Veritas Backup Exec Data Lifecycle Management Blueprint Backup and Recovery Technical Education Services Important Notice Diagrams containing objects representing 3rd-party platforms and applications This Backup Exec Blueprint presentation includes example diagrams that contain objects that represent applications and platforms from other companies such as Microsoft and VMware. These diagrams may or may not match or resemble actual implementations found in end user environments. Any likeness or similarity to actual end user environments is completely by coincidence. The goal of the diagrams included in this blueprint presentation is not to recommend specific ways in which to implement applications and platforms from other companies such as Microsoft and VMware; the purpose of these diagrams is to illustrate Backup Exec best practices only. For guidelines and best practices on installing and configuring applications and platforms from other companies, please refer to best practice documentation and other resources provided by those companies. 2 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Backup Exec Blueprints How to use Backup Exec Blueprints are designed to illustrate key customer data protection challenges and to demonstrate how Backup Exec solves them. • Each Blueprint consists of: ‒ Pain Points: what challenges customers face ‒ Whiteboard: Shows how Backup Exec solves the customer challenges ‒ Recommended Configuration: Shows recommended installation ‒ Do’s: Gives detailed configurations suggested by Veritas ‒ Don'ts: What configurations & pitfalls customers should avoid ‒ Advantages: Summarizes the Backup Exec advantages • Use these Blueprints to: ‒ Understand the customer challenges and how Backup Exec solves them ‒ Present the Backup Exec best practice solution 3 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Contents 4 1 About Data Lifecycle Management 2 DLM-Related Storage Settings 3 Troubleshooting Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. About Data Lifecycle Management 5 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) • Manages data through its life cycle: Creation > Initial Storage > Obsolescence > Deletion • Enforces the retention period of the backup set as defined in the backup job “keep for” setting • Deletes backup sets that are past the time to keep defined in the backup job – Considers dependencies, such as Incremental on Full, to maintain the entire chain for the time to keep – Simplified Disaster Recovery (bare metal restore) enabled backups have additional dependencies – By default, does not delete the last restore source (backup set chain) for a particular resource • Can be managed in the console by – Expiring - Overrides the “keep the last restore source” rule, allows DLM to delete the last backup set chain for a resource – Retaining - Allows DLM to keep a backup set longer than the time to keep defined in the backup job – Releasing - Removes the “hold” so that a retained backup set can be managed and deleted by DLM 6 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Backup Storage and DLM DLM Managed Fixed Disk Removable Disk Tape Identified by the Operating System as fixed disk, e.g. internal hard drive, external USB hard drive Identified by the Operating System as removable disk, e.g. RDX device, USB drive Identified by the Operating System as tape including Virtual Tape Library media DLM grooming every 1 hour or on a low disk space event DLM grooming when a new backup or duplicate job writes to a particular disk cartridge Overwritten as a whole based on Media Set properties Retention based on “keep for” value specified in the backup/duplicate job definition - “Keep for” specifies the minimum expiration time for backup sets created by the job 7 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. Retention based on Media Set properties: Append Period and Overwrite Protection Period Disk-Based Media B2D123456.BKF Disk based backup files in MTF (Microsoft Tape Format) IMG123456 For GRT-enabled backups, media appear as IMG folders OST12345678 Deduplication media A single B2D*.BKF file does not contain more than one backup set, however, a backup set can be spanned over more than one .BKF file 8 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. DLM Rules To Delete Backup Sets Backup sets cannot be deleted by DLM if any one of the following is true: • Backup sets are not expired • Backup sets are manually retained • Backup set has another dependent backup set for restoring a resource (is part of a backup set chain) • A backup set is part of the last restore source (backup set chain) for a particular resource • A backup set chain is a group of backup sets required for point-in-time recovery of a particular resource, that is per resource per backup definition • A restore source chain includes the backup sets only from the same selections and the same backup job definition 9 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. Additional Criteria for Specialty Backups Simplified Disaster Recovery (SDR) backup sets GRT enabled backup sets 10 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. • Backup sets of critical resources, created as part of a single job, must be deleted together • The unexpired duplicate set on a different type of storage is not considered as a copy of the recovery chain for the GRT enabled backup, as there is a difference in recovery technology for different storage DLM Grooming Process Reclaim Disk Space Start DLM Process (every 1 hour or low disk space) 1 1. 2. 3. 4. Query Catalogs for expirable backup sets Delete expired BKF/IMG/OST files from disk storage Remove Catalogs Remove BEDB records 2 3 End DLM Process 11 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies DLM-Related Storage Settings Option settings that affect DLM and backup set deletion 12 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Manually Expiring or Retaining Backup Sets Expire • Manually expiring a backup set overrides the “keep the last restore source” rule • Allows DLM to delete the backup set even if it is the last restore source Retain • Manually retaining a backup set overrides the “keep for” setting • Allows DLM to keep the backup set even if it is past the “keep for” date 13 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Global Settings Disk-based storage devices • Prevents DLM from deleting expired backup sets on diskbased storage device as soon as you reattach it • Only read-only operations can run on disk-based storage devices that are detached from the BE server for the specified number of days • Provides time to review expired backup sets • To keep expired backup sets, retain them 14 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Global Settings Disk cartridge storage devices • Prevents DLM from deleting expired backup sets on a disk cartridge storage device as soon as you insert it • Only read-only operations can run on disk cartridge storage devices that have not been inserted for the specified number of days • Provides time to review expired backup sets • To keep expired backup sets, retain them 15 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Global Settings Data Management • Allows DLM to delete expired backup sets, even if they are the last remaining backup sets that needed to restore a resource • Use this option to automatically delete all backup data after the “keep for” time even if it is the last restore source • Alternatively, you can manually expire specific backup sets to have DLM delete backup sets that are no longer needed 16 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Storage Device Properties: Limit to read-only • Prevents DLM from running on a specific disk-based or disk cartridge storage device that you reattach or reinsert • Applies when the storage device has been absent for the number of days specified in Global Settings • After reviewing and retaining backup sets, change this setting to read only: No to re-enable DLM 17 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Troubleshooting 18 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies How to Avoid DLM Issues – Catalogs are not deleted – DLM attempts to delete backup set files that no longer exist – BEDB records still reference the backup sets • Follow recommended procedures to move catalogs • Avoid renaming the Backup Exec server while running Backup Exec 2014 or older – Upgrade to Backup Exec 15 prior to renaming the Backup Exec server • Avoid removing a MBES from a CAS environment – Separates media from the BEDB and catalogs and prevents DLM grooming 19 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. Scenario 1: Expired Backup Sets Are Not Deleted • Issue: Expired backup sets are not deleted by DLM • Probable causes: – The backup set is a tape backup set - DLM will not delete the tape backup set – The backup set is retained manually – Dependent backup sets are retained or unexpired – The backup set is part of the last copy of the latest recovery chain for a protected resource, the latest recovery chain is per backup definition – The backup set is from a one time backup job – The backup set is a set of a critical resources created by an SDR job. The system state backup set could be expired, retained or could have a non-expired/retained dependent backup set created by the SDR jobs – The device is not accessible (only for Backup Exec 15) • If none of the above causes apply, contact Veritas Technical Support 20 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Scenario 2: Orphan or non-referred media exists on the disk storage • Issue: Orphan or non-referred media exists on the disk storage, but does not have corresponding backup sets in the GUI • Symptom: Disk space is low • Type 1 orphan media: – The media exists on the disk, but there are no corresponding catalog records – Cause: Unable to delete the media from the location, but catalog is informed that data has been deleted • Type 2 orphan media: – The media exists on the disk, the catalog records for this particular media also exist, but there are no backup set records – Causes: • Improper procedure of changing the catalog location, for instance directly moving the catalogs folder • Media with creation date and time being “1753-01-01 00:00:00:000”: implies that it was only inventoried but not cataloged, this is expected behavior; so, running the catalog job should resolve this issue 21 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Scenario 3:Orphan catalogs and metadata • Issue: Media no longer exists on the storage but the corresponding catalogs and metadata still exist • Symptoms: – Restore failure with error “media mount failed” – DLM tries to delete the same expired media, but keeps failing, that is evident from the audit logs • Causes – Media files were manually deleted through the Windows Explorer and not through the BE Console – Storage device was deleted but the user chose to keep the catalog files (applicable to BE 15) – Scratch OST media was inventoried 22 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Monitoring DLM Activities DLM activities can be monitored via Audit logs Audit logs provide detailed information about deleted backup sets and failed processes 23 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Audit Logs and DLM Activities Information available in the audit log – Date and Time of the event – Media label – Media GUID 24 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Monitoring DLM Activities To analyze a DLM issue, look for in-depth debugging information in the server service debug log using the Backup Exec Debug Monitor (SGMon) 25 Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies Thank you! Copyright © 2018 Veritas Technologies. All rights reserved. Veritas and the Veritas Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Veritas Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. This document is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as advertising. All warranties relating to the information in this document, either express or implied, are disclaimed to the maximum extent allowed by law. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
