Solstice Backup 5.1 Administration Guide

Maintenance Tasks

This section contains tasks you might need to perform after you install and configure your Backup server.

Message Log Management

Backup stores the messages generated by the Backup server daemons in a message log file in the /nsr/logs directory. When the log file becomes too large, you have to delete some messages from the log. To automatically control the size of the log, you can use variables in the Backup startup script in the /etc directory or create a script that uses the operating system services.

How to Set the Startup Script to Trim Log Files

To modify the way that Backup services manage the Backup log files, change the following environmental variables in the Backup startup script, networker in the /etc/init.d directory before you start the nsrd daemon:

To change the maximum size of log files, change the NSR_MAXLOGSIZE value. The default value for NSR_MAXLOGSIZE is 1024 KB.
To change the maximum number of log files that are saved, change the NSR_MAXLOGVERS value. The default value is 4.

Every time nsrd starts, it checks the size of the daemon.log file. By default, when the daemon.log file reaches the 1024 KB limit, it is renamed daemon.001 and a new empty daemon.log is created. If the daemon.log file fills again, the names of each existing file shift so that the daemon.001 file is renamed daemon.002, daemon.log is renamed daemon.001, and a new empty daemon.log file is created. This process is repeated until the value in NSR_MAXLOGVERS is reached, at which point the highest numbered log is removed.

Caution -

The trimming mechanism only functions when you start nsrd. The nsrd daemon does not check periodically to see whether the log file has exceeded NSR_MAXLOGSIZE. If nsrd runs for a long time, the log file can still grow very large. To activate the trimming mechanism, enter nsr_shutdown to stop the Backup daemons, then restart the nsrd and nsrexecd daemons.

How to Use the Operating System Services to Trim Log Files

You can use the Solaris operating environment services to automatically manage the size of the Backup log files.

Solaris software provides a two-part mechanism for managing the syslog message file (/var/log/syslog): a shell script (/usr/lib/newsyslog) and a crontab entry for root to periodically invoke the script.

You can modify the newsyslog script to manage and maintain a short history of the Backup server's log file. The modified script maintains a three-file history of the Backup server`s daemon.log file.

To manage your Backup log file, follow these steps:

Use your favorite text editor to add the following lines to /usr/lib/newsyslog:

LOGDIR=/nsr/logs
LOG=daemon.log
if test -d $LOGDIR
then
    cd $LOGDIR
    test -f $LOG.1 && mv $LOG.1 $LOG.2
    test -f $LOG.0 && mv $LOG.0 $LOG.1
    test -f $LOG   && mv $LOG   $LOG.0
    cp /dev/null $LOG
    chmod 644 $LOG
fi

Backup cannot use the new log file until you shut down and restart the Backup daemons. Shut down the daemons with the nsr_shutdown command, either manually or as an additional command in the newsyslog script. Make sure that the script does not run during a scheduled save. Then, restart Backup manually using the following commands:

# /etc/init.d/networker start

Add an entry to crontab for root to control the frequency of running the newsyslog script.

The entry shown in the following example invokes the newsyslog script every Saturday morning at 4:05 a.m.:
5 4 * * 6 /usr/lib/newsyslog
If your Solaris system does not have the newsyslog script and crontab entry to invoke it, create the newsyslog script manually and add the crontab entry for it. See the crontab(1) man page for more information.

How to Move Your Backup Server License to a Different Machine

To move the Backup server license from one machine to another, follow these steps:

Use Backup to perform a full backup of all the filesystems on the old Backup server.

Shut down the Backup daemons on the old server, using the nsr_shutdown -a command.

Make a tar tape of the entire /nsr directory from the old server, and reload it on the new server.

If /nsr is a symbolic link on the old server, make sure the new server has the /nsr symbolic link setup also.

Shut down your old server and disconnect all the devices.

Shut down the new machine, add the hardware devices to the new server, and restart both machines. Start up the old machine first, and then the new one.

Install Backup on the new server.

If you have an autochanger, do not select the option to start the Backup daemons. Refer to the instructions in the Solstice Backup 5.1 Installation and Release Notes to learn how to install and test the Backup device drivers.

Because you create a new host, you must correctly define the index entry for the new host before you start the Backup daemons. Correct the index entry using one of the two methods:
- Name the new server with the same hostname as the old server at the operating system level before you modify client resources.
- Create a new hostname for the new server with the same configuration choices as the old server.
To create a new hostname for the new server, follow these steps:

Create a new hostname for the new server with the same configuration choices as the old server.

Delete the hostname entry for the old server.

Shut down the Backup daemons on the old server and the new server:
# nsr_shutdown -a

Change to the directory containing the old server index entry:
# cd /nsr/index
The entry for the new server hostname is empty.

Delete the entry for the new server hostname:
# rmdir new-hostname
You must remove this entry or the next step creates a subentry for the new server instead of the correct entry.

Rename the old index directory to the new server hostname:

# mv old-hostname new-hostname

The Backup daemons start up on the new server.

new-server syslog: Backup Server: (notice) started
new-server syslog: Backup Registration: (notice) invalid auth codes
detected.
new-server syslog:
new-server syslog: The auth codes for the following licenses enablers
are now invalid.
new-server syslog: The cause may be that you moved the Backup server
to a new computer.
new-server syslog: You must re-register these enablers within 15 days
to obtain new codes.
new-server syslog:
new-server syslog: License enabler #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx (Backup
Advanced/10)

Reregister your new Backup server. After you move Backup from one system to another, you have 15 days to register the new server with SunSoft.

To reregister your new server, refer to "How to Register and Authorize Your Software ".

After you have successfully moved your server, follow these steps:

Verify that all the clients are included in the scheduled backups.
Use the Backup recover program to make sure all the client indexes are visible and, therefore, recoverable.
Back up the indexes on the new server or perform a full backup of the new server as soon as possible.

If you want to set up the old server as a client, first remove all the Backup software and the /nsr directory from the old server, then reinstall the Backup client software.