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Category Archives: BASICS

How to add licenses in Data Protector

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There are different ways to add licenses into Data Protector.

  • Copy and paste the license file generated on the licensing portal (http://www.webware.hp.com) as …/Config/Server/cell/lic.dat
  • Copy and paste of a single or several licenses keys into exisiting lic.dat
  • Copy and paste of a single license key using the Data Protector GUI (Clients – Data Protector Cell – right-click – Add License)

The first and second method are very easy ways to add licenses. When using the third method, in some cases you may encounter problems, as for cell server running on Windows (HP-UX / Linux not tested) the so called BOM (Byte Order Mark – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_Order_Mark) is inserted into the lic.dat file. When the BOM is inserted, it might be the case, that the first line in lic.dat is ignored by Data Protector. This applies to the Data Protector versions 8.XX and 9.0X. If the environment is migrated from previous versions of Data Protector to version 8.XX or 9.0X, you need to know, that the BOM is inserted into the lic.dat during the migration. If in this case the obsolete licenses are replaced by the new licenses, the BOM is not removed from lic.dat. Hence, the first line in lic.dat is still ignored in Data Protector.

How to check if the lic.dat contains the BOM? The most easiest way on Windows is “type lic.dat”. If the line does not start with the license key (instead you see special characters), your lic.dat contains the BOM.

How to remove the BOM? Simply create a new text file and copy the content from lic.dat into the new text file. When using notepad to “Copy&Paste” the BOM ist not displayed and not pasted into the text file. Once finished, rename or remove the old lic.dat file and rename the generated text file into lic.dat.

And last but not least: licenses for Unix Cell Server of course can still be used in Windows environments.

BASICS – DP Catalog Protection and Data Protection

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Within Data Protector the protection is set per backup job and not for the tape, which might be misunderstood by customers. In the GUI a distinction is made between “Data Protection” and “Catalog Protection”. “Data Protection” describes how long the data is kept on media and “Catalog Protection” describes how long the data is kept in the internal database. The time for “Catalog Protection” can be set independently from the “Data Protection”, the default value is “same as data protection”. The information about the catalog is kept as long as the time is reached or if “Data Protection” ends and the media is overwritten. Please keep in mind that the catalog information is not removed immediately from the internal database; it will be removed when all jobs on media are expired. A higher value for catalog protection does make sense only when set to permanent. In this case the catalog information is removed only when the media is deleted or removed. A value smaller than “Data protection” is usefull for bigger environments to control the growth of the internal database. However, keep in mind that in the case of a restore you need to import the catalog information from media first. For more information on catalog and data protection refer to the Data Protector help –> index: “catalog protection”.