#3653 PR open: Complete rewrite of BACKUP=NBU for Cohesity NetBackup

Labels: enhancement, cleanup, external tool, ready-to-merge?

sebastian-koehler opened issue at 2026-10-08 10:15:

Summary

This is a heavily enhanced version of the existing BACKUP=NBU support,
bringing it up to date for Cohesity NetBackup (formerly Symantec/Veritas).
The original integration was a minimal reference implementation. This
builds on it and turns it into a full recovery workflow.

It relies on NetBackup commands that have been around for a long time
(bpclimagelist, bprestore, bplist, bpclntcmd, nbcertcmd, True
Image Restore, altnames). Using them properly removes the limitations of
the old integration, especially in ReaR's rescue environment.

What's new

  • Host certificate enrollment in the rescue system (NBU 8.1+), with the
    certificate state carried over to the recovered disk.
  • Automatic detection of the client startup mechanism (systemd, SysV
    init, legacy xinetd).
  • Point-in-time restore picked from the real NetBackup catalog, with the
    restore chain computed automatically.
  • True Image Restore support (NBU_TRUE_IMAGE_RESTORE, default true).
  • Restore from a different client (altname).
  • Handling of a changed hostname or primary server during recovery.
  • Safety checks at backup and restore time (client version, TIR backups
    in the catalog, primary reachability, refusing primary/media servers
    as clients).
  • Stricter bprestore error handling and a more complete rescue image.
  • Docs renamed to Cohesity NetBackup, plus a new user guide chapter.

Testing

Tested end to end (backup, mkrescue, boot, recover) against a live
NetBackup 11.2.0.1 primary with three client generations: RHEL 9
(NBU client 11.2.0.1, systemd+PBX), RHEL 7.9 (NBU client 9.1, legacy
xinetd) and SLES 15 SP7 (NBU client 11.2.0.1, systemd+PBX).

codacy-production commented at 2026-10-08 10:17:

Not up to standards ⛔

🔴 Issues 27 high · 29 medium >
> > **Alerts:** > ⚠ 56 issues (≤ 0 issues of at least minor severity) > > **Results:** > `56` new issues > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
CategoryResults
BestPractice28 medium
ErrorProne1 medium
27 high
> > [View in > Codacy](https://app.codacy.com/gh/rear/rear/pull-requests/3653/issues) >

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TIP This summary will be updated as you push new changes.

jsmeix commented at 2026-10-16 13:20:

@rear/contributors
please have a look here (as time permits).
Perhaps you spot issues that I overlooked?

jsmeix commented at 2026-10-28 14:06:

@rear/contributors
I would like to merge it sometime next week
depending on your feedback until then.
I am not in the office until Monday 02. Nov.

jsmeix commented at 2026-11-03 10:23:

@rear/contributors
I would like to merge it tomorrow (04. Nov.) afternoon
unless there are objections.

pcahyna commented at 2026-11-04 10:50:

@jsmeix sorry for the delay, please let me have a look.

sebastian-koehler commented at 2026-11-04 20:52:

Thanks for your review and feedback @pcahyna. Based on customer feedback I have added an exclude option that allows a partial restore when using BACKUP=NBU. Let me know what you think.

[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]