Backup Exec 2010 - Media Set and Offsite Tapes

[Crazy_Excalibur]

I need help in understanding the best way to setup Backup Exec (2010 R3) so that I can run daily backups, and weekly backups. The one thing that is really confusing me is that the daily backups need to be sent offsite everyday...not my decision. I am confused as to if I should create partitions or just different media sets. I also don't understand how I would do the ejection of the tapes daily based on the partitions or media sets and the different overwrite protections to use. Any help would be appreciated as I am new to all of this, thanks in advance.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

You do not have to create any partitions or define any new media sets.  All you need to do is to define a policy with a backup template and an export template.  You then specify in your policy rule to run the export job after the backup job.  The export job will then export the tape that was used in the backup to the mailslot in your tape library.  You then collect the tape from the mailslot in the morning.

You must enable the mailslot in your tape library for the export to work.  This enabline is done either through the front panel of the library or through a Web interface.  When the mailslot is enabled, you would loose 1 slot because the mailslot is invisible to BE.  If your library has 24 slots, you will only see 23 slots in BE after you have enabled the mailslot.

After the tape has returned from off-site, just put it into the mailslot and import it into any slot.  Alternatively, you can use my script to import it into the first empty slot.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/import-tape-first-empty-slot-robotic-library

[Crazy_Excalibur]

Thank you for help in understanding this.