Backup Exec 11d - Overwriting Full Media Automatically Question

[CHoughton]

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on the following problem please?

We are currently running Backup Exec 11d Build 6235 on SBS 2003 (inc all the latest SBS patches etc).

We are running an Internal Dell LTO-2 tape drive with 200GB/400GB capacity with a daily backup of around 40GB.

Our tapes rotate on a two weekly basis, therefore one tape should take around 5 full backups, which should mean that the tape will last 10 weeks until it is full.

If we set the overwrite protection period for 10 weeks, will this:

1.  Overwrite the tape completely after ten weeks with no prompts?

2.  Or will Backup Exec start to overwrite the tape starting with the oldest job first?

Should we set the OPP to 9 weeks to ensure that tapes are overwritten?  Essentially what we would like to acheive is a backup set that retains the data for the capacity of the tape and then overwrites the tape without a prompt.

Currently we are having to manually observe the tapes for their capacity before erasing them when they are full, as the tapes do not automatically overwrite when they are full.

I'm sure we are missing some really simple configurations, hopefully this should be an easy one!

Any information is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Chris

[Ken_Putnam]

If you set the OPP to 10 weeks, You will not be able to Overwrite the tapes for 10 weeks following the last date they were written to.   Ane when you do Overwrite, it starts at the beginning of the tape, and overwrites everything

If you want to retain 10 weeks of data, you'll need 10 tapes, granted they won't be full, but you will be able to go back to data on any backup date for the entire 10 weeks