Backup to Disk question pls

[vbsaust]

Hi all

As I am just newly employed, and I found out that they use method b2d (backup to disk) and obviously there is no traditional backup tapes around. I wonder how it works in terms of medias (usb external hd), and strategies such as incremental/ or differential etc. If you could tell me or show me links that I can get to learn. that would be really appreciated.

Regards

Ps: this is old version Veritas BE 9.1

[Colin_Weaver]

Unfortunately versions of Backup Exec earlier than 2010 R2 were not fully designed to mange the unplugging of USB disks containing B2D folders as such there were some clunky workarounds that members of this forum may be aware of and also add to this thread, however you should consider upgrading to 2010 R2 (or R3 that is due for release in next couple of weeks.)

Incremental and differential strategies aren't really affected by USB storage it is purely the handling of rotating unpluggable USB disks that will potentially give you problems.

Especially as USB drives were not very common when Backup Exec 9.1 was a current product.

[Kiran_Bandi]

Backup-to-Disk folders will be treated as devices w.r.t Backup Exec.

When you target a backup job at backup-to-disk folder, data will be saved in those folders as .bkf files. (Which can be considered as medias).

Depending on the Overwrite Protection Period and Append Period configured with the media set, BE will manage the bkf files. (Appending to those or overwriting).

Whether the backup job is of type FULL, DIFFERENTIAL or INCREMENTAL data will be saved in the same format. But as you will be having different media sets for different type of backups, BE will manage the backup files accordingly.

Read the Backup Exec administrator's guide. It will give you much knowledge about B2D backups.

For administrator's guide From BE console click on HELP--> View Veritas Backup Exec Administrator's Guide.

Regards...

[vbsaust]

Thank you very much for your responses. I have been too busy with BE atm.

@Colin

I am guessing that they backup to B2D then sync/ or copy the whole thing to another external HD so that they can swap and get one HD off site. With upgrade to 12, I wish they could do that too because I am more familiar with the latest version than old one. 

@Kiran

Your explanation is greatly appreciated. Full, Differential, Incremental, they are the same? 

Admin's guide from Help menu is the first place  I went to...unfortunately they did not install it along with BE installation. 

I really need some document to learn / read. Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards

[Kiran_Bandi]

Full, Differential, Incremental, they are the same?

Interms of how the backup data will be saved on the disk, all the three are same. But which data will get backed up, all the three are different from each other.

You can download BE 9.1 administrator's guide from here:  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH30801

Regards....

[Colin_Weaver]

Hi there

Your statement:]

"I am guessing that they backup to B2D then sync/ or copy the whole thing to another external HD so that they can swap and get one HD off site."

concerns me as flat file copies of B2D and IMG data can cause problems when it comes to later restores because inconsistencies get introduced between the data on the B2D or IMG location, the data in the catalogs and the data inside the BEDB database - for this reason we recommend duplicate jobs to create copies of backup data in more than one location.

Just to illustate the inconsistency issue:

Backup Job runs and creates a BKF file, a catalog file and some media records inside the Backup Exec database.

You then copy away the BKF file.

As week or so later Backup Exec overwrites the BKF file with new data and removes the old catalog file and creates a new one, it also updates the media information in the database.

You then copy back in the first version of the BKF file and run into problems because the catalog and database content refers to a newer version - even running a new catalog job will not usually solve this as you need to start with an empty database and then run inventory and catalog jobs but can't really empty the database because it has other records in it that you need.... hence the problems