About the Multiple Copies options

The Multiple Copies dialog box appears only if you select the Multiple Copies checkbox on the basic Duplication tab and then click Configure. You use this dialog box to create multiple copies of a backup image concurrently.

Table: Multiple Copies dialog box configuration options describes configuration options for the Multiple Copies dialog box.

Table: Multiple Copies dialog box configuration options

Property

Description

Copies

The number of copies to create concurrently. You can create up to four or the number of copies specified in the Maximum Backup Copies field for the NetBackup master server (if less than four). (Configured in NetBackup Management > Host Properties > Master Server > server_name > Global NetBackup Attributes.) By default, the value is two: one original backup and one copy.

For Each Image, If This Copy Fails

The action to perform if a copy fails: Continue or Fail All Copies.

In Vault, if you choose Fail All Copies, all copies of that image fail, independent of the success or failure of other image copy operations.

The next time the Vault profile runs, Vault again tries to duplicate the image if the following conditions are true:

  • The image is selected.

  • The Vault profile did not eject the primary backup.

By default, the option is configured to Fail All Copies in Vault.

If you choose Continue for all copies, Vault considers the duplication job successful if any of the copies succeed. However, it is possible that a copy of the image may never get vaulted. It is probable that at least one copy will succeed, but it may not be the copy assigned to the off-site volume pool.

Media Owner

The name of the owner of the media onto which you are duplicating images.

Specify the media owner from the drop-down list box, as follows:

  • The media owner option Any lets NetBackup choose the media owner. NetBackup chooses a media server or a server group (if one is configured).

  • The media owner option None specifies that the media server that writes the image to the media owns the media. No media server is specified explicitly, but you want a media server to own the media.

  • The media owner option Server Group allows only those servers in the group to write to the media on which backup images for this policy are written. All server groups that are configured in the NetBackup environment appear in the drop-down list.

Primary

Whether the copy should be designated the primary backup. Only designate a duplicate as the primary if the primary backup is ejected and transferred off site.

NetBackup restores from the primary backup, and Vault duplicates from the primary backup. By default, the original backup image created during a NetBackup policy job is the primary copy. If the copy that you indicate as primary fails, and you configured continue as the fail option, the first successful copy is the primary copy.

Retention

The retention level for the copy. Each copy has a separate expiration date. If a retention level is not specified, the expiration date is the same as the original. If you specify a numeric retention level, the expiration date for the duplicate media is calculated by adding the specified retention period to the date the original backup was created. If you specify Use Mappings for the retention level, the retention period is based on the retention period of backup image copy 1.

When the retention period expires, information about the expired backup is deleted from the NetBackup and Media Manager catalogs, the volume is recalled from off-site storage, and the backup image is unavailable for a restore.

Storage Unit

The name of a storage unit that contains the resources to which the copies of the backup images are written.

Storage units can be Media Manager storage units, disk storage units, disk staging storage units, or Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) storage units.

If the Media Manager or NDMP storage unit has more than one drive, the source and destination storage units can be the same. NDMP storage units are supported only when one copy is created per duplication rule. Because of potential NDMP performance limitations, Symantec suggests that you duplicate between drives that are directly attached to the same NDMP host.

If the duplicated backup images are to be vaulted, the media in the destination storage unit must be in the Robotic Volume Group.

All storage units must be connected to the same media server.

Volume Pool

The name of the off-site volume pool to which Vault assigns the duplicate media. Images on media in the off-site volume pool is ejected for transfer off-site. Do not use the volume pool that was used for the original backup; NetBackup does not verify in advance that the media ID selected for the duplicate copy is different than the media that contains the original backup. To ensure that two processes do not try to use the same volume at the same time, specify a different volume pool.

Write Drives

The number of write drives. This value is the same as the number of read drives.

More Information

About the continue or fail for concurrent copies

Assigning multiple retentions with one profile