Configure disk pool

[Marcel_G_]

Hello,

we have a similiar problem with Backup Exec 2012 (Including all offered updates) and disk pools. I have created a disk pool with four disks which have equal sizes. We would like to run different backup jobs with this disk pool as target. The size the backup jobs needed is bigger than one disk of the pool can store. Now we have the same effect as described above. It seems that the backup jobs not control how full a disk is and write on it until its full... It's very angry because i want to configure it as a dynamic and flexible pool which has so much intelligence to write backup job data to a destination with enough free space...

I think at this time the disk pool option is only for failover when a disk out of this pool fails...

Any suggestion how to configure?

[pkh]

The size the backup jobs needed is bigger than one disk of the pool can store.

If you doing GRT backups, BE needs to allocate the image at one go.  It cannot span disks in this case.  There is no way around this.  This behaviour is the same for any version of BE, not just BE 2012.

If you are doing non-GRT backups, then BE can write until the disk is full and continue on the next disk in the pool which is on-line.  This is called disk spanning.

[Marcel_G_]

Hi pkh,

the most of our Backups are GRT-Backups because we use Backup Exec to backup virtual machines with activated file restore from our hyper-v cluster. But how does Symantec decide what disk out of the pool it used for the actual job? I controlled it and on some days, the Vms were backup on other disks on the disk pool. At this time it seemed, the program has a favourite disk in the were the most backups are stored, but sometimes it decide to backup on another disk of the pool....

How can I achive a daily change of the used backup volume? Is the online way to configure different jobs where the volume to use are fix configured for the jobs?

[pkh]

BE will use the first on-line disk in the pool.  If you want BE to use a specific disk, then you either

a) target the job to a specific disk, or

b) take the other disks in the pool off-line.

[Marcel_G_]

"BE will use the first on-line disk in the pool"

That's the effect i noticed in the last successfull backups. How could I configure your proposal b) (take the other disks in the pool off-line)?

I think the only way to take a targeted volume automatic offline on a specific time is over scripting. The script which checks the enviroment (special day etc.) must then be configured to run before the backup-job.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

If you are usng either USB or eSata disks, you can just eject and unplug them.  BE will detect that they are not present in the machine and will set them off-line.

Otherwise, you can either manually disable it or use the following BEMCLI cmdlet to pause you disk storage

Get-BEDiskStorageDevice "Device 0001" | Set-BEDiskStorageDevice -Paused $true

You might want to read my article on BEMCLI first

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/preparing-your-powershell-environment-run-bemcli-and-scripts

[Marcel_G_]

Thank your for the fast help with my problem.

I think I would write a little script with the help off your article which solves my problem.

[Colin_Weaver]

For info we are investigating feedback about BE 2012 sending all job to first devcie in a pool instead of using each devcie in order.

http://www.symamntec.com/docs/TECH194532

There will also be a separate enhancment request created regarding the possiblity of selecting the device with most free space instead of using them in order.