Media and device management best practices
Use the following best practices for NetBackup media and device management. Follow these recommendations to minimize problems and to reduce the time and the effort that is required to administer the configuration.
For a list of supported devices, server platforms, and the latest device mapping file, see the NetBackup website:
http://www.netbackup.com/compatibility
The following items are general best practices for media and device management:
Use only the NetBackup commands that Veritas documents and supports.
Refer to the NetBackup release notes for configuration and operational changes in the current release or in future releases. The release notes also contain information about all new functionality in each release.
Use the documented methods for terminating the NetBackup Media Manager daemons and services.
Periodically verify the backups by using NetBackup Management > Catalog in the NetBackup Administration Console. Also, periodically restore the files to prove that restores work correctly.
Always back up the NetBackup catalogs. You may also want to back up the vm.conf file and the bp.conf (UNIX system) files on the media servers.
When you restore the NetBackup catalog (for example, master server databases and the EMM database), use backups from the same point in time.
Ensure that all names and numbers for devices and all media IDs and barcodes are unique across the entire enterprise.
On UNIX hosts: To use the devices that NetBackup controls but are used with other applications, do the following to avoid the potential loss of data:
Use the NetBackup tpreq command to mount media on a drive and tpunmount to remove media from the drive. If you use these commands, another application can control a device when NetBackup is finished with the device.
Down the drive, if the drive is in the UP state.
On Windows hosts: To use the devices that NetBackup controls but are used with other applications, down the drive if the drive is in the UP state.