Ransomware attackers specifically target and attempt to destroy backup systems to increase the probability of payment. Hardening your system is critical. Please ensure you have reviewed your platform security using the Security Hardening Checklist
Cohesity

COHESITY Documentation

Explore our documentation to get started, discover products & new features, access troubleshooting guides, register sources, platforms support.

Products
Data Security Alliance
Visit Cohesity.com
Demos
Support
Blogs
Developers
Partner Portals
Cohesity Community
© 2026 Cohesity, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use|
Privacy Policy|
Legal|
  1. Home
  2. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume II
  3. Reference topics
  4. NetBackup notify scripts
  5. bpstart_notify.bat script (Windows clients)
Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume II

bpstart_notify.bat script (Windows clients)

For all Windows clients, you can create batch scripts that provide notification whenever the client starts a backup or archive.

To use this script, copy the following file from the server:

On Windows:

Install_path\NetBackup\bin\goodies\bpstart_notify.bat

Then place the file on the client in the same directory as the NetBackup client binaries:

Install_path\NetBackup\bin\

Where Install_path is the directory where NetBackup is installed.

You can create bpstart_notify scripts that provide notification for all backups or for backups of a specific policy or schedule.

To create a script that applies to all backups, name the script bpstart_notify.bat.

To create a bpstart_notify script that applies only to a specific policy or policy and schedule combination, add a .policyname or .policyname.schedulename suffix to the script name.

The following are examples of bpstart_notify script names:

  • The following script applies only to a policy named days:

    install_path\netbackup\bin\bpstart_notify.days.bat
  • The following script applies only to a schedule that is named fulls in a policy named days:

    install_path\netbackup\bin\bpstart_notify.days.fulls.bat

    The bpstart_notify script also runs for NetBackup catalog backups if a .policyname[.schedule] is not specified.

The first script affects all scheduled backups in the policy named days. The second script affects scheduled backups in the policy named days only when the schedule is named fulls.

For a given backup, NetBackup calls only one bpstart_notify script and checks for them in the following order:

bpstart_notify.policy.schedule.bat
bpstart_notify.policy.bat
bpstart_notify.bat

For example, if there are both bpstart_notify.policy.bat and bpstart_notify.policy.schedule.bat scripts, NetBackup uses only the bpstart_notify.policy.schedule.bat script.

Note:

bpend_notify scripts can provide a different level of notification than the bpstart_notify scripts. For example, to use one of each, the script names might be bpstart_notify.policy.bat and bpend_notify.policy.schedule.bat.

NetBackup passes the following parameters to the script:

%1

Specifies the name of the client from the NetBackup catalog.

%2

Specifies the policy name from the NetBackup catalog.

%3

Specifies the schedule name from the NetBackup catalog.

%4

Specifies one of the following: FULL, INCR, CINC, UBAK, UARC

%5

Specifies that the status of the operation is always 0 for bpstart_notify.

%6

Specifies the results file that NetBackup checks for a return code from the script. NetBackup uses %6 to pass the file name and then expects the script to create the file in the same directory as the script.

If the script applies to a specific policy and schedule, the results file must be named

install_path\netbackup\bin\BPSTART_RES.policy.schedule

If the script applies to a specific policy, the results file must be named

install_path\netbackup\bin\BPSTART_RES.policy

If the script applies to all backups, the results file must be named

install_path\netbackup\bin\BPSTART_RES

An echo 0> %6 statement is one way for the script to create the file.

NetBackup deletes the existing results file before it calls the script. After the script runs, NetBackup checks the new results file for the status. The status must be 0 for the script to be considered successful. If the results file does not exist, NetBackup assumes that the script was successful.

The server expects the client to respond with a continue message within the time that the BPSTART_TIMEOUT option specifies on the server. The default for BPSTART_TIMEOUT is 300 seconds. If the script needs more time than 300 seconds, increase the value to allow more time. (The BPSTART_TIMEOUT option corresponds to the Backup start notify timeout on the Timeouts host properties.)

Note:

The Client read timeout (CLIENT_READ_TIMEOUT option) must be equal to or greater than the Backup start notify timeout (BPSTART_TIMEOUT option). If the Client read timeout is less than the Backup start notify timeout, the job can timeout while the bpstart_notify script is running.

Feedback

Was this page helpful?
Previous

bpstart_notify script (UNIX clients)

Next

bpend_notify script (UNIX clients)

Feedback

Was this page helpful?