Multiple Media Sets. Why?

Question

Hello. I have inherited a network to manage. I have used veritas on many occasions but am a liitle confused regards the merits of the configuration that I have to now manage.

Question: The media set currently has 9 defined sets (2 of which are in use i.e. Daily & Weekly). The others are all archived sets, listing multiple media labels.

What are the merits of retaining all these media sets? If I wanted to restore from tape couldn't I simply catalog when required?
Regards,
Phil.

PS: How does the awarding of poinys work in this forum?

ken_putnam · Answer

With multiple media sets, yo can assign different OPP and APP times, thus enabling you to tweak your retention policy.

How does the awarding of points work in this forum?

When you open up a thread that you have started, you can select one response that "Answers" the question - worth 10 points, and two responses that are "Helpful", worth 5 points each

philip_horan · Answer

Hi Ken. Excuse my ignorance (and spelling). Can you elaborate on OPP and APP times + retention policy. The reason I ask is the last guy was not that savvy so can not imagine he had that at the forefront of his mind.
Regards,
Phil.

PS: could be worth 10 points!!

ken_putnam · Answer

OPP = Overwrite Protection Period - That time during which BackupExec will NOT overwrite the tape. Measured from the time that the LAST backup set on the media is CLOSED

APP = Append Period - That time during which BackupExec will append (add on to) a tape. Measured from the time the FIRST backup set on the media is OPENED

Both are set by Media Set, not by backup job. From the Media Tab, right click the media set/Properties

philip_horan · Answer

Thanks Ken. Finally what is the downside of me deleting these? It looks as though I might be purchasing a new server + backup exec 10d so will be starting all over again. It would be nice to have it all tidy!!

Regards the media I will have:
Weekly schedule (30 Tapes rotated).
Daily (8 tapes, 2 week rotation).

Phil.

ken_putnam · Answer

For why to keep the "Archived" media sets. As long as the tape volumes are in one of these media sets, and as long as the OPP of that set is "Infinite - Never Overwrite", Backup Exec will NOT overwrite that tape, so the archived data is safe and available.

If you get things working the way you want and don't want to start from scratch, see http://support.veritas.com/docs/260054 to move v9.1 to the new server, then upgrade in place to v10d

For your two media sets, I'd set OPP to

Weekly 209 days (30 weeks, minus 1 day)
Daily 13 days (2 weeks, minus 1 day)

(I use the minus one day so that if the job finishes after midnight, the volume is still overwriteable the next time it is due to be used.)

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Multiple Media Sets. Why?

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