4/28/2014 Symantec NetBackup Interview questions and answers - tecz.

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Symantec NetBackup Interview questions and answers

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Published on Tuesday, 04 March 2014 19:26
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What is Netbackup ?
Symantec NetBackup (earlier Veritas NetBackup) is an enterprise level heterogeneous backup and
recovery suite. It provides cross-platform backup functionality to a large variety of Windows, UNIX and
Linux operating systems.
It is set up with a central master server that manages both media servers (containing the backup media)
and clients. Core server platforms are, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Tru64, Linux and Windows.

Which are the backup types that are available in Netbackup ?

Differential Incremental Backup
Commulative Incremental Backup
User Backup
User Archive
Full Backup

What is media multiplexing?

The process of sending concurrent-multiple backups from one or more clients to a single storage device
and interleaving those images onto the media.

What is avrd ?
The automatic volume recognition daemon on UNIX and process
on Windows

What is bpadm?
An administrator utility that runs on NetBackup UNIX servers. It has a character-based,
menu interface that can be run from terminals that do not have X Windows capabilities.

What is a frozen image ?

A stable disk copy of the data prior to backup. A frozen image is created very rapidly, causing minimal
impact on other applications.
There are two basic types: copy-on-write and mirror.

What is retention period ?

The length of time that NetBackup keeps backup and archive images. The retention period is specified
on the schedule.

What is tape spanning ?

Using more than one tape to store a single backup image.

What is TLD,TLH,TLM,TL4,TL8?
TLD-Tape Library DLT
TLH-Tape Library Half-inch
TLM-Tape Library Multimedia
TL4-Tape Library 4MM
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TL8-Tape Library 8MM

What is the full form of DLT?

Digital-linear tape or tape drive type.

What is image expiration and volume expiration?

Image Expiration-
The date and time when NetBackup stops tracking a backup image.

Volume Expiration-
The date and time when the physical media (tape) is considered to be no longer
usable.

Commanline to shutdown netbackup services on Windows Server?

bpdown

Which command is used to produce a report on Status of Netbackup Images?

bpimagelist

What is the use of command vmupdate?

Inventory the media contents of a robotic library.

Commandline for Creating a copy of backups created by NetBackup?

bpduplicate

What is a master server & media server?

The master server manages backups, archives, and restores. The master server is responsible for media
and device selection for NetBackup. Typically, the master server contains the NetBackup catalog. The
catalog contains the internal databases that contain information about NetBackup backups and
configuration.

Media servers provide additional storage by allowing NetBackup to use the storage devices that are
attached to them.

During a backup or archive, the client sends backup data across the network to a NetBackup server. The
NetBackup server manages the type of storage that is specified in the backup policy.
During a restore, users can browse, then select the files and directories to recover. NetBackup finds the
selected files and directories and restores them to the disk on the client.
What is volume pools & volume Groups?
Volume pool contains pool of backup medias and volume group contains location of volumes.

What does these status codes mean- 216, 256,298,50?

216 - failed reading retention database information
256 - An internal Vault error occurred.
298 - This error occurs if the robotic library is not in a state to support ejecting media.
50 - The client backup terminated abnormally. For example, this error occurs if a NetBackup master or
media server is shut down or rebooted when a backup or restore is in progress.

What is the process of importing images and why do we import images?

When you need to restore a backup which is expired from the netbackup catalog you have to import the
image.

What does it mean by inventoring a robot?)What is media multiplexing?

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Inventory robot is done to recognize new tapes inserted into the library.

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