NetWorker: How to force expired save set removal

Summary: While expired save sets removal from Disk devices is an automated procedure, some situations require to force the removal of expired save sets. This article shows how to enforce this procedure to run, and the show stoppers that may prohibit the removal of expired save sets. ...

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Instructions

WARNING: This Article details the methodology for manually deleting backup data records from NetWorker's media database. Caution must be used when following the processes outlined here to ensure that only data which is no longer wanted is deleted. Deleting save sets is considered as a last resort. When properly configured, NetWorker's retention life cycle provides a framework where each save set is considered for expiry not only by its retention date, but by the save sets which depend upon it; marking save sets as Expired (E) is preferred for normal situations where space reclaim is required but the database integrity is not in question. Incorrect usage of this information can lead to data loss. Dell support cannot advise on which data should be deleted or delete any data from an environment. This NetWorker administrator must identify, validate, and perform the deletion with the approval of the sites storage and infrastructure management.

Prerequisites:

The following steps must be performed before proceeding with save set removal from disk devices. Do not skip any steps and do not proceed unless you are certain the data is no longer required.

  1. The volume containing the expired save sets must be mounted on a device in Read/write mode. You can cross-check that requirement by running the command: nsrmm
NOTE: The output of nsrmm shows a list of all devices, and volumes mounted on those devices. Ensure that the volume that you are looking to clean up is mounted, and in read/write mode, check below sample output, the output lists:
<media type> <volume name> mounted on <Device name>, <mount mode> 
[root@srvr ~] nsrmm
Data Domain disk DDBoost.002 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdevARC, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoostDaily.001 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev01, write enabled
Data Domain disk IndexPool.005 mounted on Index, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.006 mounted on rd=SN1:boostARC, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.024 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev11, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.022 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev09, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.006 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev05, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.037 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev2, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.020 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev06, write enabled
Data Domain disk CDDBoost.002 mounted on Cboost02, write enabled
Data Domain disk CDDBoost.001 mounted on Cboost01, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.028 mounted on rd=SN1:boostdev12, write enabled
Data Domain disk VDDBoost.006 mounted on rd=SN1:vboostdev2, write enabled
Data Domain disk DDBoost.037 mounted on boostdev2, write enabled
  1. The volumes containing expired save sets must not be set to read-only state or scan-needed state. The way to verify this point is to list the volume attributes using the mminfo query:
    mmifo -mvV -q "volume=<volume name>"
    Or: 
    mminfo -mvV -q "type=Data Domain,type=adv_file"
The output should look like this: 
[root@srvr ~]# mminfo -mvV -q "type=Data Domain,type=adv_file"
 state volume                  written  (%)  expires     read mounts capacity volid      next type    flags
M      CBoost.001      120 TB full    manual    0 KB    10      0 KB 2932002210    0 Data Domain
       CBoost.002      114 TB full 01/19/2038   0 KB    11      0 KB 4254375504    0 Data Domain
       CBoostARC.001     0 KB   0%     undef    0 KB     6      0 KB 3767837147    0 Data Domain
       CBoostw.001      12 TB full 01/19/2038   0 KB     9      0 KB 4237598388    0 Data Domain
       CBoostw.002      15 TB full 01/19/2038   0 KB     9      0 KB 4204044079    0 Data Domain
       CvBoostw.001     14 TB 100% 09/17/2016   0 KB    10      0 KB 3818168663    0 Data Domain
       CvBoostw.002     14 TB 100% 09/17/2016   0 KB    11      0 KB 3801391451    0 Data Domain
       Cindex.001        3726 GB 100% 01/19/2038   0 KB     6      0 KB 3784614359    0 Data Domain
       Boost.001          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016  15 TB    22      0 KB 2294641726    0 Data Domain
       Boost.004          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016 7880 GB   91      0 KB 1707440518    0 Data Domain
       Boost.006          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016  15 TB    61      0 KB 2059761217    0 Data Domain
       Boost.020          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016  13 TB    23      0 KB 1623554894    0 Data Domain
       Boost.021          14 TB 100% 12/06/2016  15 TB    21      0 KB 1640332083    0 Data Domain
       Boost.022          13 TB full 12/07/2016  11 TB    21      0 KB 1590000634    0 Data Domain
       Boost.023          14 TB 100% 12/06/2016  14 TB    22      0 KB 1606777826    0 Data Domain
       Boost.024          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016  11 TB    22      0 KB 1808103225    0 Data Domain
       Boost.028          15 TB 100% 12/07/2016  14 TB    26      0 KB 2244310451    0 Data Domain
       Boost.029          79 TB 100% 11/30/2016 221 TB    28      0 KB 4229919       0 Data Domain
       Boost.030          86 TB 100% 11/30/2016 212 TB    40      0 KB 4282420003    0 Data Domain
       Boost.031          74 TB 100% 11/30/2016 203 TB    33      0 KB 4265642791    0 Data Domain
       Boost.032          83 TB 100% 11/30/2016 224 TB    32      0 KB 4248865579    0 Data Domain
       Boost.033          87 TB 100% 11/30/2016 222 TB    38      0 KB 4232088367    0 Data Domain
       Boost.034          81 TB 100% 11/28/2016 214 TB    31      0 KB 4215311155    0 Data Domain
       Boost.035          83 TB 100% 11/30/2016 229 TB    31      0 KB 4198533944    0 Data Domain
       Boost.036         100 TB 100% 11/30/2016 232 TB    30      0 KB 4181756734    0 Data Domain
       Boost.037          13 TB 100% 12/07/2016  10 TB     2      0 KB 2277864636    0 Data Domain
       BoostARC.002      586 GB 100% 09/21/2016 516 GB    18      0 KB 1673886395    0 Data Domain
       BoostARC.005      801 GB 100% 09/13/2016 139 GB    35      0 KB 2806030958    0 Data Domain
       BoostARC.006      605 GB 100% 09/21/2016 183 GB     0      0 KB 3032861639    0 Data Domain
       BoostCLN.001       13 TB 100% 01/19/2038  52 GB    52      0 KB 2529052554    0 Data Domain
       BoostCLN.002       12 TB 100% 02/10/2039  16 GB    52      0 KB 2512275346    0 Data Domain
       BoostW.005        107 KB 100%     undef 5100 GB    31      0 KB 3594048161    0 Data Domain r
       BoostW.006        111 KB 100%     undef 5175 GB    36      0 KB 2537117179    0 Data Domain r
       BoostW.011       1261 GB 100% 10/02/2016 1261 GB   21      0 KB 1774548991    0 Data Domain
       BoostW.012       1206 GB 100% 10/03/2016 1021 GB   21      0 KB 1757771848    0 Data Domain
       BoostW.015         14 TB 100% 11/30/2016  35 TB    32      0 KB 2789253746    0 Data Domain
       BoostW.016         17 TB 100% 11/30/2016  28 TB    31      0 KB 2755699318    0 Data Domain
       BoostWCLN.001     314 GB 100% 02/03/2039   0 KB    53      0 KB 2461943727    0 Data Domain
       BoostWCLN.002     993 GB 100% 02/03/2039   0 KB    55      0 KB 2445166522    0 Data Domain
       HVBoost.005        26 TB 100% 09/20/2016 282 GB    30      0 KB 2705367674    0 Data Domain
       HVBoost.006        25 TB 100% 09/20/2016 408 GB    26      0 KB 2671813247    0 Data Domain
       IndexC.001              83 GB 100% 01/19/2038 4361 KB   72      0 KB 2428389314    0 Data Domain S
       IndexPool.004           2358 GB 100% 07/13/2017 5163 GB   30      0 KB 4234285       0 Data Domain
       IndexPool.005           2500 GB 100% 12/07/2016 5196 GB   52      0 KB 4282424369    0 Data Domain
       IndexPool.006           2540 GB 100% 12/06/2016 5519 GB   32      0 KB 2621543382    0 Data Domain
       srvr.007         1024 MB 100% 06/20/2016 4510 GB    9      0 KB 3846074226    0 adv_file r
[root@srvr ~]#
  • Volumes with flag "r" are read-only volumes, and thus the expired save sets of those volumes are not removed unless the volume is released from the Read-only state by running: nsrmm -o notreadonly <volume name>
  • Volumes with flag "S" are Scan-needed volumes (this is often the result of a Disaster Recovery (nsrdr) operation) are not subject to Space recovery procedure because they must be resynchronized by: scanner -m <mounting device name>, then once the scanner operation is done, you may remove the Flag by: nsrmm -o notscan <volume name>
  1. The volume should not be set to Manual expiration state, as marked in the below example:
[root@srvr ~]# mminfo -mvV -q "type=Data Domain,type=adv_file,manual"
 state volume                  written  (%)  expires     read mounts capacity volid      next type    flags
M      CCR.008      80 TB full    manual    0 KB    10      0 KB 2932458710    0 Data Domain
[root@srvr ~]#

Manual expiration state volumes maintain all expired save sets until those save set are deleted manually, and in order to reset that state to Automatic state: nsrmm -o notmanual <volume name>
 

  1. The volumes containing expired save sets must be "idle," this means no Read or Write operations running on that Volume.
  2. Perform a Server Protection backup and collect the bootstrap save set details: mminfo -B
  3. Export the existing media database into XDR format: How To Export the NetWorker Media Database Using nsrmmdbasm

Procedure:

  1. Collect mminfo output. Keep the output in a text file for verification: mminfo -mvV -q "type=Data Domain,type=adv_file"
  2. Run the expiration process: nsrim -X
NOTE: This is the generic command, but if you have lots of Tape volumes, nsrim -X performance may be impacted. You can limit the data recycler to specific volumes through: nsrim -X -V <volume name>
  1. Make a list of volumes having expired save sets
  2. Ensure that the server is idle; no backups, clones, or recoveries are running: nsrwatch (must show zero sessions, ensure that no jobs are scheduled to run imminently)
  3. For each disk volume containing expired save sets, run: nsrstage -vvvv -C -V <volume name>
NOTE: If no errors or failure are logged in the command output, this is a sign that space recovery is working correctly.

Verification:

The NetWorker server's daemon.raw shows NSRD logging the save sets deletion (for each save set) off each volume:

  • Linux: /nsr/logs/daemon.raw
  • Windows (Default): C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs\daemon.raw

NetWorker: How to use nsr_render_log to render .raw log files

nsrd NSR info Media Info: Deleted 18 MB from save set 882684863 on volume CBoostARC.001

At the end of the space recovery procedure, the storage node process (nsrsnmd) logs the amount of space recovered for each device and volume. The NetWorker server process (nsrd) logs similar messaging:

nsrsnmd NSR info Recovered 624 MB from device DD4500_Index for volume (Index.005)
nsrd NSR info Media Info: Recovered 624 MB by deleting 50 savesets from device DD4500_Index.

NOTE: For devices using remote Storage Nodes, the nsrsnmd messages are found in the remote Storage Node's daemon.raw.

Check the disk volume sizes and compare with the sizes reported before performing this procedure: mminfo -mvV -q "type=Data Domain,type=adv_file"

Additional Information

Affected Products

NetWorker

Products

NetWorker Family
Article Properties
Article Number: 000014404
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 28 يناير 2026
Version:  7
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