Backup Strategies and B2D2T

[tmt]

Hi everyone,

We recently purchased a new tape library (Dell TL2000 LTO-5) and a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro (6TB) that we would like to use as a B2D source. This is a relatively big new step for us and would like to hear some suggestions of similar experiences.

Just to give a bit of history, we have traditionally used a LTO-3 drive and made full backups every night. We had 10 daily tapes that would be used every other week (5 per week) plus 8 more tapes that we run on a Saturday for a maximum of 2 months backup (4 tapes each month).

This has gone on until the size requirements forced us to use 2 tapes (roughly 1.1TB) a night. The jobs included both file shares, Exchange, SQL..etc in the same tape and in the same job with AOFO enabled. However, I recently read a technical document that strongly recommended that GRT sources be run on a seperate job with AOFO disabled. As such, we are a bit confused on how to go about our backup strategies.

Here is what we would like to achieve with the lowest possible amount of media to achieve up to 2 months of restores:

1)Daily Full Backups to Tape for Offsite storage

2) Daily Incremental Backup to Disk

3) Weekly Full Backups to Disk

We would like to use the B2D device as the only data source so that it doesn't tax the remote PCs if possible.

We have attempted to perform a synthetic backup to disk which seems to work but would need some clarification. How do we know if it works? I tried restores on a small scale and they seemed fine. With a synthetic backup, would we need to perform regular synthetic backups or can we just use incremental backups all the way? Since the synthetic method adds the incrementals onto the baseline synthetic image, would running a synthetic backup wipe out the incrementals like traditional backups?

Here's what we did nonetheless, not sure if its correct or best practice though:

*No-GRT*

1. Created a new file share called (DDT NoGRT)
2. Started a Full Backup of our file shares with AOFO enabled
3. Created a new Policy with the following templates

• Weekly Synthetic Backup (Weekly Media)
• Daily Incremental Backup (Collect Additional Infor for synthetic option enabled) (Daily Media)
• Scheduled Backup Duplicate (Copy to tape after Weekly Synthetic Backup is complete)
• Export Media Template after duplicate job is finished

*GRT*

1. Created a new file share called (DDT GRT)
2. Started a Full Backup of our file shares with AOFO disabled
3. Created a new Policy with the following templates

• Weekly Synthetic Backup (Weekly Media)
• Daily Incremental Backup (Collect Additional Infor for synthetic option enabled) (Daily Media)
• Scheduled Backup Duplicate (Copy to tape after Weekly Synthetic Backup is complete)

How can we configure BE 2010 such that it will combine both duplicate jobs to copy to the tape? I want both GRT and Non-GRT data onto the tape for offsite storage so we can perform a full recovery if the worst scenario happens.

Additionally, is it possible for BE 2010 to move the completed tape to the I/O slot of the unit? For some reason it keeps using the same tape over and over again and only uses another tape when it needs to span.  I tried exporting the media at the end of the policy but it does not seem to work. We are also looking at utilizing Archive vaults to reduce the size but I suppose that would be an entirely new topic.

I would appreciate any feedback and assistance that I receive on this issue.

Regards,

Javier Wong

[Kiran_Bandi]

Best Practice: 1) Use Synthetic backup feature for filesystem resources only. Don't include any databases. 2) Your policy should contain a Baseline backup, incremental and synthetic templates. Better copy the example policy given by symantec and customize it. Refer to admin guide for some more clear idea about synthetic backup feature. (pg 899) Export media template: Have you checked the template rule between duplicate template and export template? duplicating to single tape: I myself never did it. But you can try like this. Create a single media set for the tapes and target both your duplicate backup templates at that media set. Start the second duplicate job as append to media. Regards....

[pkh]

With a synthetic backup, would we need to perform regular synthetic backups or can we just use incremental backups all the way?

If you want the latter option, then you would not need synthetic backup at all.  If you just keep doing incremental backup, then when you need to do a restore, you would need to restore the last full backup and ALL the incremental backups since then.  When you do a synthetic backup, you create a new full backup offhost, thus reducing the number of incremental backups that you need to restore.

[tmt]

Hi Kiran,

   Thanks for the prompt reply. I have already created 2 jobs, 1 traditional backup (incremental/full) for sharepoint, SQL, System state and 1 synthetic backup for file based backups. I have gone through the user guide but it does not state when of if another synthetic backup should be performed or what it does after that. All it states is incrementals get included into the baseline backups. My query is can I just continue using incremtentals without performing another synthetic backup?

         I have made sure that the export media template selects the duplicate job but the robotic unit does not seem to move the media anywhere.

If I were to perform a duplicate job as suggested, would that only copy the incrementals? Full/synthetic backups are only scheduled to run on weekends where as we need to take full backups each night on tape, or at least be able to recover fully from a single tape. Also, if I were to run a full backup, would that commit the incrementals on tape and remove the restore points from my B2D folders?

       I suppose i should not be creating anymore jobs and should try to use the existing templates to duplicate the data? Tempted to just create a new full backup job and select all the resources and let it run totally seperate of each other.

[tmt]

Let me see if i can clarify this. I understand that in traditional backups, incrementals restores require a full backup plus all incrementals to the point of restore . In the case of a synthetic backup, all I need is the last full synthetic backup which includes all restore points of any incrementals that were run after that right? Meaning if I ran a full synthetic on monday and incrementals on tues and wed, would the monday synthetic already contain both tues and wed information?

[pkh]

Meaning if I ran a full synthetic on monday and incrementals on tues and wed, would the monday synthetic already contain both tues and wed information?

How can the Monday full synthetic contain the Tue. and Wed. incrementals when they have not even been performed?  The synthetic backup can only contain incrementals which are done BEFORE then, not after then.  In your example, when you restore, you need to use the Mon. full synthetic as well as the Tue. and Wed. incrementals.

Regarding your export problem, make sure that you have enabled the mailslot.  This can only be done on the tape library itself and not using BE.  If it is properly enabled, then you would "loose" those slots, i.e. you cannot see them in BE.  For example, if you have a 24 slots library and you enabled one slot as a mailslot, you would only see 23 slots in BE.  Without a mailslot, BE cannot do any import/export of tapes.

[tmt]

Hi pkh,

How would a synthetic backup reduce the number of incremental backups required to perform a restore operation in the example? If I require both Tues and Wed incrementals along with the Mon full, what advantages are there as compared to a normal full/incremental solution? I thought the synthetics were supposed to cut down on backup times by only updating data that's changed. I know I sound like I'm going in circles but this is the concept I seem to be stuck at.

I've already enabled mailslot feature (I believe for this Dell unit, its called an I/O station) which reduces the max number of library slots by 1. In brief, to trigger the library to move to the mailslot, I just have to perform a Export Template in a policy? Are there any additional settings I need to perform this? I currently have it to export the tape after the duplicate to tape function on weekends, which didnt seem to push it to the mailslot.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Suppose your strategy is to do a full backup on the 1st Monday and then daily incrementals thereafter. If you need to restore on the 3rd Mon., you would have to use the full backup and the 13 incrementals.  If you have done a synthetic backup on the 2nd Monday, then you only need the synthetic backup and the 6 incremental backups since then.  The idea of synthetic backup is to do a full backup without actually doing it on your system.  It assembles the full backup and all the subsequent incrementals into a new full backup.

Have you test whether you can export a tape?  Right-click on a slot and choose export.  See whether the tape ends up in the mailslot.

[tmt]

So both methods are the same except that for synthetics, a new baseline is created from the media server during a full synthethic while in a traditional full/incremental, its done from each backup source? Would I be correct in saying that the core benefits of synthetics are offloading the processing/baseline creation from each source to the media server?

I've got a manual job running at the moment (taking a full backup) so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to test that out. I tried Kiran's suggested method but since a full is only done on a weekend, all I will get is the incremental which is run evey weekday. This would mean if I have to restore a job in 2 days time, I'll still need a combination of tapes to restore from.

Would my only solution be to run full backups on disk everyday and duplicate to tape in the same policy? Is it also possible to run 2 policies one after another? I have one policy for GRT and another for Non-GRT and they both have different selections lists which means I can't put them together in the same policy. I would like one of them to start after the other policy has finished without guessing the time it would complete.

Thanks for the support you've been giving me pkh and Kiran. Appreciate the assistance I've been getting.

[pkh]

Would I be correct in saying that the core benefits of synthetics are offloading the processing/baseline creation from each source to the media server?

Yes.

You cannot do synthetic backups with databases, only with files, so you cannot do synthetic backups with your GRT backups.

To start the jobs from the next policy, you can try using BEMCMD.  See my blog below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/es/blogs/use-bemcmd-start-jobs

[tmt]

That clears the air up a fair bit here :)

In ending, I'll either have to forgo running incremental backups and perform full backups to disk each night and duplicate to tape using BECMD to chain 2 policies to run a full for GRT data and a full syn for Non-GRT data.

OR

Leave things as they are and create an additional full backup job from each source (rather than the B2D folder) which backs up to tape every night.

Are these the only options I have available? Would the deduplication module help me out with this situation? Due to budgeting, I would hopefully not have to purchase more agents if given a choice.

[tmt]

Ok, the mailslot seems to work after performing an export job. Apparently the slot has been locked from within BE so all I had to do was unlock it.

[pkh]

If this is a daily thing, then you might want to schedule a unlock job to unlock the library.

[tmt]

How do I schedule an unlock job? I can't seem to find an option to do that on the either from the policy templates or from the backup menu.

[pkh]

On the Devices tab, right-click on the library and select Unlock.  You would be presented with a job which you can schedule.