About NDMP DirectCopy
NetBackup supports virtual tape libraries (VTLs). A virtual tape library uses disk-based technology to emulate a tape library (robot) and drives. The backup image is written to one or more disks in the VTL. The VTL allows the image to be treated as though it resides on tape, but with the access speed of a disk.
For additional storage (such as for disaster recovery), NetBackup copies backup images from the VTL disk to a physical tape in an NDMP storage unit. It copies without using media server I/O or network bandwidth. NetBackup can also copy NDMP images directly between NDMP tape drives attached to an NDMP host.
In both cases, this function is called NDMP DirectCopy. This function also enables NetBackup to restore data directly from either the image in the VTL or from the physical NDMP tape. NDMP DirectCopy supports backup to tape and restore from tape for NDMP data as well as non-NDMP data. Tape-to-tape duplications of backup images are also supported.
NDMP DirectCopy does not support multiplexed backup, synthetic backup, or multiple copies. It also does not support storage unit groups for the destination device. If you select a storage unit group, NDMP DirectCopy is disabled. The data transfer takes place over the network by means of the NetBackup server.
To initiate the NDMP DirectCopy, you can use the NetBackup duplication feature in the NetBackup web UI, the bpduplicate command, or NetBackup Vault.
NDMP DirectCopy operates in the following environments:
A NetBackup media server that is connected to a VTL that has access to a physical tape library. The steps for configuring NDMP DirectCopy are described in this topic.
A NetBackup for the NDMP server that is connected to an NDMP host that has access to a tape library (no VTL). This NDMP backup environment is described in other topics of this guide. In this environment, no additional configuration is required for NDMP DirectCopy.
If your NDMP host and storage devices are correctly configured, NetBackup uses NDMP DirectCopy when you duplicate an NDMP backup that NetBackup had created.