Altavault and Netbackup restore process

[Malg]

I'm looking into the Altavault appliance as a possible solution to switch from tape backups to cloud backups going forward. We currently use Netbackup for our backup application. I understand how easily Altavault integrates with Netbackup for backups. I have been unable to find a clear answer on how the restore process would work or be different with this solution in place.

Let's say I want to restore from data that has been sent to the Altavault appliance which then pushed the data to the cloud. Normally for a restore in Netbackup I use BAR and choose my source client, destination client, policy type, and the data to restore. So, do I need to manually do anything on the Atlavault to retrieve the data from the cloud or will that process happen automatically when I preform a restore in Netbackup?

[RRoger · Accepted solution]

When you access a file from the Altavault, one of two things happens -- it either pulls from the local cache or pulls from the cloud (if the file has been evicted).

You can do this ad hoc (when you need the file), or you can use the "prepopulate" feature to mass pull down a whole folder.  In either case, the files are then ready for local restore on your LAN.

The details of this are a little different for clouds like AWS Glacier.  Since the restore times can be like 4 hours, it's best to use the prepopulate feature so you can track what is coming down. (See FAQ for more details https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/faqs/) 

Does this help?

[Malg]

That explains most of it. My only other question is, will doing a restore in Netbackup trigger the appliance to retrieve the file automatically or will I need to retrieve the file through the Altavault manually first then run the restore in Netbackup?

I've spoke with an engineer and got the answer to my question. Basically, Netbackup requests the data for a restore from the Atlavault and the Atlavault automatically handles pulling what it needs locally or from the cloud, rehydrates it, and presents it to Netbackup.