Backup Exec 2010 Small Business + External Hard Drive(s)

[Ryan_Laurie]

I have downloaded the trial version of Backup Exec 2010 Small Business for my Small Business Server 2008, I have one external hard drive that I would like to use and already have an off-site backup solution.  What I'm trying to achieve is that I want to have local backups for quick restore of files or Exchange data for this customer, I have used Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 and had problems with the external drive(s) backups not removing Exchange data and the drive would eventually  file up.  Right now I have 2 backups sets one for all my data file and one for my Exchange backup, I have 2 backup-to-disk-folders one data and one exchange.  They are both setup for a maximum size for disk backups to 20GB, which in previously talking to Symantec with 12.5 they set this size for me.  Here is what I'm looking for:

Backup Data and Exchange to Append for 1 week (Maybe start a full backup on Monday and append the rest of the week)
Get a full Data and Exchange backup for 4 weeks (Maybe get a Full backup each Sunday for a month)
Get a monthly full Data and Exchange backup for 6 Months (Maybe get a Full backup for the 1st day of the Month)

I know that these settings have a lot to do with my Media Sets and maybe multiple jobs configurations but just want a clear answer from someone with a similar setup or a way to achieve this.  I will not be rotating the external hard drive for this customer but if I did for another if that info could be included that would help me out in the future.

Thanks for the time, Ryan.

[Ken_Putnam]

Firstly, I'd stay away from Append for Disk based backups.  The reason is that all media (BKF files) in an "append family" share a common OPP, which is reset each time one is closed

Make all your jobs Overwrite only.  Also from Options\Media Management, make sure that the option to "Use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media" is selected, or BackupExec will fill the disk volume before overwriting any BKF files, regardless of the OPP settings

set up media sets for

Daily   
Weekly
Monthly

if you want to keep your dailies for one week only, set the OPP to 6 days, if for two weeks, set it to 13 days, etc

do the same thing with the Weekly and Monthly media sets

[Ryan_Laurie]

So if I understand you correctly this is what I did:
 
H:\ is my external hard drive

Setup Backup-to-Disk Folder (Data) - path H:\Data Backup - maximum size for backup-to-disk files 20GB
Setup Backup-to-Disk Folder (Exchange) - path H:\Exchange Backup - maximum size for backup-to-disk files 20GB

Setup Media Sets:
Daily Media - Overwrite Protection 6 days -  Apend Period 1 Hour
Weekly Media - Overwrite Protection 3 weeks -  Apend Period 1 Hour
Monthly Media  - Overwrite Protection 23 weeks -  Apend Period 1 Hour

Then I created these jobs:
Setup a 2 Daily Job's, one for Data and One for Exchange:
Setup the jobs to overwrite with the media set - Daily Media

Setup a 2 Weekly Job's, one for Data and One for Exchange:
Setup the jobs to overwrite with the media set - Weekly Media

Setup a 2 Monthly Job's, one for Data and One for Exchange:
Setup the jobs to overwrite with the media set - Monthly Media

Does this look good or do I need to tweak something or look at another configuration setting(s)

Thanks Ryan.

[Ken_Putnam]

Looks good, except that I would set APPEND to "0 Never Append" on the media set properties