It's been a while since I last used 5.1 & I really cannot remember there being a retention period on the "cold" catalog backups for this version (obviously not "hot" backups at that time).

The catalog backup will remain on the tape until it is overwritten. We used to have ours rotate between two tapes initially & then started to amend the config each week when we sent one off-site with our weekly backups. But at some point, the older the catalog backup you have on tape the less worth it is likely to be - it will reference images on tapes that have since been overwritten.

HTH.

Hi,

I thought it was the same as 6.0 and 6.5 and is specified within the schedule as a normal backup would be. It usually defaults to level 1 which is usually 2 weeks unless it has been changed from the default. I am speaking from a Windows enviroment here so not sure if its different on any other OS's

We generally set this to 1 month and have keep the tape like it was a normal backup tape for the month. I know that really you only need to keep the last few but you never know when you need to go back further on the catalog if there were potential problems with it.

Hope this helps!

Only:

After each session of scheduled, user or manual backups
After each session of scheduled backups
Only when manually initiated

so if a retention is set, is it hidden & I never saw it ? :D

Catalog Backup tapes will not expire and images in that tapes will be over written when next catalog backup successful.

Document ID: 327184
http://support.veritas.com/docs/327184

Hot and Cold catalog backups are not allowed to run in a Netbackup environment.

Details:
Hot and Cold catalog backups are not allowed to run in a Netbackup environment concurrently. You must choose to run either the "hot" or "cold" catalog backups in your Netbackup configuration. The "hot" catalog backup is the preferred and recommended method for protecting the Netbackup catalogs. The "cold" catalog backup will not be available in Netbackup 7.0.

Just thought it may be of interest!

If I remember correctly in 5.1 you only had cold backups.
As far as I know they did not have a expiration date - they were just on the tape until you over wrote it.

Because they were not setup in a POLICY - which sets expiration dates - no policy no date.

Thanks to all for your replies !!