Backup Job to erase tape or Overwrite

[darkdata]

Hello,

     I have taken over IT responsibilities where I work and while reviewing the different systems, found the BackExec version running is 2010.  I am in the process of reviewing the backup jobs and getting a VM setup to install Backup Exec 2016.  While reviewing the backups I have found a job which sole purpose is to erase a tape before new data is backed up.  In the past I have always set any FULL backup jobs as overwrite, never really thought of creating a job just to erase a tape. 

Question is, should I keep the job to erase a tape or just do as I have done in the past and overwrite?  Yes I will be implementing a D2D solution, but looking at doing a Father/Son backup sceme.  Where the tapes will be the end of month, keep forever, backup along with the D2D option.

Thanks

[Riyaj_S]

Father Son media strategy would provide two weeks overwrite protection. If there are enough tapes then Grandfather media rotation can be implemented as it provides longer retention of data. More details in following article :

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.v53891789_v113799574

Also if there is appropriate overwrite protection set on tape and if tape is overwriteable/appendable at the time of the job then there is no need to create a separate job for overwriting the tape.

Thanks and Regards,

Riyaj

[Colin_Weaver]

It sounds like whoever setup the tape management before either did not trust their on-site tape handler to load the correct tapes (so used erase jobs to guarantee a backup) OR they did not themselves understand how to setup the overwrite protection periods correctly (so use an erase job as a workarounf for getting job failures)

As an aside and a BIG WARNING - do not setup Backup Exec in a VM if it needs to backup (or duplicate) to tape - as you need a physical Backup Exec server for this to be supported,