Hi JP,

You asked a good question, esp with that many tapes to import.

The answer to your question is 1 week, although you can change the expirey to longer with the bpexpdate command.

Martin

 So bpexpdate can be applied on phase 1 imported images? I'll give it a try and get back to you, thanks.

On unix -
touch this file, to prevent expirations globally, as well...

/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/NOexpire

 Yes, I know about the NoExpire file, but I would prefer to avoid these kind of solutions. But thanks for your input.

The expiration date for the imported items is the current date plus the retention period. For example, if a backup is imported on November 14, 2007 and its retention period is one week, the new expiration date is November 21, 2007.

Bill makes a good point.

Once phase 2 is complete the expiration is the retention level of the backup on the current system.

So, if you have a tape (images with retention level = 14) which on the original server = 1 year, but import on a different server where the retention level 14 = 1 day, then the new imports will expire after 1 day.

Martin

\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -m <mediaID> -d 1/1/20next year -h <media server that wrote the backup>

Let me see, 1000 tapes, at up to 8 hours per tape for the phase 2 part of the show...if you can find ALL fragments of the backup present-
Is 333 DAYS of non stop tape read time acceptable for this project?  You should call Symantec sales, engage consulting services and  inquire about merging multiple master databases.

 Actually, I have 12 tape drives available for the import, so that number is divided by 12 => ~ 1 month.

Anyhow, I will suggest to import only the crucial information, that was backed up with retentions longer that 2-3 months (anything else would have expired anyway)