NDMP restore exits with Staus 0, but nothing is restored

Network Data Management Protocol restore from a duplicated image exits with status 0, but nothing was restored to the filer.

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Details:

The problem occurs when a Media Manager Storage Unit that is configured with Maximum Fragment Size,which is set to a specific value, is used for duplicating Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) backup images.

NDMP backups are sent to an NDMP Storage Unit. Backups to an NDMP Storage Unit do not fragment images. Duplication (performed manually or through VERITAS NetBackup (tm) Vault) of NDMP backups to a Media Manager Storage Unit with Maximum Fragment Size set to a specific value will cause duplicated images to be fragmented. During the restore from these duplicated images, the NDMP host does not know how to handle the fragmentations introduced by the backup tape manager (bptm) during duplication. The restore will eventually complete with no error, but there will not be any files restored. This is also found to affect the Direct Access Restore (DAR) functionality.


Workaround:

To restore images from such tapes, it is necessary to reduplicate the images to a Media Manager Storage Unit without setting the Maximum Fragment Size. The process will create a new copy with a single fragment image that can be recognized by NDMP hosts.


Solution:

For NDMP duplications, select a Media Manager Storage Unit without setting the Maximum Fragment Size.

How to change and set the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) progress timeout value

DOCUMENTATION: How to change and set the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) progress timeout value.

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Details:

Some Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) operations (such as a non-Direct Access Recovery (DAR) restore) may take a long time. The default Veritas NetBackup (tm) behavior is an 8-hour timeout value when waiting for NDMP operations to complete. It is possible to modify this timeout value by creating theNDMP_PROGRESS_TIMEOUT file on the NetBackup media server. The file is created in the/usr/openv/netbackup/db/config/ directory on a UNIX/Linux media server, and in the\veritas\netbackup\db\config directory on a Windows media server.
The file must only contain a single number, which is the desired timeout value, in minutes.

To create the file, open up a UNIX or WINDOWS command prompt on the media server, change to the configdirectory, and execute the following command:

echo 1440 > NDMP_PROGRESS_TIMEOUT

This creates the NDMP_PROGRESS_TIMEOUT file, and specifies a timeout value of 24 hours (1440 minutes).

Starting with NetBackup patch levels 6.0MP7 and 6.5.4, a higher timeout above 1440 minutes can be used in the file.
The new maximum limit of 7 days (10080 minutes) can be used on media servers with NetBackup patch levels 6.0MP7 / 6.5.4 and higher.

After adding or modifying the file, stop and restart the NetBackup daemons on the media server.