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AlGon's avatar
AlGon
Level 6
15 years ago

Frequency Schedule


Hi

I'm trying to understand when best to use a frequency based schedule and why.  What advantages does a frequency based schedule have over a calendar schedule.  Other than you can set a frequency schedule to run more than once during a specific time frame I'm not sure what else.  It's explained in the manual that this is the best schedule to use for a catalog backup but I can't understand why a calendar one isn't as good.  There is probably a simple explanation for this so please excuse my question.


7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    15 years ago
    there's any real reason we mainly use frequency based backups, per se. We could probably achieve exactly what we are now with either frequency or calendar based schedules.

    There's a little bit of extra work involved in initially setting up calendar based (there is an extra tab after-all !! ) and possibly a few extra things to consider - e.g. schedules spanning midnight (our backup window is mainly 6:00pm to 6:00am).

    Essentially, it was how we were told to do it when we first implemented NetBackup back in the 4.5 days i.e. when we didn't know any better  ;-) & we're now very comfortable with the way things are currently running.

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  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    preferences & exactly what you are trying to achieve. We mainly use frequency, but do combine it with calendar to enable monthly backups to take place on the last whateverday of the month.

    As far as the Catalog is concerned, this goes back to your earlier posting & I think the Admin Guide was mainly trying to get you away from running same at the end of each batch of scheduled jobs as opposed to saying that frequency was better than calendar.

    You may find the following article of interest 

    Frequency Based Backup – It’s not a bad thing


  • AlGon's avatar
    AlGon
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Hi Andy.

    Yes I understand that section now (after reading it several more times and you pointing me in the right direction) but I just wondered why this couldn't also be accomplished using a calendar schedule?  Also, can I ask why you mainly use a frequency schedule?  Thanks for the link, reading it now, I'm guessing this will answer my questions anyway.

    Cheers Lots for your response.
  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    there's any real reason we mainly use frequency based backups, per se. We could probably achieve exactly what we are now with either frequency or calendar based schedules.

    There's a little bit of extra work involved in initially setting up calendar based (there is an extra tab after-all !! ) and possibly a few extra things to consider - e.g. schedules spanning midnight (our backup window is mainly 6:00pm to 6:00am).

    Essentially, it was how we were told to do it when we first implemented NetBackup back in the 4.5 days i.e. when we didn't know any better  ;-) & we're now very comfortable with the way things are currently running.
  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    15 years ago
    We use frequency schedules because many of our policies contain hundred of servers and I don't want them all to run full backup at a specify day of the week. With Frequency based schedules the load is spread out during the week. My 2 cents.
  • J_H_Is_gone's avatar
    J_H_Is_gone
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    I also use frequency ( I have 1 exception for a backup I do once a year - took me a lot of time to add each of those days to calender for the next 10 years)

    Personally I find frequency easy to use and "see"  - looking at the frequency tab I can do a quick assessment of when my backups happen - I find it a little harder to "see" the picture with calender setup.

    (that makes 4 cents) (andys answers are worth more then that)
  • AlGon's avatar
    AlGon
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Thanks for all your replies, some good examples on why it can be good to use a frequency schedule. Certainly helped me to understand it better.

    Thanks for all your money too ;)

    Al