Backup Exec 16 backup to disk and then to two tapes

[vstarcevic]

Hello! I have question regarding duplicate job configuration.

I have Backup Exec 2010 R3, and several policies set to backup data to disk first and then on two tape drives immediately after backup to disk finishes. There is a rule defined which causes that one tape is waiting until another finishes (because disk speed limitations).

I’m very happy with BE 2010 R3 but unfortunately, it seems that this version doesn’t support HW encryption with LTO7 drives. So, I have tested new BE 16, but I have problem with configuring jobs to simulate my current situation. It seems that it no longer supports policies and I can only configure that two duplicate jobs start simultaneously, which isn’t good because disk subsystem isn’t fast enough to feed two LTO7 drives at the same time, or one after another, but then BE is going to read data from the first tape instead from disk. I don’t really want to mess with time scheduled duplicate jobs, so I wonder if I’m missing something or BE 16 really doesn’t have possibility to include additional conditions in duplicate backup job interaction.

[jurgen_barbieur]

if i'm correct, you have:

- 1 backupexec server

- 1 disk storage

- 2 single tape drives attached directly to backupexec server.

what is your disk storage look like? is it a basic disk or a deduplication volume? what is the size? what are the undelying disks? local disk, san disk, nas, ...;? which raid?

[vstarcevic]

You are correct about configuration summary but I don't think that storage characteristic is relevant for the answer.

Anyway, storage consists of five RAID5 volumes (directly attached to server). Each has five 1 TB 2.5" 7.2K SATA disks. Element stripe size is 64K and policy is write-back. Volume is NTFS with 64 k cluster. Read tests shows 400 MB/s at the beginning of the each volume, but only 300 MB/s at 70% of the volume which is hardly enough for single LTO7 drive.

Current solution based on backup policies in BE 2010 works perfectly, except it isn’t 100% compatible with new LTO7 drives.

[jurgen_barbieur]

from the HCL of be2010r3, LTO7 is not supported.

so the only option is to try to make the same configuration working on be2016

[pkh]

For BE 16, you can create two duplicate stages to tape and both of them reference the disk backup set.  It is not necessary for the second tape duplicate to reference the first tape backup set.

[vstarcevic]

Yes, I know, but the point is that they shouldn't run together. In BE 2010 you could add additional rule that one starts as soon as another finishes. I need that because my disk subsystem read speed isn’t 600 Mb/s, or more.

[Colin_Weaver]

Assuming you are duplicating the same data twice, the just set the first duplicate to run immediately after the backup to disk finishes and set the second duplicate to start on a schedule with enough time to ensure that the first duplicate has finished.

[vstarcevic]

I already thought about this option, but it could be tricky some times. There are another jobs running at the same time (on different RAID volumes) which require duplicating on both tapes. There is lot of data need to be backed-up in small time window, so time scheduling is practically out of question.

Until now, everything worked fine, polices in BE 2010 made it possible. As soon as first job is finished, it started duplicating to tape, and every other duplicate job started as soon as previous finished.

I was using BE from older versions (9.0 to 2010 R3), and it was great product. I’m sorry, but BE from version 2012 looks more like a toy then like enterprise product. I’m looking for something new to replace it, but I’m afraid that BE 16 just isn’t good enough.