Forum Discussion

scj67711's avatar
scj67711
Level 1
5 years ago

BE Tape Rotation / Offsite

I have been tasked to plan a tape rotation\offsite system, the particular BE config is running numerous jobs (\bi-weekly\monthly\yearly) and I am not sure what to present to this customer as best practice for taking tapes out for offsite storage and how often.

FYI, these are all FULL backups.

My BE skills are somewhat limited but I will give you the basic rundown.

We are using a Dell ML3 tape device that currently houses 20 tapes, the jobs run and the data is written to the tapes, however these tapes are never taken out for offsite storage.

Our BE currently has one "media set", so I assume I would create another media set?

So my first order of business is to document what are best practices for rotation\offsite?

My second order would be to find out how to do so using BE and the ML3.

I could figure out the second order if I knew the first order.

Thanks all in advance.

 

21
Windows Server 2016
  • tocals's avatar
    tocals
    Level 4
    5 years ago

    The best practice recommends using strategy 3-2-1

    The first principle of 3-2-1 backup strategy is to keep at least 3 copies of your data, including the original copy and at least two backups. For instance, there is File-A on the hard drive of your computer. You need to create at least two backups of the File-A, store the two backups on 2 different storage types, with BackupExec it can be one in disk e another in tape. Keep at least 1 backup stored in another place long distance.

    Another best practice is to create media sets distincts to each type of backup (full/incrmental) and different retentions.

     

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    5 years ago
    Grandfather-Father-Son <-- the standard way to backup data. Grandfather = Monthly Father = Weekly Son = Daily How you set it up is your choice depending on the size of your data, and the size of your tapes (LTO3/LTO4/LTO5 etc). The number of tapes used depends on the amount of space being backed up. Full backups would fill up a tape and move onto another if needed, while DIFF/INCR backups would only use a portion for instance, leaving the Weekly FULL to use full tapes. But the backup strategy is your choice. I always preferred FULL, but then again I had the luxury of that. Not everyone does. Get hold of the BE Admin Guide and then read through the media management section as it is very insightful. Tape backups work well for long retention, as well as normal retention. For faster backups and restores though, something else to consider is having disk as your primary and tape as the duplicate target.