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JDR1990's avatar
JDR1990
Level 4
14 years ago
Solved

Backup Exec 2012 Media and Media Sets

Hi,

 

I have been given a project to create backups to tape for a site at one of the customers we provide IT services to and was wondering if somebody could give me some advice and provide a second opinion to the work I have already carried out.

I am using BE 2012 and will need to backup to a single tape each day ensuring that 1 months worth of data is kept available at all times. I intend to carry out a full backup every friday and then differential backups Mon-Thur. There are 9 tapes in total 5 friday and then the Mon-Thu tapes. These tapes are LTO 2 400/800.

I intend to use the keep data for 4 weeks media set for all of the tapes which has APP of 6 days and OPP of 4 weeks. If this is indeed the correct media set does this mean I have to initially ensure that each tape is assigned to the media set on the correct days so that the APP and OPP run correctly to ensure the correct amount of retained data? From what i understand APP runs from the initial assignment to the media set, or on completion of subsequent overwrite jobs?

Also I have left the compression on the default setting - how do i know if there is indeed hardware compression available? (Default is set to Hardware is available, otherwise none) And once i have run the first full backup how can i tell the data has been compressed? My Infrastructure Manager has advised me that compression should not be used as he has encountered issues in the past (not sure exactly what and apparently this was some time ago). A full backup however will be 524GB so by the look of things I will have to compress the backups to fit it on one tape - How would you advise this?

Apologies if this all seems a bit all over the place however I have only been in the IT industry a year and am not from an IT background. I have not had an formal training other than i have achieved my Comptia N+ and A+ through self study. I would love to attend some kind of BE formal traning however my company has not approved this yet.

Many thanks in advance

 

Leon

2012
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Backup Exec (media server only)
  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    14 years ago

    Hi,

     

    If you're confident the data will fit onto 1 tape, then you can safely turn off compression like you said (within BE and the library).

    With what you're getting there 1.0:1, you're getting no compression anyway.

    Thanks!

4 Replies

  • Kiran_Bandi's avatar
    Kiran_Bandi
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    These tapes are LTO 2 400/800.

    LTO2 tapes are of 200/400 GB capacity. LTO3 tapes are of 400/800 GB capacity.

    And once i have run the first full backup how can i tell the data has been compressed?

    Compression ratio can be found in media details... Storage --> All Media Sets --> Keep Data For 4 Weeks

     A full backup however will be 524GB so by the look of things I will have to compress the backups to fit it on one tape

    If the tapes are LTO 2, then you would need minimum two tapes to write this data. In general, 1.4:1 compression ration can be considered as good compression.

     

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    14 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Compression-wise, you can check the tape itself and see the compression stats. If it shows anything over 1:1 (ie. 1.1:1), you're getting compression.

    I've used compression on my backups for the past 5 years and never been able to restore because of it. I HAVE had an issue restoring information after increasing the size of the block size. THis occurred between the same type of drive (LTO3), but 1 was in an MSL2024, and the other was a stand-alone drive.

    You'd need at least 1.3:1 to fit that amount of data on an LTO3 tape. In this case it might actually be worthwhile purchasing an LTO5/LTO5 drive to cater for the amount of data being backed up.

    Check the 2 links below as they'd also give you a bit more of an understanding on media sets and Append/OPP settings:

    http://www.backupexecfaq.com/understanding-media-sets/

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH5459

    Thanks!

     

  • JDR1990's avatar
    JDR1990
    Level 4
    14 years ago

    Hi there,

     

    The tapes are stating that the compression ratio is 1.0:1 however the tape drive shows compression as enabled? I have also just found out that the tapes are LTO 4's which I believe are 800/1.6TB so I shouldnt need to use compression now should I? If this is the case should I change the compression setting of the job to 'none' and disable it on the tape drive?

     

    Many thanks for the advice

     

    Leon

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    14 years ago

    Hi,

     

    If you're confident the data will fit onto 1 tape, then you can safely turn off compression like you said (within BE and the library).

    With what you're getting there 1.0:1, you're getting no compression anyway.

    Thanks!