Backup Exec 11 Examples

[Autozaf]

I want to perform a full backup of a data set and then take incremental backups for a period of a week before taking another full backup and repeating the cycle.  I need to keep the previous two weeks worth of backups through to the end of the third week before then overwriting the first set.

I am backup up to disk.

What is the most effective method for achieving this?

[nicktf]

Create two media sets - one for Full backups (set overwrite protection for 3 weeks), one for Incremental (again overwrite protection for 3 weeks). Create a full backup job and link to the Full media set, then an incremental job and link to the incremental set. Schedule as appropriate.

...And have lots of disk space available.

[Autozaf]

Thank you for the reply.

As I understand it, setting the Overwrite protection option prevents the file from being overwritten for the number of days specified after the last write to the file.  Therefore, if the media set can be appended for 21 days from first write, then the overwrite option being set at 21 days too, will prevent it being overwritten for a further 21 days after the last write.

I find the phrasing from Symantec a tad confusing too.

[Ken_Putnam]

You are correct, appending to an existing backup set will extend the Overwrite period as from the time that the append job closes

You can either

1)   Just do straight Overwrite for your INCR jobs with an OPP of 20 days  (three weeks minus one day, in case the job finishes after midnight)

2)   Make your INCR jobs "Append, Else Overwrite" to a media set with APP of 5 days and an OPP of 15 days

You also need to make sure that from Tools\Options\Media Management, you have selected "use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media" rather than "use scratch media before..."  otherwise, the bkf files will not be re-used until the disk is full