Tape Recovery Knowledge Base

If you are thinking about migrating all of your current tape libraries to one consolidated tape platform, get help from the experts at Ontrack. They can advise you about the steps that are required before carrying out this process.

Let the specialists at Ontrack take care of the job for you. We have established processes for every kind of tape-related service, and provide cost and time-effective conversion.

In order to make the migration process from TSM to another product as smooth as possible, you have to keep several aspects in mind. Firstly, you have to "unpack" your specific data out of your current backup to another storage place so you can access it. To accomplish this, you can use the tools provided by the TSM.

If you only want the original data, you just extract and export it out of TSM.

If you want to import the whole library and metadata with the data stored inside into the new system, you will have severe problems as there are no products on the market which will copy the TSM metadata in a new system. Hopefully, your tapes are not damaged nor have corrupt data, if your only backup is stored on tape.

If this is the case, or even if you want to perform a "simple" migration, you can contact us. We can recover lost data out from a tape storage system, and we can also help with the difficult task of migrating a TSM system to a new hardware environment. Having carried out this task for many tape clients, recovering data and migrating from TSM has never been easier.

While normal transitions from old to new hardware and/or from an old NetBackup release to a newer one are not easy, any experienced IT administrator with several years of experience can complete this project.

On the other hand, some migration projects can be really challenging. For example, when you want to switch from your current Windows platform to UNIX, you are definitively on your own! Since Symantec does not provide support on NetBackup migration projects, you will be making the transition at your own risk.

If you have a large storage system containing lots of different tapes and hard disks as well as virtual backups, even a tiny mistake in the migration process can result in the worst-case scenario, namely causing the whole storage system to fail. Also, performing updates or applying patches on the backup software in use can cause serious problems. If such a situation arises, chances are that not only will valuable data be lost, but also information that is necessary for the whole system to run.

Whether you want to replace your hardware and your NetBackup version or you have already damaged your system trying to migrate, you can contact our tape specialists for help.

Migrating data from an existing CommVault backup solution to another system will normally be done the traditional way. You need to access or create a full back up with the CommVault system and retrieve all the data which are stored inside the managed tape library. When you have restored all of the data and archives onto another storage space (usually on disks from your local SAN/NAS), you have to build the new backup system (both hardware and backup software) from scratch, create the archive structure and import the data into the new backup system. Additionally, all necessary clients, policy details and schedules as well as tape inventories and catalogues have to be generated.

If you consider changing to a new system, some hardware and backup solution providers offer specialist migration services which, in some cases, will result in a significant part of the total migration cost. When migrating your existing CommVault system to a new solution, we use standardised processes to successfully migrate existing backup and legacy archive systems to new environments without changing the integrity of the stored data and archive structure.

It is a difficult task to perform a migration from TSM to NetWorker. Any migration here will cause you sleepless nights. That is because several precautions have to be taken into account.

Since TSM is the bigger solution and its backup data is different, there is no internal or external software that can help you with migration. You have to create or have a backup ready and extract the data using the restore function. You also have to import the content into the NetWorker solution. Additionally, you have to build the NetWorker software architecture from scratch for your specific environment and backup tasks. TSM makes a backup of the data from its nodes to the storage groups and then migrates the data to tape(s), whereas NetWorker stores the data only in the nodes. Also, NetWorker can store data directly to tape while TSM also saves its data on server storage first and transfers it into the tape library later. This all has to be taken into account when you set up the new NetWorker architecture design, lay out policies and schedule backup jobs.

In the case that your migration project is time-sensitive, the experts from Ontrack can help you in the process of extracting the data out of TSM, search and read of the tape catalog and library lists so that you can extract only the important data that you require, check the data integrity, as well as other tape and migration-related services. We can also provide the entire process of migrating your existing TSM environment to NetWorker as a service.

There is no easy way to migrate backups from CommVault to TSM, NetWorker or NetBackup. The most common solution to migrate your backups from CommVault - whether it is one of the older software packages or the new Simpana release - is to use your existing CommVault to restore your data to a new location and recreate a backup using TSM, NetBackup or NetWorker. Even though there are some software solutions on the market that offer to "translate" the CommVault metadata to TSM, NetWorker or NetBackup, it is a timely and costly process. And, if the process fails when using one of these software tools, it is possible to damage or lose valuable data or CommVault settings.

In addition, CommVault - like all other backup software solutions - uses a special data format, which compresses the data stored in the backup. When the data structure is destroyed, it is a difficult task to recover the backup structure as well as the data. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. In this case, it is wise to get advice from experts before the start of the migration project. Not only can they recover the data lost during a bad migration, but they can also provide the whole migration process as a service.

Achieving a successful migration of Time Navigator, CA ARCserve, or Data Protector backups or archives is a difficult task. Currently, there are no tools on the market that serve as an interpreter for the structure and/or the data to import them into a new CommVault system. Since the flagship CommVault product, Simpana, is specially designed as an archive storage solution, it would be wise to develop a detailed backup plan for the whole enterprise before establishing a unique Simpana archive structure. The migration is carried out the usual way, by creating or restoring an existing backup out of the current Time Navigator, CA ARCserve or HP Data Protector software solution and importing the data into the new CommVault solution.

If you experience problems or if you just don't have the resources or time to perform this timely and costly project, you can contact our backup migration experts at Ontrack.

Performing a migration from CommVault to Time Navigator, CA ARCserve, or Data Protector is usually done the traditional way. You restore or create the backup of your existing data inside your current CommVault software and then import the extracted data into your new solution. This is both a timely and costly process as you have to create the whole new backup or archive system from scratch with all policy domains, jobs, and structures included. Additionally, you have to change or apply the paths to the existing or new hardware such as a server, disk, and tape storage devices or drives as well as the whole tape library.

Since there is no "converter" extension software for easy exports and imports from one system to the other - you must either do it yourself or get help from a tape migration service provider, such as Ontrack. Since we offer standardized workflow migrations for CommVault to/from other backup software solutions like Time Navigator, CA ARCserve, Data Protector, TSM, NetBackup, and others, we can prove to be both cost and time-effective as a support service. We can manage the process, so you can be sure that the data which is migrated is unchanged as we comply with the strictest rules and regulations for evidence handling, as well as for audits and compliance.