Answer

Using a feature called redirected restore, Symantec (Veritas) NetBackup allows Netezza DBAs the ability to restore a backup from a different NPS system.

For data recovery (DR) or development purposes, you may need to restore a backup from one NPS system to another. When the initial backup is created using the Symantec NetBackup connector, the DBA must perform additional steps to support this type of remote restore. NetBackup refers to this as redirected restore.

The nzbackup and nzrestore commands use the NetBackup Linux client libraries that are installed on the NPS' Linux host during the standard NetBackup client install. When one client requests the backup taken against another, the expected behavior is to fail; this is true with the native NetBackup commands as well. The reason for this is a host name comparison that takes place when determining if the client has the ability to browse. Since the original system's name does not match the requesting client, these operations will fail. The nzrestore command will fail with the error message shown below:

[nz@cs-spubox6 ]$ nzrestore -db mydatabase_restored -sourcedb myDatabase -npshost cs-spubox4 -connector veritas -connectorArgs
"DATASTORE_SERVER=cs_netbackup_server:DATASTORE_POLICY=NetezzaDatabase"

Error: Connector exited with error: 'NetBackup prepareObjList () failed with errorcode (23): Server Status:  socket read failed

This is an attempt to restore a backup of myDatabase taken on cs-spubox4; this restore is running on cs-spubox6 which does not currently have the ability to browse cs-spubox4 backup sets.

To allow for this type of restore, the NetBackup administrator must allow this host to browse unrestricted or allow all clients to browse all other client backup sets. To enable only a single client, create a file on the NetBackup master server in the /usr/openv/netbackup/db/altnames directory with the requesting client's hostname as shown in the example of cs-spubox6:

[root@cs_tsm_server netbackup]# touch /usr/openv/netbackup/db/altnames/cs-spubox6

Alternatively, you can allow any client to remotely restore any other client by running the following command on the NetBackup master server:

[root@cs_tsm_server netbackup]# touch /usr/openv/netbackup/db/altnames/No.Restrictions

However, touch No.Restrictions is not generally recommended. Unless specific business requirements exist, you should allow as few clients as possible to have this redirected restore capability.

Once the client browsing capability is established, you can proceed with the restore operation as shown by the following command:

[nz@cs-spubox6 ]$ nzrestore -db mydatabase_restored -sourcedb myDatabase -npshost cs-spubox4 -connector veritas -connectorArgs "DATASTORE_SERVER=cs_netbackup_server:DATASTORE_POLICY=NetezzaDatabase"
Restore of increment 1 from backupset 20090728134447 to database 'mydatabase_restored' committed.

If you are still unable to run redirected restores, open a support incident using impact 'Other' and category '3rdPartyTools->Other->Query->Any'. If the failure occurred within the past 24 hours, attach the following information to the incident:

1. On the Netbackup client (Netezza host):

tar -czvf /tmp/hd123456_netbackup_logs.tar.z `find /usr/openv/netbackup/logs -type f -ctime -1`

tar -czvf /tmp/hd123456_netezza_restore_logs.tar.z `find /nz/kit/log/restoresvr/ -type f -ctime -1`

tar -czvf /tmp/hd123456_netbackup_logs.tar.z `find /usr/openv/netbackup/logs -type f -ctime -1`