will label the SQLDB.01 tape to be SQLDB.02 which will erase the tape. Then it will run a label on DCC.01 to be DCC.02, and then OSBACKUPS.01 will become OSBACKUPS.02. Immediately after, these other groups will run one at a time and do their backups. The next night, the label operation runs and it writes again...over the tape from the night before.

Once a week tapes are changed and kept. This is not my rotation, trust me, it is from my manager and this is how he wants it.

Is there a valid reason why your manager wishes to have different pools for different data? Yes, some people like it, but I do not see it effective unless there is a good reason behind it. But it sounds like you won't be able to change that even if you wanted to.

If I understand correctly, you have full backup each day and that backup gets rewritten (relabeled) on next one until Saturday or Sunday comes and then you keep data for some period. If that is the case, why simply not create retention 1 day and reuse tapes on next backup? Create separate retention for those that will have data kept for longer period.

Obviously you have small autochanger (8 slots?) and tape usage is an issue - first step I would change is to have pools retention based and not data based. After that I would automate whole procedure using native NetWorker functionality and that would be it.