Catalog protection as an IDB key tunable parameter

What is catalog protection?

Catalog protection determines how long the information about backed up data is available in the IDB. This is different from data protection, which determines how long the backed up data is available on the medium itself. If there is no catalog protection, you can still restore your data, but you cannot browse for it in the Data Protector GUI.

Catalog protection is based on the fact that the data stored last is most important and accessed most frequently. Old files are seldom searched for, and therefore it is allowable for their search to take more time.

Expired catalog protection

Once the catalog protection expires, the information is not immediately removed from the IDB. Data Protector removes it automatically once per day. Since the information in the IDB is organized on a per-medium basis, it is removed completely when catalog protection expires for all objects on the medium.

Impact on performance

Catalog protection settings do not have any impact on the backup performance.

Catalog protection and restore

When catalog protection expires, data is restored as if it were backed up using the No Log option. See Logging level as an IDB key tunable parameter” on page 199.

Recommended usage of logging level and catalog protection

Always use catalog protection

Always set a reasonable level of catalog protection. The only exception is if the Log None option is set (in this case catalog protection does not apply anyway).

If you set the catalog protection to Permanent, the information in the IDB is removed only when media are exported or deleted. In this case, the size of the IDB grows linearly until the data protection period is reached, even if the number of files in the cell does not change. For example, if the data protection period is one year and media are recycled, then significant growth of the IDB stops after one year. The addition of new catalogs is approximately equal to the removal of old ones. If catalog

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