Backup-to-disc

[Conny_Lindquist]

Hi.

I have setup at backup system that uses backup-to-disc and got a minor question. Nothing serious but puzzling.

In my "Incremental" folder I set the size to be max 190GB per file. Instead of the default 1GB.

The first job on monday ERASE the previous week and start over on a new fresh file and tuesday, wendsday and thursday APPEND to this file.

Why does it suddenly split into 2 files? The total size of a whole week of incremental dosnt even come close to 190GB. The biggest Ive seen so far is around 100GB totaly and around that level it split into a second file.

This dosnt affect the backups in anyway. I am just curious why it did like that.

Regards
Conny

[Simon_Armstrong]

How many backup sets in total are your backups adding up to when it creates the second file, and compare that to your backup to disk properties (max number of backup sets per backup to disk file). The default is 100.

[Conny_Lindquist]

Backup sets? I dont quite follow.

However I still have the default 100 if thats what you where wondering.

I am not quite sure if it goes after physical GB or compressed GB when it counts space? Because the pshysical data is larger than 190GB but compressed it usually never goes beyond 120GB in one week. Each day generates about 50+ GB physical data. (monday, thuesday, wendsday and thursday). I dont do friday since our full backup starts then.

Regards
Conny

[Simon_Armstrong]

You can check the backup set number in the "job log". Scroll down to "Backup set information", you'll be able to see what set it's backing up to, see an example below:

Family Name: "Media created 16/11/2005 00:26:24"
Backup of "C: C - DRIVE"
Backup set #2 on storage media #1
Backup set description: "Test errorlevel"
Backup Type: Full - Back Up Files - Reset Archive Bit

[Conny_Lindquist]

This is kinda embarrassing. Due to another issue I got I deleted the XML files in DATA folder (where exec is installed) and now I cant watch those logs at all ;)

Well, no big deal. I´ll just wait for tonights incremental to run and get back tomorrow.

Thanx for the input so far.

Regards
Conny

[Conny_Lindquist]

Family Name: "Media created 11/8/2005 9:10:38 AM"
Backup of "D: SAN-Disk-4"
Backup set #189 on storage media #2
Backup set description: "Tisdag (Files, SQL & Exchange) Incremental"
Backup Type: Incremental - Changed Files - Reset Archive Bit
Backup started on 11/22/2005 at 7:04:14 PM.
Backup completed on 11/22/2005 at 7:09:38 PM.
Backed up 0 files in 2940 directories.
Processed 506512 bytes in 5 minutes and 24 seconds.
Throughput rate: 0.089 MB/min
This backup set may not contain any data.


Thats the info I could extract from the logs. Backup set #189 on storage media #2 ? what does it mean?

[Simon_Armstrong]

Backup exec creates a "backup set" for each device selected to be backed up. For example, if you are backing up the c and d drives for 2 servers (server1 and server2), the backup will create 4 backup sets.
server1 c drive = backup set 1
server1 d drive = backup set 2
server2 c drive = backup set 3
server2 d drive = backup set 4

If you run the same backup of the above onto the same tape (appending to the tape) the backup sets will increment each time. Eg
server1 c drive = backup set 5
server1 d drive = backup set 6
etc

You have the "max number of backup sets per backup to disk file" set to 100, once it reaches this limit it will create a new backup to disk file (bkf file). You can change this setting from the range of 1 to 8192.

As for the "storage media #2", this is telling you that the backup is writing to the second backup to disk file for the media family.

[Conny_Lindquist]

Thank you very much Simon for your answer.

This concludes my question about this. I think I understand the logic behind it now :)

Regards
Conny