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  1. Home
  2. Veritas NetBackup™ Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide
  3. Troubleshooting
  4. Identifying and removing a left-over snapshot
Veritas NetBackup™ Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide

Identifying and removing a left-over snapshot

NetBackup ordinarily removes snapshots after the Snapshot Client backup completes, unless the Keep snapshot after backup parameter was set to Yes. However, as a result of some system failures, such as a system crash or abnormal backup termination, the snapshot may not be removed.

To identify and remove a left-over snapshot

  1. Use the bpfis command with the query option to list the current snapshots. Enter the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:
       /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpfis query

    This command returns the IDs (FIS IDs) of all current snapshots. For example:

    INF - BACKUP START 3629
    INF - FIS IDs: 1036458302
    INF - EXIT STATUS 0: the requested operation was successfully 
    completed

    In this example, the snapshot ID is 1036458302.

  2. If the bpfis output shows the ID of the snapshot, delete it as follows:
       bpfis delete -id snapshot_id
    

    If bpfis removed the snapshot, you can skip the rest of this procedure.

  3. Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux: if bpfis could not remove the snapshot, enter the following (on the client or alternate client) when no backups are running:
       df -k

    This command displays all mounted file systems, including any snapshots of a mounted file system.

    If a snapshot backup is currently running, the snapshot should not be deleted. NetBackup deletes it when the backup completes.

    Here are two snapshots from a df -k listing:

    /dev/dsk/c1t3d2s4  1048800  73076  914742  8%  /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__wil_vxfs_1299000
    /dev/vx/dsk/clone_qes_clone/ufs 38383 21678  12867  63%  /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img
    __mix_ufs_1299000

    The snapshot appears in the following form:

    /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__filesystemname_pid
    
  4. Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux: unmount the unneeded snapshot file systems (on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup).

    The next step depends on the type of snapshot.

  5. For nbu_snap (Solaris only):

    • Enter the following to display leftover snaps:

         /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/driver/snaplist
    • To remove a leftover snap, enter

         /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/driver/snapoff snap1 ... snapn
      

      More information is available on snaplist and snapoff.

      See About managing nbu_snap.

  6. For VxVM (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux) and VVR (Solaris and HP):

    Do the following on the client for VxVM, and on the alternate client for VVR:

    • Enter the following to display unsynchronized mirror disks:

         vxprint -g diskgroup
      
    • Enter the following to resynchronize the mirror disks:

         vxassist -g diskgroup -v volume snapback
  7. For VxVM (Windows):

    • Enter the following to display unsynchronized mirror disks:

          vxdg -g diskgroup dginfo
    • Enter the following to resynchronize the mirror disks:

      vxassist snapback \Device\HarddiskDmVolumes\diskgroup\snap_volume
      
  8. For VxFS_Checkpoint (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux):

    • Enter the following VxFS command to display the name of the checkpoint:

         /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm list /file_system
      

      Note:

      file_system is the mount point of the primary file system that was backed up, NOT the snapshot file system that was unmounted in a previous step.

      For example, if the snapshot file system that was unmounted is the following:

         /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__vm2_1765

      the original file system, which should be specified on the fsckptadm list command, is the following:

         /vm2

      Example entry:

         /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm list /vm2

      Output:

      /vm2
      NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s:
          ctime                =  Fri Apr 02 10:53:23 2004
          mtime                =  Fri Apr 02 10:53:23 2004
          flags                =  removable

      In this example, the name of the checkpoint is NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s.

    • Remove the checkpoint by entering the following:

      /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove name_of_checkpoint /file_system
      

      For example:

      /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove NBU+2004.04.02.10h53m22s /vm2
    • If the checkpoint cannot be removed, unmount it (umount) and retry the following:

      /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsckptadm remove name_of_checkpoint /file_system
      
    • For more detail on removing VxFS clones, refer to the recommended actions for NetBackup status code 156 in the NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.

  9. For TimeFinder, ShadowImage, BusinessCopy (Solaris or HP only):

    Do the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:

    • To discover and remove any VxVM clones:

      See Removing a VxVM volume clone.

    • Enter the following to resynchronize the mirror disks:

      For EMC arrays (TimeFinder):

         symmir -g device_group establish LdevName

      where LdevName is the logical device name of the standard device. For Hitachi and HP arrays (ShadowImage, BusinessCopy):

         pairresync -g groupname -d dev_name

      For more information about EMC, Hitachi, and HP arrays and resynchronizing disks, see the NetBackup Snapshot Client Configuration document:

      http://www.veritas.com/docs/000081320

  10. For VxFS_Snapshot (Solaris or HP only):

    Using the mounted file system from a previous step, unmount the snapshot as follows:

       umount -F vxfs /tmp/_vrts_frzn_img__filesystemname_pid
  11. For FlashSnap (Solaris, HP, AIX, Linux):

    Do the following on the client or alternate client, depending on the type of backup:

    • Find the VxVM disk group:

         vxdg list
    • The format of the disk group name is as follows:

         SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
      

      If vxdg list does not show the disk group, the group might have been deported. You can discover all the disk groups, including deported ones, by entering:

         vxdisk -o alldgs list

      The disk groups in parentheses are not imported on the local system.

    • Deport the VxVM disk group:

         vxdg deport SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
      
    • On the primary (original) client, import and join the VxVM disk group:

         vxdg import SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
          vxrecover -g SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup -m
          vxdg join SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup diskgroup
      
    • On the primary (original) client, start the volume and snap back the snapshot volume:

      vxvol -g SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup start SNAP-diskgroup_volume
      vxassist snapback SNAP-diskgroup_volume
      

      Example:

      In this example, chime is the primary client and rico is the alternate client. 1hddg is the name of the original disk group on chime.

      chime_lhddg is the split group that was imported on rico and must be rejoined to the original group on the primary chime.

      On alternate client rico, enter:

      vxdg deport chime_lhddg

      On primary client chime, enter:

      vxdg import chime_lhddg
      vxrecover -g chime_lhddg -m
      vxdg join chime_lhddg lhddg
      vxvol start SNAP-lhddg-vol01
      vxassist snapback SNAP-lhddg-vol01
  12. For FlashSnap (Windows):

    • Find the VxVM disk group:

         vxdg list
    • The format of the disk group name is as follows:

         SPLIT-primaryhost_diskgroup
      
    • Deport the VxVM disk group:

         vxdg -g split_diskgroup deport
    • On the primary (original) client, import and join the VxVM disk group:

         vxassist rescan
          vxdg -g split_diskgroup import
          vxdg -g split_diskgroup -n diskgroup join
    • On the primary (original) client, snap back the snapshot volume:

      vxassist snapback \Device\HarddiskDmVolumes\diskgroup\snap_volume
      

More Information

Logging directories for UNIX platforms

Logging folders for Windows platforms

Customer support contact information

Latest patches and updates

Important notes on Snapshot Client

Snapshot Client installation problems

Snapshot provider information

Removing a VxVM volume clone

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