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Ideal DR setup for NetBackup environment

What is the ideal DR solution for our backup infrastructure? We are currently using Veritas NetBackup and an IBM LTO 3854 library. What would be the most ideal DR solution assuming we have a Wintel server and another LTO 3852 library. I'm assuming that building a second storage domain with its own master server (rather than having to rebuild the master server from scratch and/or re-install NetBackup on a server) would be the best solution and ensure master catalogs are replicated across the DR server to ensure that the time require to restore data/files from offsite tapes would be minimized, as we do not have to import and rebuild everything from tape.

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The concept of having a standby NetBackup server at an alternate location is definitely not a bad idea. It is very much inline with what a hot-site would look like. Many organizations have similar installations for critical servers without going to extent of implementing a remote cluster.

However, your plan must consider specific backup management items that have to do with the catalogs. Thought must be given to avoid issues with the replicated catalog (offsite) expecting the have the tapes in the library (not ejected). If the actual instance of NetBackup is not up but simply replicated, this should not be an issue.

All that said, if the RTO for your critical applications is such that restoring the backup server introduces potentially serious recovery delays, it might be worth considering another data protection method for them. Since it appears you might already have an alternate location and the means to replicate data, the ideal DR option would likely be to replicate the critical apps data rather than the NetBackup catalogs.

Of course, this all depends on the critical applications' RTO and the potential losses if they are down. The idea behind DR planning remains to reduce the impact of an outage to a level that is acceptable to the business.

 

This was first published in November 2005

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