Promoting a Copy to a Primary Copy

Each backup is assigned a primary copy. NetBackup uses the primary copy to satisfy restore requests. The first backup image created successfully by a NetBackup policy is the primary backup. If the primary copy is unavailable and you have created a duplicate, select a copy of the backup and set it to be the primary copy.

NetBackup restores from the primary backup, and Vault duplicates from the primary backup. If your Vault profile performs duplication, you can designate one of the duplicates as the primary. In most circumstances, the copy that remains in the robot should be the primary backup. When a primary backup expires, the next backup (if it exists) is promoted to primary automatically.

  To promote a backup copy to a primary copy

1. In the NetBackup Administration Console, expand NetBackup Management > Catalog.
2. Set up the search criteria for the image you wish to promote to a primary copy. See Searching for Backup Images. Be sure that you've indicated a copy in the Copies field and not Primary Copy. Click Search Now.
3. Select the image you wish to promote.
4. Click Actions > Set Primary Copy.

   After promoting to the primary copy, the Primary Status column immediately reads Yes.

  To promote many copies to a primary copy

You can also promote many copies to be a primary copy using the bpchangeprimary command. For example, the following command will promote all copies on media belonging to the volume pool, SUN, created after 08/01/2002 to be the primary copy:

bpchangeprimary -pool SUN -sd 08/01/2002

The following command will promote copy 2 of all backups of client oak, created after 01/01/2002 to be the primary copy:

bpchangeprimary -copy 2 -cl oak -sd 01/01/2002

For more information on bpchangeprimary, see the guide, NetBackup Commands for UNIX.

  To promote a backup copy to a primary copy using bpduplicate

1. Enter the following command:
      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpduplicate -npc pcopy -backupid bid

   Where:

   pcopy is the copy number that will become the new primary copy.

   bid is the backup identifier as shown in the Images on Media report.

To find the volume that has the duplicate backup, use the Images on Media report. Specify the backup ID which is known (and also the client name if possible to reduce the search time). The report shows information about both copies. See Images on Media Report.

The bpduplicate command writes all output to the NetBackup logs so nothing appears in the command window.

After promoting the duplicate to the primary copy, use the Backup, Archive and Restore interface on a client to list and restore files from the backup. See the NetBackup User's Guide for instructions.