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markvchca's avatar
markvchca
Level 2
10 years ago
Solved

Creating Grandfather-Father-Son Backup Scheme in Backup Exec 15

I'm trying to create a Grandfather-Father-Son backup scheme and would like to know how to correctly configure Backup Exec 15 (media sets, partitioning, etc) to accomplish my goal. I have a Hewlett Packard MSL8096 (96-tape) library. Yearly = First Sunday of the year, Full Backup, Will be kept offsite for 7 years Monthly = First Sunday of the month, Full Backup, Will be kept offsite for 1 year Weekly = Sunday, Full Backup, Will be kept offsite for 1 month Daily = Monday thru Saturday, Differential Backup, Will be kept offsite for 1 week For the Daily backups, I need Backup Exec to use a different tape each day. The tapes will need to be ejected so that we can send it to an offsite location.
15
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    10 years ago

    I would suggest that you avoid partitioning your library unless you have a very good reason.  If you have partitions and do not set your OPP and AP correctly, your jobs will run out of tapes in the targeted partition and will probably fail.  BE will not use tapes in other partitions even if they are available.

    Set up the appropriate number of media sets with the correct OPP and AP.  This should be sufficient for your purpose.  In the event that you did not set up your OPP correctly and there is insufficient tapes in the targeted media set, BE can use tapes from other media set.

    Read this document for a better understanding of OPP and AP.

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/000032654

    After setting up your media sets, do not associate them with the new media set.  Otherwise, they would use the OPP of the media set and would be write protection immediately. Leave all your tapes in the scratch media set.  Your jobs will use the tapes from the scratch media set and move them to the targeted media set after the job is completed.

    You should also read the section in the Admin Guide on tape management.

    Also, when moving from tape drives to tape library, you should also change your mindset that the backups for a particular day must end up on a particular tape.  You should allow BE to use whichever tape it wants.  It will manage the tapes for you.  Don't waste time micro-managing your tapes.  See my article below

    https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/must-mondays-backup-be-monday-tape

    As an aside, if you are not using barcode labels, you should do so.  They make for more efficient tape library operation.  See my article below

    https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Hi,

     

    I used this as well as partitioning in BE 2010 R3. Never went to BE 2012 because of the mess it became.

    Essentially I did the following:

    1. Within BE I partitioned the MSL2024 G3s we used to have on multiple sites with enough slots for Daily, Weekly & MOnthly backups. You'd do the same but add in a partition for a yearly backup.

    2. Within BE set up the backup job for a Daily, Weekly, MOnthly and Yearly backups with the correct Append/OPP Settings. Yearly would be write protected for 7 years, Monthly for 12 months, Weekly for 4 weeks, and Daily 6 days.

    3. Target each of these jobs to the partitions created within BE. Don't hardware-partition the MSL8096 in CommandView TL as BE will not be aware of that. Leave enough slots in a partition to allow for spanning of tapes if this happens.

    4. Remove tapes as, and when required. 

    The subsequent jobs all become stages. Check out the Admin Guide and the video below for more info:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5udppa6zo

    THanks!

  • markvchca's avatar
    markvchca
    Level 2
    10 years ago

    So am I supposed to create 4 partitions - one for each: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly?? How big should I make each partition?

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    I would suggest that you avoid partitioning your library unless you have a very good reason.  If you have partitions and do not set your OPP and AP correctly, your jobs will run out of tapes in the targeted partition and will probably fail.  BE will not use tapes in other partitions even if they are available.

    Set up the appropriate number of media sets with the correct OPP and AP.  This should be sufficient for your purpose.  In the event that you did not set up your OPP correctly and there is insufficient tapes in the targeted media set, BE can use tapes from other media set.

    Read this document for a better understanding of OPP and AP.

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/000032654

    After setting up your media sets, do not associate them with the new media set.  Otherwise, they would use the OPP of the media set and would be write protection immediately. Leave all your tapes in the scratch media set.  Your jobs will use the tapes from the scratch media set and move them to the targeted media set after the job is completed.

    You should also read the section in the Admin Guide on tape management.

    Also, when moving from tape drives to tape library, you should also change your mindset that the backups for a particular day must end up on a particular tape.  You should allow BE to use whichever tape it wants.  It will manage the tapes for you.  Don't waste time micro-managing your tapes.  See my article below

    https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/must-mondays-backup-be-monday-tape

    As an aside, if you are not using barcode labels, you should do so.  They make for more efficient tape library operation.  See my article below

    https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how