Backup to Disk and then to Tape

[SRiver_EMC]

I don't know if this is a new suggestion or if this is a capability in Backup Exec that I haven't discovered.

When I backup with Backup Exec 2010 R3.  I have some jobs that Backup to Disk, then with the policy I have a Duplicate backup the data to Tape

I constantly have to battle running out of disk space, and jobs failing because there was some issue that kept the Tape drive busy.  I would like to be able to see when my backup to disk media has been copied to Tape.  Knowing this would insure that I am getting these backups to Tape.  I regularly have to free up disk space to keep the Backup to Disk running, and with all the jobs I have running, it is hard to determine which have been backed up to Tape. 

One way I see would be a good solution if it is possible is: A policy or rune that changes the status of the disk media to Overwritable after the disk media is copied "successfully" to Tape?  Or even better yet update the overwritable expiration date based on the completion of a successful duplicate to disk copy.

I do not have Advanced Disk based backup option, does this provide such a feature?

Thanks,

Ray L.

[Kiran_Bandi · Accepted solution]

 I regularly have to free up disk space to keep the Backup to Disk running

It is always recommended to configure BE to that instead of doing it manually.

You have to configure b2d jobs to overwrite because there is no advanteage in appending to disk backups.

I doubt you are appending now. Set B2D jobs to Overwrite only and configure media sets with 0 hours append period and proper OPP. These settings will ensure proper media management. 

Also give a read here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/faq-how-configure-media-setsb2d-jobs-and-backup-exec-proper-management-disk-space-while-using-

Once b2d jobs configured in such a way, duplicate to tape job will run before the bkf files overwritten in next cycle.

[Ken_Putnam]

I do not have Advanced Disk based backup option, does this provide such a feature?

No it does not

What most folks who do B2D2T do is use a policy to do the Duplicate to Tape as soon as the backup to disk is finished.  This along with a proper OPP for your disk media sets shoiuld prevent you from needing to manually recover disk space

How large is your B2D volume and about how much do you backup on a FULL?  On DIFF/INCR?

How long do you need/want to keep data on disk?

Have you considered D2D2D?  That is backup to disk and duplicate to eSATA (or USB3) external drives?  This would cut way down on your Duplication time, for one thing

[SRiver_EMC]

I have 2 TB of disk space to backup to backup most servers.  I have a separate 1TB for our Exchange (the separation made the Exchange backups more reliable).  I don't have the deduplication function either.  The guy who originally configured this server, setup the Jobs where multiple servers are in a single Backup Selection List, then there are Backup Policies for Virtual Servers.  In troubleshooting this server, I keep breaking down the Selection lists to have less servers in each list.  In the older installation of Backup Exec 12.5, I had each server with it's own selection list, and used the policy to backup the servers.  I am starting to wonder if it is better to have a selection list for each server, although it creates lots of jobs. 

I did change the Backup to Disk policy to not append (although Append was a short timeframe).

I am filling up two LTO4 tapes and halfway filling the third LTO4 tape in a weekly full backup.  Roughly 3TB of backed up data from what I can discern.  I am not as worried about the incrementals, but I would like to be able to have a full backup with the current weeks worth of incrementals if I could hold it.

I am OK with keeping the data on disk for a week, but I also have issues with the Backup to Disk being erased before I can even get the incrementals to tape, I don't always get the Incrementals written to tape at times.

[SRiver_EMC]

I may not be able to keep all the servers on the B2D, but if I could still use it to shorten the backup cycles, that would acheive the main objective.  Being able to keep the backups to disk for a week would be gravy :).

Later,

Ray

[pkh]

From what I can see you don't have sufficient disk space to even keep one copy of all your backups on disk.  You only have 3TB of disk space and you have 3TB of backup data.  The idea of backing up to disk is to have at least one copy of backup for easy access.

If you want to have the benefit of having a backup on disk for easy access, then you have to increase your disk storage.  Otherwise, forget about your disk backup and just backup directly to tape.  It is very difficult to try to do what you are trying to do.  That is, delete the disk backup as soon as they are duplicated to tape.  Anyway, as I said before, even if you are able to do this, this defeats the purpose of backing up to disk.

[SRiver_EMC]

The purpose is that backing up to disk first then copying to tape still reduces the backup Window significantly, and from what I understand reduces the wear on the tape drive.  I agree that having limited backup space to disk is frustrating.  I actually don't have all jobs going to disk first and I have had to remove some servers from backing up to disk to keep this functionality working.  But even when I don't backup too much to this space, it seems to me that backing up a group of servers, then copying from disk to tape is still beneficial.

These tips are helpful even if I have to deal with the limited disk space.