1 VMware differential Backup to 2 sets of Tape Duplication

[atwlam]

Dear All, 

Currently, we have setup a differential backup to take a full backup on Sunday, and differential on the weekdays. After the backup are record on disk, they will be transfered to a set tape and dispatched off-site, lets call this set of backup tape Set 1. 

What I wanted to do is that, in addition to Set 1, I want to duplicated the backup to a set of Backup tape to be stored on-site, let's call this them set 2.

I wanted it such that whenever I want to restore a VM I can use any combination of tape, such as

Set 1 (Full) + Set 1 (Diff), 

Set 1 (Full) + Set 2 (Diff), 

Set 2 (Full) + Set 1 (Diff), 

Set 2 (Full) + Set 2 (Diff), 

But BackupExec doesn't seem to be smart enough to work this way. When I wanted to restore a differential Backup and needs a Full, it will request the first tape a Full Backup is duplicated to, in this case Set 1 (Full), although a have Set 2 (Full) in the library. 

So I am wondering if there is any workaround for this problem, I would appreciate any inputs and helps.

Regards,

Alex Lam

[pkh]

The only way is to keep Set 1 on-site and ship Set 2 off-site.  This problem was brought up previously and there is no other work-around.

An alternative is to upgrade to BE 2012 which will present you with a list of backup sets to choose from.

[atwlam]

I dont quite get it, how can I achieve the combination of tape restores with shippign set-1 offsite and keeping set-2 onsite?

Can you explain this in more detail? Or point me to a previous discussion post?

How would 2012 help in this scenario? Can I keep the vmware agent licenses if I were to upgrade to 2012?

[pkh]

There is a previous discussion in which a user said that he does a B2D2T with his VMware differential backups.  When he does a restore, BE requested for the tapes, rather than use the disk media which are available.  There appears to be no way to specify to BE to use the disk media.  In your case, you got to see which set of tapes is preferred for restore and keep that set on-site.

BE 2012 does present all the backup sets when you specify a restore.  I am not sure whether you can then choose your prefered restore media or BE still wants to some particular set of media.  I do not have VMware to test.

When you upgrade to BE 2012, you would also upgrade the agent licences.  The upgrade is free if you have a current maintenance contract.

[atwlam]

I can understand why to keep set-1 on-site because it is the prefered set when BE is doing restore, but this leads to another issue, if there is a prefered set in BE and that cannot be changed, this automatically invalidated the other backup set.

Which makes it pointless to have to 2 sets of tape backups becuase only one of them can be restored.

Any symantec people around? Can you provide some alternatives?

Alex