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  1. Home
  2. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume I
  3. Section V. Configuring backups
  4. Protecting the NetBackup catalog
  5. Estimating catalog space requirements
  6. Moving the image catalog
Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume I

Moving the image catalog

An image catalog may become too large for its current location. Consider moving the image catalog to a file system or disk partition that contains more available space.

Notes about moving the image catalog
  • NetBackup does not support saving the catalog to a remote NFS share. CIFS is supported on some SAN or NAS storage.

    See Parts of the NetBackup catalog.

  • NetBackup only supports moving the image catalog to a different file system or disk partition. It does not support moving the other subdirectories that make up the entire NetBackup catalog.

    For example, on Windows, do not use the ALTPATH mechanism to move install_path\NetBackup\db\error.

    For example, on UNIX, do not move /usr/openv/netbackup/db/error. The catalog backup only follows the symbolic link when backing up the /images directory. So, if symbolic links are used for other parts of the NetBackup catalog, the files in those parts are not included in the catalog backup.

  • The directory that is specified in the ALTPATH file is not automatically removed if NetBackup is uninstalled. If NetBackup is uninstalled, you must manually remove the contents of this directory.

Moving the image catalog between Windows hosts

To move the image catalog on Windows

  1. Back up the NetBackup catalogs manually.

    A backup of the catalogs ensures that you can recover image information in case something is accidentally lost during the move.

  2. Check the Jobs tab in the Activity Monitor and ensure that no backups or restores are running for the client.

    If jobs are running, either wait for them to end or stop them by using the Jobs tab in the Activity Monitor.

  3. Use the Daemons tab in the Activity Monitor to stop the Request Manager and the Database Manager daemons. These services are stopped to prevent jobs from starting. Do not modify the database while this procedure is performed.
  4. Create a file named ALTPATH in the image catalog directory.

    For example, if NetBackup is installed in the default location and the client name is mars, the path to the image catalog is:

    C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\db\images\mars\ALTPATH

  5. Create the directory to which you intend to move the image information. For example:

    E:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images\client_name

  6. On the first line of the ALTPATH file, specify the path to the directory where you intend to move the client's image information. For example:

    E:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images\client_name

    The path is the only entry in the ALTPATH file.

  7. Move all files and directories (except the ALTPATH file) that are in the current client directory to the new directory.

    For example, if the images are currently in

    C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\db\images\mars

    and the ALTPATH file specifies

    E:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images\mars

    then move all files and directories (except the ALTPATH file) to

    E:\NetBackup\alternate_db\images\mars

  8. Start the NetBackup Request Daemon and NetBackup Database Manager in the Daemons tab.

    Backups and restores can now resume for the client.

Moving the image catalog between UNIX hosts

To move the image catalog on UNIX

  1. Check that no backups are in progress by running:

    /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpps

  2. Stop bprd by running:

    /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bprdreq -terminate

  3. Stop bpdbm by running:

    /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpdbm -terminate

  4. Create the directory in the new file system. For example:

    mkdir /disk3/netbackup/db/images

  5. Move the image catalog to the new location in the other file system.
  6. Create a symbolic link from /usr/openv/netbackup/db/images to the new location in the other file system.

More Information

Backing up NetBackup catalogs manually

NetBackup file size considerations on UNIX systems

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