Forum Discussion

v_harry's avatar
v_harry
Level 2
15 years ago
Solved

Backup Exec procedure

 As before, we have around 250G data (mailboxes + data) for daily full backup by tape drive through Vertias Backup Exec 8.6.  (200G tape size, totally two tapes for each day, without auto loader).
In case, we must not accept the long time full backup in daily. So we intend to get a new backup schedule by Differential or Incremental. 

Our plan:
Mon-Fri (Differential or Incremental)
Sat (Full backup)

However, we have a few problems for our new plan.

(Backup)
1. After we have run Full backup on Sat (by two tapes), if we run Differential or Incremental schedule on coming Mon-Fri, 

- the differential data or incremental data will be appended on the second tapes ? 
- the differential data or incremental data will be appended on one new tape only? 
- the differential data or incremental data will be appended on the different new tapes ? I mean Monday’s Differential on Monday Tape, Tuesday's Differential on Tuesday Tape ? 

2. The backup data is included "Mailbox" (Exchange) and data (File Server), but the mailboxes are also restored by Differential or Incremental method ?

3. Differential or Incremental, which one is the best one for a large amount of data ? Even just found another method - "Daily" – Files That Changed Today ?, is it also a good choice ?


(Restore)
4. If we restore a file from backup..
e.g. restore a file on Thu.

-  Put latest Full backup tape
-  And then put Mon, Tue, Wed, and Thu Tapes in sequence, right ? 


Thanks help !
10.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
  • B_Michael's avatar
    B_Michael
    15 years ago

     Overwrite is required if you have media that is not yet allocated to a media set -- blank and scratch media will not be overwritten if Overwrite is set to false.  Personally, I would set up a media set with overwrite protection of 6 days, then set Overwrite to true.  The overwrite protection on the media set should prevent your incrementals from being overwritten until after a week has passed.

     Otherwise, these settings seem correct.  You might want to back up EITHER the Information Store OR the mailboxes, as you're essentially backing up each mail item twice.

     As for restoring, yes you will need Saturday's full tape, then all incremental tapes up to the desired day.
     

    Thanks

    Michael

  • Ben_L_'s avatar
    Ben_L_
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    1. This will depend on how you setup the job and media sets.  You can configure the backup jobs (full / diff / inc) to overwrite only, append only, or overwrite only if no appendable media is available.  Media sets will contain information on how long you want to keep media from being overwritten, so if you don't want to overwrite tapes for 2 weeks but want to append to them for only 3 days, then you would set the overwrite protection for 2 weeks and the append period to 3 days.  You can configure each job to use a different media set if need be, but if all of your jobs have the same requirement then you really only need one media set. Check this technote for more information on Media Sets and configuring them.
    http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/192265.htm

    2. If you are want to restore emails and individual items from incremental backups, then you will need to setup the exchange backup to disk and it has to be part of a policy for this to work.  Otherwise you will only have the individual item selections on your full backups.

    3.  This all comes down to how fast you want to restore data.  Differentials are the fastest way (aside from a full) to get everything recovered since you only need the full and the last differential backup.  With incrementals your backups are faster, but your recovery time is a lot longer since you need the full and all the incrementals.  The differentials will eat up more space on the tapes, but again it's just a matter of how fast you want to get everything back.

    4. If you are just trying to restore a specific file from tape and not the entire backup you will only need the media (tape or back up to disk file) that the file is on.  You don't have to recover the full then dif / inc backups to get a specific file back.  From your example, say that file you want to restore was changed on tuesday after the tuesday backup, but backed up on wednesday. Then you would only need the wednesday tape for the restore.  If you wanted the previous version you would need either Monday or Tuesdats tape for the dif / incremental or go back to the last full.
  • B_Michael's avatar
    B_Michael
    Level 3
    15 years ago
     Just my opinions,
     
    (1.)  Set up a media set defining the Overwrite/Append Protection times and turn Overwrite Protection fully on.  In the job definition, you can specify which media set to use and specify whether to append to media or overwrite.  Otherwise, it depends on how you rotate your media.  For instance, if you want to backup to the Monday tape on Monday, just put that tape in on Mondays and set its Overwrite protection time to 7 Days.  Then if you try to put the Monday tape in on that Wednesday, it will deny the overwrite operation.
     
    (2.)  If you are backing up individual mailboxes, I expect the backup method will be the same as that of the files.  If you are backing up the Information Store, you can set the backup type in the Exchange tab of the job definition dialogue.
     
    (3.)  Depends, if you want to have an easy life, go with the differential.  Restoring then only requires the last full backup and the last differential backup.  With incremental, you'll need the last full backup and all incremental backups since, in the correct order.  However, the more differential backups you do, the more tape you need, as you backup all files that have changed since the last full backup.  With incremental, tape usage is likely to be a lot less.  Forget 'Daily' -- if, for some reason, the backup routine is skipped for a couple of days, you'll not get a backup of the files that have changed since the last backup, only the files changed on the day the backup resumes.
     
    (4.)  If you go with incremental, yes.  If you go with differential, you'd only need the latest full backup tape and Thursday's tape.

    Thanks
    Michael
     
  • v_harry's avatar
    v_harry
    Level 2
    15 years ago
     Hi both, many thinks!!

    But would you mind to give me more commentary for my plan
     
    Mail server+ File server backup (Full Backup w/ Incremental)
     
    (Job Definition)
    Job    Name     Job Type   Method             Overwrite       Time           
    Job1  MailFull   Backup      Full                   Yes                Sat 00:00AM
    Job2  FileFull    Backup      Full                   No                 Sat 04:00AM
    Job3  Mail1-5    Backup     Incremental       Yes                Mon-Fri 00:00AM
    Job4  File1-5     Backup     Incremental       No                 Mon-Fri 04:00AM
     
     
    I want to clarify something as follow
     
    1. The syntax of backup job is correct ? 
    Mail Full + FileFull store on “SAT” Tape together (one tape only), so job1 overwrite = Yes, job2 overwrite = No
    Mail1-5 + File1-5 are also stored on one Tape together everyday (Monday’s tape, Tuesday’s Tape… totally 5 tapes), so job3 overwrite = Yes, job4 overwrite = No
     
     
    2. These setting are correct ?
    MailFull 
    (Microsoft Exchange Mailbox + Microsoft Information Store + System State)
    (General Tab) Backup method for files: (FULL – Back Up Files – Reset Archive Bit)
    (Exchange Tab) Backup Method: (FULL - Database & Logs (flush committed logs))
     
    FileFull 
    (D drive)
    (General Tab) Backup method for files: (FULL – Back Up Files – Reset Archive Bit)
     
    Mail1-5 
    (Microsoft Exchange Mailbox + Microsoft Information Store + System State)
    (General Tab) Backup method for files: (INCREMENTIAL– Changed Files – Reset Archive Bit)
    (Exchange Tab) Backup Method: (INCREMENTAL – Logs (flush committed logs))
     
    File1-5 
    (D drive)
    (General Tab) Backup method for files: (INCREMENTIAL – Changed Files – Reset Archive Bit)
     
    3. And I must take all Tapes for data restore as you said. 
    E.g. Wednesday’s file restores
    Full Backup Tape (Sat Tape)  + Monday's Tape + Tuesday's Tape + Wednesday’s Tape
     
     
    Thanks a lot !
     
  • B_Michael's avatar
    B_Michael
    Level 3
    15 years ago

     Overwrite is required if you have media that is not yet allocated to a media set -- blank and scratch media will not be overwritten if Overwrite is set to false.  Personally, I would set up a media set with overwrite protection of 6 days, then set Overwrite to true.  The overwrite protection on the media set should prevent your incrementals from being overwritten until after a week has passed.

     Otherwise, these settings seem correct.  You might want to back up EITHER the Information Store OR the mailboxes, as you're essentially backing up each mail item twice.

     As for restoring, yes you will need Saturday's full tape, then all incremental tapes up to the desired day.
     

    Thanks

    Michael