Recovery a file from a EMC networker saveset that has expired and no longer browsable

Let me first make these comments:

  - A single save set that spans 15 tapes - not a good idea, in general

  - Changing the browse (and retention) once the save set is not browsable any more will not repopulate the CFI info which

    has been deleted when it changed state from browsable to recoverable/recyclable.

       If you really need the CFI info, you must run "scanner -i" for that save set.

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In general you have 3 options for a standard file system backup which start the save set as 'browsable':

1. Recover by rebuilding the file index info first

      Of course the client file index must be available (the metadata must be retrievable within the data stream).

      If you have deleted the client in the meantime, you must first

         - ensure that you can resolve the hostname (worst case by an entry in the local hosts file)

         - recreate a client resource (the exact parameters do not matter because you don't want to run backups)

         - I do not remember exactly any more but you might need to set the browse and retention dates for the save set high

           enough so that the current policies would not automatically delete the metadata immediately again.

         - rebuild the CFI with "scanner -i"

         - recover the file(s)

2. Recover the whole save set to a temp directory and get the file(s) from there.

3. Run a subset recovery like

     recover -iR -R -d -S -a "exact_pathname_what_to_recover"

    -  This of course implies that you know the exact pathname (directory- or file name)

    -  Be aware that NW will read the whole save set ... which may take a while ... but only recovers what you want

You better familarize with the command on a small (sub) save set ;-) .

Hi Bingo

Thanks for the information above.

As indicated in my first post that I have run the following command for the saveset already:

scanner -i -S SID

But still the data is not browsable.

I have in the past run the step 2 and 3 in the article below first and then run the scanner command which has worked fine:

https://emcservice.force.com/CustomersPartners/kA2j0000000QWAx?srPos=9&srKp=ka2&lang=en_US

But this time I forgot to run the commands in step 2 & 3 of that article before the scanner command.

Also, now if I run the following command it gives me the error "The saveset 'xxxxxx' cloneid 'yyyyyy' is already not eligible":-

nsrmm-S -o notrecyclable - never expires

If I run the mminfo command and check the "sumflags" then the values for the volumes with this saveset are either hb, mb or tb. This indicates that the saveset is browsable but as mentioned earlier I can't browse from another client using networker user program.

Is the current NetWorker backup server the same one that was used back in 3/5/2017?

If answer is yes, then my first method of choice to making a nonborwsable saveset browsable, is to recover the client file index (CFI) that was backed up during the period when the data saveset was still browsable.  Please check if this is the case, and if the tape containing the CFI backup is available.

Assuming that the NetWorker client name is 'abcd', then run

mminfo -avot -q "savetime>3/5/2017,savetime<4/6/2017,level=0" | grep -i "index:abcd'

If it comes back with info, and if the volume is available, then you should be able to recover any of the CFI backups listed.  Once that is done, you should be able to perform a browsable recovery.

Take a look at this link, and follow the steps described:

How to Browse Recovery after saveset has passed browse period

https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-16887

"... I can't browse from another client using networker user program."

To be able to do this, you must of course have the appropriate 'remote access' rights.

If you are working at another host, you (the account you use) might not have them.

Of course you must specify the user in the appropriate client properties.