Restored backup from tape but cannot restore files (veritas)

[sidewinder]

My normal backup routine is everything to disk, then those backup files to tape

 

Now ive just restored a whole tape and again Im left with lots of bkf files but how do I actually restore anything from there? Veritas doesnt have any recollection of it because its an old backup off tape so how do I 'import' it again?

 

Desperatly need to get this stuff back

[6Foot2]

Sounds to me like you have used NT Backup to backup the files to disk, and then, perhaps, you have used Veritas to backup these files to the tape. So once the bkf files are on the hard disk you should be able to use NT Backup to look inside the archive and restore the files to want to recover. Hope this helps.

[sidewinder]

No, not used ntbackup at all

 

Backup exec backs up to a folder, I then back up that folder to tape again with Veritas

 

I wasnt aware there was any other way to do it but there must be considering the problems I am having now

 

The problem is, there is only space on disk for 2 weeks worth, week A and B and I alternate between the 2. However I keep 6 weeks on tape. I couldnt restore the tape to its orginal location (weekB) because it would have overwritten the current backup. So I restored to an external USB drive

 

But of course because that drive doesnt appear in Veritas anywhere and I cant make it into a backup to disk folder because there is already data in it, I dont know how to restore from it or even search through it

[Disease]

This is what you have done....I Think.

 

You have backed up the files on the machine. You have then backed to tape the folder that you backed the files up with.

 

You have restored the back up from tape so all you are left with is the BKF files that you backed up to tape because thats all you backed up was the bkf files and not the actual files.

 

You did a back up of the back up files, thats why Veritas will not find any files or restore them, its restores the backup to disk folder.

 

Why did you not just back the files to the tape drive using veritas instead of going to a folder and then backing up that folder to tape.

 

I really do not see anyway to resolve your situation unless you can get Veritas to recognise the BKF files.

[plexer]

Backup exec backs up to a folder, I then back up that folder to tape again with Veritas

 

Backup exec and veritas are one and the same so that confuses the issue a bit.

 

The .bkf files are backup files but are you sure they were created with backup exec and not the built in ntbackup tool?

 

What happens if you double click on one of them?

 

Ben

[Disease]

After reading your post again I see your dilemma, and I have NO idea how to resolve it, short of restoring to HDD on the system then running bkp exec again and seeing if it will pick up the bkf files. You could try it on a spare system if you have one, even then I do not hold out much hope that you will get your files back.

[plexer]

If those .bkf files were created by backup exec then it must be able to open them unless they are damaged.

 

Or you could try something like:

 

http://www.ms-bkf-repair.com/

 

Ben

[steve]

The .bkf files are the veritas compressed data files.

 

You need to imports these into veritas.

 

Create a new backup to disk folder.

Place the backup file within this folder.

Create an inventory of the folder. If this has worked a Changer.cfg and Folder.cfg file will be in the same folder. Check the job monitor too.

 

This should now make the files available within the restore section.

[sidewinder]

Thanks Steve, its busy doing the inventory operation now, fingers crossed in the morning Ill be able to restore

 

After this though I need to find a better way to do this, I need to be able to restore single files directly from tape. I still want to backup to disk first though due to speed issues

Is there a BackupExec 'way' of doing this? We use 9.1

 

Backup exec and veritas are one and the same so that confuses the issue a bit.

 

yeh, sorry to confuse anyone, backup exec just takes too long to write multiple times :oops:

[steve]

After this though I need to find a better way to do this, I need to be able to restore single files directly from tape. I still want to backup to disk first though due to speed issues

Is there a BackupExec 'way' of doing this? We use 9.1

 

I'm not aware of anyway of doing this in backupexec.

 

The problem you are coming up against is by running a second backup to tape you are creating another .bkf file (similar to a zip file within a zip file)

 

How about:

 

Setup 6 backup folders and 6 media sets

 

Folder A - Media A

Folder B - Media B

etc.

 

Then each week backup the media set to another drive.

Once on another drive, remove the .bkf from the folder.

 

Then you can just copy back the file to the folder if you need to recover anything.

 

[EDIT]

 

There may be a way .....

 

Within the media section, try moving the media from the folder to the tape.

(Right click the media item, move)

Never tried this myself though.

 

Looks like you can just move the media from one place to another.

This should then allow you to restore from tape.

[Jake]

We have our backupexec backing up to a Ultrium 3 Autoloader, the backup is around 174g, and is scheduled to run overnight. We use 2 sets of 5 tapes, so we have a 2 week rotation of backups.

 

Ours backups directly to the tape, and in the past we have simply selected the relevant date marked backup as listed in Backupexecs restore options and restored individual folders or files if needed. Thats using backupexec version 10.0.5484

[sidewinder]

steve - the inventory operation worked fine but the backup to disk folder i created (called restore) does not appear in the restore dialog at all - any ideas?

[steve]

Sorry for the delay in replying, but I'm still on holiday :-)

 

You might need to re catalog the media.

 

Under media, select the newly inventoried item, right click, catalog.

[sidewinder]

Alright for some!

 

Cheers, Ill try that on Monday

 

Ive decided on a new backup strategy, Im going to backup straight to tape on a Friday night and then restore back to the backup server hard disk on Monday. Best of both worlds, gives me a working tape backup, tests the backup, and gives me the ability to do a quick recovery from the previous week

 

Ive decided on this after seeing how quick 300GB has been backed up from the new servers straight onto our LTO-3 drive - 5 1/2 hours tonight

The old server used to hold it up immensely

[john]

The new LTO-3 drives are amazing! I have had amazing performance from them and am very impressed, coupled with a top notch new high spec SCSI card and quality cable what more do you need or want. I am getting 400gb in just over 4hrs, and thats is all over the network not off the local server.

[ranj]

what time drive do you have john

[john]

HP Ultrium 960 LTO-3 Tape Drive

[Disease]

I have a HP ULtrium LTO-3 Autoloader, takes 8x800gig tapes

[sidewinder]

Right finally got this working

 

Had to set up BackupExec on another server in the end as it seemed to be getting confused while cataloging it

 

Even on the new server ther catalog operation failed but it did enough for me to be able to get the work back

 

BUT later on today, I looked at the recycle bin on our staff server and low and behold, the exact documents I was trying to restore (half the ICT teachers documents which dissaperared in the server move) were all there!

So Ive wasted almost a week on this when I didnt even need to!

 

Add to this the fact that while my backup to tape went well on Friday, I forgot to eject it this morning, so it started copying a 2 week old backup onto it from the old job, overwriting the new backup...ahhhh

[john]

Glad you got it sorted, and we've all done that overwriting thing, i've done it before on ones without Veritas