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suren424's avatar
suren424
Level 5
12 years ago
Solved

.bkf files

Hi,

We use 5 TB B2d  storage for exchange backups and having few issues with that.

we do weekly full and daily incremental backup for exchange server. When we see the job log of the backup jobs which are done on to b2d disks,it says backup and media used are :

B2d 000023

img 00001

img 00002

Only one b2d (.bkf) file and many IMG files. But we have 7000 .bkf files with 2kb size. I am confused here whether to delete them or keep them as it is.

As said in the post  https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/b2d-disk  .bkf files are only placeholders and vl be deleted automatically by the backup software when the job completes.

Questions :

Eventhough it makes use of only .bkf file during backup why there are many .bkf in the b2d folder ?

Why the .bkf are not being deleted automatically? can we delete them manually?

Will the .bkf files have a pointer to the IMG files for that particualar job?

if we delete all the .bkf files,can we restore data using IMG folders alone ?

Could you help me understand this ?

Thanks.

  • If we don't do GRT enabled backups then there would be no IMG folders and all the data will only be in  .bkf files .. right ? 

    Correct

    if the data to be backed up is of 200GB ,will the backup job create multiple .bkf files based on the size mentioned in the "maximum size for backup-to-disk files"  setting ?

    Correct

    In this scenario do we need to create/assign separate media sets for GRT backups and normal backups to disks ?

    No.  It is not necessary.  Which media set to use depends on your retention policy, i.e. how long you want to keep the data.  It is not dependent on the type of backup whether it is GRT or not.

  • Go to Tools --> Options and check that you have this setting (circled in red)

    BE 2010 - Media Management.png

    The .bkf should have been deleted automatically.  Since they are not deleted, you can delete them manually.  They do not contain any pointers to the .img folders.  You can delete them and you would still be able to restore from your .img folders.

  • Presently we are using the default options available in the media management. If we change the media overwrite option to what you have mentioned,that will apply to tape media too right?

    If yes ,will the scratch media be used as a storage option ?

    if we change it now, will the data on the tape ,b2d get affected ?

    The OPP is 4 weeks and Append period is 6 days

    The strange thing is few of the b2d disks get into "backup exec and windows nt backup media set". How could this be possible ?

    Attached the screenshot .

    Please bare with me ... getting confused with this media options.

    Thanks.

  • The option recommended earlier will apply to tape too.  With the option selected, scratch media is used when there is no recycleable media in the targeted media set.  If you do not use this option, then BE will continue to create the .bkf files and do not re-use the old ones.  Selecting the option will not affect the data currently on either tape or disk.  It will only come into effect when the next job needs media to overwrite.

    The media could have been accidentally deleted and then re-introduced into BE.  They would be then treated as imported media and placed in that media set.  Just move these media to the correct media set and BE will overwrite them when the time comes.

    It is not recommended that you append to disk media, so you should set the AP to 1 hr.

     

  • Presently  all tape and b2d media are set with opp=4 weeks and AP=6 days.

    Can i change AP only on b2d media  ? or 

    do i need to create a separate media set for b2d disks ?

     

     

  • Create a new media set for your disk media and set the AP to 1 hr, then move all the disk media to this new media set.

  • In BE 2010 these placeholder files are only overwritten at the start of later jobs (and then the settings for scratch vs recyclable will apply) 

    I believe in 2010 these files are moved to the scratch set once the job finishes (you can check this by looking in your scratch set), as such any setting on your media set needs to be designed around the data you want to keep and not these 2kb files. If they are moved to the scratch set them you probaby need to set use scratch before recyclable.

    You can manually delete them, however if they are visible in the scratch media (or overall media lists) inside BE itself the you will need to delete them from both the Backup Exec console and the Windows Explorer/the disk itself. Be careful to only delete the 2kb files if you manually delete

     

    EDIT: Oh and just to confirm something pkh said, we do not recommend appending to disk and in fact in BE 2012 you can't append to disk. Due to this recommendation you should really set your disk jobs to all start as an Overwrite and then the append setting in any media sets would only be used by tape jobs with append still enabled (and any disk jobs bacuse they start as an overwrite will not use the append period at all)

  • you probaby need to set use scratch before recyclable.

    The user said that he is using the default which is: Use scratch before recyclable.

  • Correct me if i am wrong.

    we assign media set to the tapes/b2d disks as a whole. so,when a particular disk is assigned to a media set during the backup job it creates .bkf files and IMG files for GRT backups.

    If we don't do GRT enabled backups then there would be no IMG folders and all the data will only be in  .bkf files .. right ? 

    if the data to be backed up is of 200GB ,will the backup job create multiple .bkf files based on the size mentioned in the "maximum size for backup-to-disk files"  setting ?

    In this scenario do we need to create/assign separate media sets for GRT backups and normal backups to disks ?

     

    Thanks

  • If we don't do GRT enabled backups then there would be no IMG folders and all the data will only be in  .bkf files .. right ? 

    Correct

    if the data to be backed up is of 200GB ,will the backup job create multiple .bkf files based on the size mentioned in the "maximum size for backup-to-disk files"  setting ?

    Correct

    In this scenario do we need to create/assign separate media sets for GRT backups and normal backups to disks ?

    No.  It is not necessary.  Which media set to use depends on your retention policy, i.e. how long you want to keep the data.  It is not dependent on the type of backup whether it is GRT or not.