Archive backup job - tries to backup more than it should

[Albert_Culleton]

I have just installed Symantec Backup exec 10 for windows servers.

Becuase of disk space issues we decided to do an archive backup .

The idea here was that in the users folder ( data only no Operating system or program files) we would backup eveything before 31-12-2004 to a tape and store this tape but the backup would be a copy only.

Then if that was sucessful we would to a backup to disk of the same files but this time we would delete the files.

To complete the first part we went through the process for setting up an new job using the wizard.

When it came to selecting the files for backup in the selections page there is button called advanced. In here we choose to select files dated between 01/01/1900 and 31/12/2004.

This seems to pick the relevant files i.e those files before the 31-12-2004 as can be seen if you drill down through the files choosen by this it does indeed only show the files selected between the dates desired. So everything looks fine until you actually run the JOB

the job was run but failed as it was trying to backup open PST files ( dated recently) and only for this we may not have noticed the failure.
On examiniation of the job log the backup seems to be trying to backup very recent files than are not selected for backup.

Can any one tell me how files can be backuped up by a job when they are not selected in the properties of the job?

Regards
Albert

[dell_user]

As far as I can see, files dated between, selects all files that are modified or created between the selected dates. Therefore if the pst file was created during the dates selected it will be backed up even though it was modified outside the date range. You may be better to use the files not accessed in x days options.Message was edited by:
dell user

[Albert_Culleton]

I understand what you are saying but this logic can't be true , becuase some of the files which were been backup up were only created recently.

My next approach here is to install the software on another server and carryout a smaller but similar test.

This will not happen until next week at the earliest.

Regards
Albert

[Albert_Culleton]

Following on from the last post I carried out a smaller teston a new install on a similar server. The problem repeated itself bu i found a work around .

the test consisted of the following

Using the program to backup as before in the advanced selection dialog i selected files dated from 01/01/1900 to 31/12/2004 and the backup included files dated 2005 and 2006

but then i decided to narrow the range to 01/01/1980 to 31/12/2004 and it worked as it should.

So it seems that the program is unable to work properly if you select anything before 1900 .

Subsequent to this I deciede to go back to the production and now run the real backup and make sure it worked

The plan was to take a backup of all the files dated on or before 31-12-2004 from the data folder and put this on to tape .

Then I would run an archive which copys the files but deletes them when finished.


The copy worked fine and i ended up with 23GB of old files on tape

but when i went to do the archive it copied all the file fine but only deleted 470 out of 278,000 files

I'm investigating why this was now....??

So to sumarize the date selection need to be at least 1980 for advanced selection of files and i still have one more problem with the archive which i'm now looking into.

[Albert_Culleton]

Sorry line five should read

So it seems that the program is unable to work properly if you select anything before 1980

[Albert_Culleton]

Just some summary information about the archive that i carried out

Job name: Archive to File of files date between 01Jan1980 and 31-12-2004
Job started: 13 November 2006 at 10:00:49
Job type: Archive
Job Log: BEX_BVTSERVER_00110.xml

Backed up 268221 files in 24097 directories.
Processed 23,850,882,107 bytes in 58 minutes and 11 seconds.
Throughput rate: 391 MB/min

Verified 268221 files in 24097 directories.
0 files were different.
Processed 18,332,666,610 bytes in 6 minutes and 16 seconds.
Throughput rate: 2790 MB/min


Deleted 42 files in 9 directories.
Processed 13,126,731 bytes in 18 seconds.


so it is failing to delete files Why is the big question and it reports the job as being sucessful.Message was edited by:
Albert Culleton