Backup Exec 12.5 - how to encrypt only special tapes

[M__Verkerk]

Dear,

What I want:

That only special tapes (week and month tapes) are being encrypted (to store offside) and that the normal day tapes are not encrypted (they stay inside and also in case the encrypted tapes have a problem).

I tried to do this with making two different jobs (every day a full backup). One job that runs monday till thursday, not encrypted, and one that only runs on friday, encrypted.

The only problem is that sometimes the tapes are not placed on the right day.

Is it possible that Backup Exec looks for the tape name and then makes an encrypted backup or not?

Kind regards,

M. Verkerk

[CraigV]

Hi,

IDeally BE will look for scratch media. If your Append/OPP settings aren't absolutely correct, then the tape you put in that was used for last week Tuesday's backup won't necessarily be ready to be used for today's backup.

As long as the tape you're about to use is overwritable, you shouldn't have an issue. Read another TA's article around this (pkh):

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/must-mondays-backup-be-monday-tape

Alternatively, if you have an autoloader/library, partition it in 2. Direct the encrypted backup job to 1 partition, and the non-encrypted backups to the other.

Thanks!

[M__Verkerk]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer. Sorry,  I dont understand it completely. I will investigate your link.

Kind regards,

M. Verkerk

[pkh]

You should not be concern about which tape is used for which backup.  All tapes are the same.

[M__Verkerk]

Hi,

Thank you. But what I really want is that the tapes that go offside are encrypted. And I also want to have not encrypted tapes (see firts question).

Kind regards,

M. Verkerk

[pkh]

So for the jobs that produces the off-site tapes, you enable encryption and you disable encryption for the other jobs.

[M__Verkerk]

Hi,

Thank you. Is there an answer to my question: "Is it possible that Backup Exec looks for the tape name and then makes an encrypted backup or not?"

Kind regards,

M. Verkerk

[CraigV]

...it doesn't look for a tape name. It looks for free/scratch/appendable/overwritable media in a media set...but not a specific tape name.

[pkh]

No.  It will not look for a particular tape label.  If a job specify encryption, it will encrypt whichever tape that it writes to.  If you want to write to a particular tape, it is up to you to ensure that the job writes to that particular tape.

Why is important that you encrypt a tape with a particular label?

[M__Verkerk]

I only want the tapes encrypted that goes outside, week en month-tapes.

The daytapes stay inside. I also want them not to be encrypted in case there is a problem with the encrypted tapes.

I made 2 kind of jobs:

1. Monday till Thursday - not encrypted (daytapes)

2. Friday - encrypted (week and monthtapes)

The client sometimes forget to switch the tape so for example the thursday tape will be encrypted. Thats normally not a problem but I come there ones in a while and only want to take encrypted tapes outside and not a tape that they use weekly.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

If the tape is not switched, BE cannot help but to overwrite the tape in the drive.  Would you rather BE fails the backup in cases like these.

It does not matter which tape encrypted.  See my article that was quoted earlier.