Backup to removable USB drives

[dilberty]

Hi,

I'm using Backup Exec 11d for SBS running on SBS 2003. We recently moved to a new server and decided to go with disk backup (instead of the old tape drive). We purchased 2 Seagate FreeAgent portable USB drives which are connected to one of the workstations on our network (cannot connect directly to server because it's running inside a VM. It's also more convenient to have the drives switched at the office desk). The backup strategy is simple - full backups, each day the drive is switched and taken to an off-site location.
For this purpose, I have created a new backup-to-disk device, and defined the network share (\\pc\backup) of the Freeagent drives. When connected to the workstation Windows always assigns the same drive letter for both drives and hence they also have the same UNC path (\\pc\backup).
But as simple as they sounds I'm still not quite sure I'm getting this right:
1. Should I create the drive as "Removable Backup-to-disk folder" or just "Backup-to-disk" folder?. In the former I need to map the network share to a drive on the BE media server since UNC paths cannot be used.
2. Do I need to define a backup-to-disk device for *each* of the Freeagent removable drives or do I just define a single device and use the same UNC path? I noticed BE might some trouble as the Changer.cfg and Folder.cfg differ between devices.

Thanks in advance,

Danny

[Ken_Putnam]

v11 didn't handle conecting different hardware devices or drive letters to the same B2D device well at all (in my opinion)

I'd suggest creating two B2D devices  mounted at two different drive letters on the PC.  Then put both devices into the same Device Pool, and just point the Backup Job to the pool

whether you stay at one device or two, Pause the device before you remove it, and Unpause after attaching, forcing  BackupExec to notice the change in status

[dilberty]

Kind of odd isn't it? I don't want to have to do that every day (pause and unpause). Not to mention I won't be the one responsible for rotating the disks...

[Ken_Putnam]

I don't see it as odd at all.

How else are you going to tell BackupExec that a device is either available or unavailable

You could always use Windows Task Schedulere to run a BEMCMD job 10 or 15 minutes before your backups are schedules to pause and unpause both devices every  night

[dilberty]

That's exactly the point. As far as BE is concerned there should be only a single device (as I said the drive letter doesn't change when switching USB drives) and it should create a full backup to it every night.
That's all I'm really asking for :)

[Ken_Putnam]

(as I said the drive letter doesn't change when switching USB drives) and it should create a full backup to it every night.



Well, Symantec specifically states that you can remove or add but not swap removeable hard drives, so you are trying do something outside the design criteria

Besides, you have to inventory every time you swap tapes, right?

[dilberty]

Are you saying that BE isn't capable of doing what a simple scheduled xcopy can do? Wow, and to think I paid for this application ;)
Anyhow, I realize I'm obviously doing something not "by the book" or as the software was designed to be used. So I guess I'll convert my question to what is the best practice for having a daily backup with an off-site copy? It's important that this be an automated process, that is I don't want to be running any scripts / commands (pause / unpause etc). I'm not on-site so all the end user should know is how to connect / switch the removable drive when he comes into the office and take it back home (off-site) when he leaves.

[Ken_Putnam]

Are you saying that BE isn't capable of doing what a simple scheduled xcopy can do? Wow, and to think I paid for this application ;)

As far as I am concerned what your are paying for (aside from agents) is the media manangement capabilities built into BackupExec. Otherwise NTBackup and a spreadsheet would suffice, right?

All XCOPY does is copy or replace files, it relies on the OS/Network stack to connect.  Backup Exec  needs to know what devices/media  are acutally available when the backup starts.  that's why you need to inventory when you swap tapes.  The catalog will reflect the job data on the volume it thinks is mounted, not the one that actually is

When writing to removeable disks, you HAVE to let BackupExec know somehow that a device either is or is not connected

I honestly don't know if v11 will work the way that you want it to, no matter what you do.

You could try defining two B2D devices, mounted at two different drive lettters (use Disk Manager to assign a drive letter so that they always mount to the same drive letter with no intervention), and put them both into one media pool, then point the job to that pool.  But until you test multiple attach/detach cycles, I wouldn't trust that the data I thought was on the drive is actually there

[dilberty]

"I wouldn't trust that the data I thought was on the drive is actually there"
That's a risk I obviously cannot take. Are you saying that I cannot use Backup Exec v11, a product at it's 11th version with removable disk drives and to expect the backup to actually work? Sad.
This brings me back to the question - what is it you suggest I do? How about keeping one of the removable drives always-online and then having Backup Exec just vault the data to the other removable drive (the "off-site drive")?

By the way, forgive me for sounding critical, I really appreciate your assistance.

[Ken_Putnam]

removeable hard drives have only been supported since v8.6   That's why it was a paid upgrade from v8.5    ;)

What I meant was, go ahead and try it, but verify that it actually does what you want it to before you count on it working.   if it doesn't, without the pause/unpause script, I don't have any further suggestions

[dilberty]

I think the "right thing" to do here was to define a "removable backup-to-disk" drive. This makes sense, as the remote workstation is the "device" and the rotating usb drives are the "media". They are inserted into the device and the UNC / drive letter stays the same. Unfortnuately, as much as this makes sense, BE won't let me define a removable backup-to-disk folder as it only supports locally attached drives (and mapping a network share to a drive just won't work).
I'm also considering leaving one of the disks always-online (which makes it similar to a NAS) but I then need to automate the duplication of that storage to an off-site drive.

[dilberty]

I'm just curious - would BE 12.5 solve these issues if I upgraded?

[Rob_Walker]

I have not tried this with v12.5 but any previous version, the disk would go offline when you swapped the drives and it would not come online automatically when the new drive was connected.

[dilberty]

Installed BE 12.5 trial. Defined a new Device, this time "Removable B2D". Surprisingly it accepted a network share (the previous version did not) and so far so good. Switched drives, device didn't go offline and no intervention was required. If I'll get 60 days of backup with no errors I'll even consider purchasing the upgrade, although I must say I am quite disappointed version 11 could not do this successfully and that I need to invest more money in getting this simple scenario to work. I'll definitely have to reconsider next time before I purchase a Symantec product.