Best Practice for Backing up Dedupe to Tape

[SLY_CV]

Hi-

I have a backup exec 2010 R2 media server with deduplication that I use to back up 4 windows servers. The media server has an LTO4 Tape Drive. 

I'm wondering how I should go about using the tape to create an offsite copy of the data. 

If I always want to have a recent copy of the data off-site, should I set up an incremental to run daily?

Let's imagine I have Tapes T1, T2, and T3. If every day I backup to the Dedupe folder. 

Then can I run Full backup to T1, Full Backup to T2, Full Backup to T3, Incremental to T1, Incremental to T2, and Incremental to T3? 

How do I tell Backup Exec to check what was last written to the tape?

Thanks for your help.

Feeling a bit hopeless,

Sam

[pkh]

To create a set of tapes for off-site, you can either duplicate the data that you have backed up to dedup folder or backup the data again from the source.  If you opt for the former, then be aware that the data is hydrated before it is written to tape.

Let's imagine I have Tapes T1, T2, and T3. If every day I backup to the Dedupe folder. 

Then can I run Full backup to T1, Full Backup to T2, Full Backup to T3, Incremental to T1, Incremental to T2, and Incremental to T3? 

You cannot do incrementals to tape because when you backup to the dedupe folder, the archive bit would have been set and your incremental to tape would backup nothing.

How do I tell Backup Exec to check what was last written to the tape?

I presume you are talking about incremental backups.  You can either use the archive bit method or the modified time method.  There is a section in the Admin which explains the two method.

[SLY_CV]

I think I'd prefer to backup the dehydrated data. HOWTO21767  Best Practices for Backup Exec 2010 Deduplication Option Gives some advice in this regard:  

Perform regular backups of the deduplication storage folder and the database folder to removable media. In the backup selection list, the Backup Exec Deduplication Storage node is located under the User Data node under Shadow Copy Components.

Remove the Backup Exec Deduplication Storage node from the selection list when you create an Intelligent Disaster Recovery job. By removing the Backup Exec Deduplication Storage node, the deduplication storage folder will not be restored with Shadow Copy Components, but it can be restored from the separate backup if required.

What should the backup jobs look like for backing up the deduplication folder? Can I configure an incremental backup for the Deduplication Storage Node?

[itsmeaffinity · Accepted solution]

Hi

Yes you can perform incremental backup for dedup storage node

Thank You

[SLY_CV]

Hi-

I tried a differential backup of my Dedup Storage Node. Unfortunately, the byte count was actually slightly larger than the last full backup.

[itsmeaffinity]

Hi 

Can you open a new thread for this

Thank You