Veritas NetBackup™ Logging Reference Guide

NDMP backup procedure

1. The NetBackup administrator runs the bpbackup command to start the backup job. Or, a scheduled policy that is created on the NetBackup Administration Console can initiate the job.
2. The bpbackup process connects to the master server and creates the backup request. The NetBackup Request Manager (bprd) sends the backup request to the Policy Execution Manager (nbpem), who submits the job to the Job Manager (nbjm).
3. nbjm requests resources from the Resource Broker (nbrb) that are required to run the job. nbrb accesses the Media and Device Selection (MDS) of the Enterprise Media Management (nbemm) to evaluate the resources request. MDS queries the EMM database to identify the resources to use for this job.
4. MDS provides nbrb with a list of resources for the job, and nbrb passes it on to nbjm.
5. nbjm initiates communication with the media server that is associated with this backup job. It goes through the client service (bpcd) to start the Backup and Restore Manager (bpbrm) on the media server.
6. bpbrm starts the Tape Manager (bptm) on the media server. Eventually, the parent bptm process makes a request to ltid to mount the tape to be used for the backup job.
7. On the NetBackup for NDMP server, one of the following occurs: sends the necessary NDMP SCSI robotic commands to mount the requested tape on the storage device.

   • The NDMP agent service (ndmpagent) connects to the filer that issues the NDMP commands to mount the tape that is directly attached.

   • ltid on the media server issues the necessary NDMP SCSI robotic commands to mount the requested tape on the storage device.

8. One of the following occurs, depending on the type of NDMP backup:

   • Local backup. NetBackup sends the NDMP commands to have the NDMP server application perform the backup to tape. The data travels between the local disk and the tape drives on the NDMP host without crossing the LAN.

   • Three-way backup (not shown in the process flow diagram). NetBackup sends NDMP commands to the NDMP server application to perform the backup. The media server establishes NDMP communications with both NDMP servers. The data travels over the network from the NDMP server that houses the data to be backed up to the NDMP server that writes the backup to its tape storage.

   • Remote backup (not shown in the process flow diagram). The device that is used to write the backup is associated with a NetBackup storage unit. bptm on the NetBackup media server mounts a tape on a tape drive. NetBackup sends the NDMP commands to the NDMP server to initiate the backup to the non-NDMP media manager storage unit. The data travels over the network from the NDMP host to the NetBackup media server, which writes the data to the selected storage unit.

9. Throughout the backup operation and at its completion, the NDMP server sends status about the backup operation to the NetBackup for NDMP server. Several NetBackup processes send information about the job to bpjobd, that uses this information to update the job status that you can view in the NetBackup Activity Monitor.

   Status, catalog, and other job information movement is shown in dashed lines in the process flow diagram.