Backup Exec 2010 R3 Catalog retention

[doug804]

Backup Exec 2010 R3 installed on server 2003

We are backing up to tape daily 'retention 1 week', weekly 'retention 27 days' & monthly 'retention 1 year'

We've noticed that the catalog only goes back 1 month

With only 1 month of catalogs how can we restore files older than this period

[VJware]

Once the catalogs are truncated & if you ever need to restore from older tapes, then you would run an inventory & re-catalog the tapes.

[doug804]

We have a daily calatlog job runnign at 12 midday

[pkh]

Why do you need this daily catalog job?

[Colin_Weaver]

Have you configured Catalog Truncation ? (which is not enabeld by default)

Default is actually keep catalogs until the media is overwritten, hence setting a truncation time has to be done manually on the media server.

[doug804]

Yes

We do truncate the logs, was nessessary due to the amount of space the logs were taking up too much space

[Colin_Weaver]

Ok so  in that case you would need to run a new catalog job when you want to restore data from nay tapes that are older than your truncation period - the tape in questiion will also have to be in the library as we can't regenerate a truncated catalog without having the actual tape present. As such a daily catalog job is a very odd choice as you would really only need to do a catalog job just before you need to do a restore and after you have made the required tape available.

If the tape is still in the library then no need for an inventroy (or scan job) however if it has been removed then you will need this step befroe running the catalog (which matches what someone told you earlier in this thread.)

[doug804]

Thanks will test on monday, will update with results

The Catalog job was initially setup 3 years ago by a symantec eng. Been running like that since