HP Data Protector IDB Purge Best Practices

Introduction

Growing volumes of backup data can significantly load the Data Protector (DP) Internal Database

(IDB). Regular IDB maintenance to purge obsolete data can prevent size related problems.

Purges remove obsolete data from the database, making space available within the database. The

space created by the purges can be used by new DP sessions, delaying the requirement for the IDB to

be extended.

This document presents some Data Protector commands that can help keep your IDB healthy.

This white paper is complementary to the white paper

HP Data Protector software cell manager

planning and sizing

. Please also follow the recommendations therein to facilitate reliable Data

Protector operation.

This White Paper can be found at:

http://www.hp.com/go/dataprotector  Support Matrices 

HP Data Protector V6.1x Software

Scope

This document covers Cell Managers on HP-UX or Windows

, but the principals apply to Cell

Managers on other platforms as well. This document covers DP versions 6.0, 6.1 and 6.11.

Note:

It is not intended to issue any new General Release patches for DP 6.1. If

using DP 6.1 HP recommends you upgrade to version 6.11.

Three step guide to use this white paper

Note:

Before running any of the commands outlined in this document HP

recommends you make a successful backup of the DP IDB.

Step One:

How to identify if a DP IDB needs a filenames purge?

Step Two:

Automated purging done by the Daily Maintenance and making sure these tasks are taking place.

Step Three:

Manual IDB purge operations.

How to identify if a DP IDB needs filenames purging?

There are two ways to identify if a DP IDB needs filename purging:

Automated: Part of the daily health check combined with the DP Reporting feature.

Manual: Using DP Command line interface (CLI) or running preconfigured IDB reports.