Understanding the NetBackup Catalog
NetBackup Catalog is a place where information about the NetBackup configuration and backups
are stored such as records of the files that have been backed up and media where those files
copied. NetBackup Catalog is kept on the NetBackup master server and consists of the following
components:
The NetBackup configuration files such as policies, schedules - flat files.
The NetBackup database (NBDB) - a relational database (Sybase SQL Anywhere).
and NetBackup image database (flat + NBDB).
NetBackup configuration files
The configuration files consist of directories and flat files:
class* - policy information
client - master server client attributes
cltmp* - policy temporary information
config - host properties, data classification properties
DBVERSION* - NetBackup version
error - activity logs
failure_history - list of failed backups
IDISTRUCT - structure of images database
images - backup image database (flat files)
jobs - job information
media - temporary area for media activity
sched - staging schedules
ss - storage lifecycle policy (SLP) information
vault - vault properties
Above directories/files are located at \NetBackup\db (Windows) or /usr/openv/netbackup/db
(UNIX).
NetBackup image database
NetBackup image database stores image information as:
backup header - it defines the backup ID, size, state etc
file metadata - it defines the files that have been backed up + metadata
Above files are not stored at the same place:
backup header - prior to NetBackup 7.5 as flat files, later in the NBDB
file metadata - \NetBackup\db\images\ (Windows) or /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images/
(Unix)
The NetBackup relational databases (NBDB)
The NetBackup relational database (NBDB) is created during the installation of the Master
server. As already I mentioned the NBDB runs on Sybase SQL Anywhere.
Database files (located at \NetBackupDB\data (Windows) or /usr/openv/db/data (Unix) are as
follows:
NBDB.db - main database used by many NetBackup services and processes
EMM_DATA.db and EMM_INDEX.db - used by the nbemm (EMM service)
DBM_DATA.db and DBM_INDEX.db
DARS_DATA.db and DATS_DATA.db - used by the Database Agent Requester Service
(DARS) for Oracle database recovery and cloning purposes
SEARCH_DATA.db and SEARCH_INDEX.db - used by the NetBackup Search and Hold
feature for legal holds
JOBD_DATA.db - used to populate job information in the activity monitor
SLP_DATA.db and SLP_INDEX.db - contains information about SLP
NBAZDB.db - used by the NetBackup authorization and authentication services
logs files:
NBDB.log
NBAZDB.log
BMRDB.log
configuration files (located at \NetBackupDB\conf (Windows) or /usr/openv/var/global (Unix):
vxdbms.conf - contains configuration information specific to the database server installation
server.conf - contains configuration information for the NetBackup databases
databases.conf - contains the locations of the main database files and the database names
for automatic startup
I hope that I do not need to remind that the NetBackup Catalog should be protected A
backup of catalog can be done online using a special NetBackup policy.
Note: There is a special NetBackup Catalog Manipulation services (provided by Authorized
Consultant) when the following scenarios are required:
Migration from an existing master server to a NetBackup appliance master server
Merging of two or more NetBackup domains
Splitting of a domain into two or more domains
Clustering of a non-clustered Master Server
Renaming of a Master Server <--- yes, just change a name of Master server is not
supported without mentioned services!
Moving a Master Server to a new machine involving a host name change
Moving a Master Server to a different platform/operating system (Windows to Linux/Unix or
Linux/Unix to Windows)
Un-clustering a clustered Master Server
