Confiure Backu To Disk 12.5

[rjw3326]

Hello,

Novice user to Symantec Backup Exec.  I have previously tried and previously posted about trying to configure a backup job to complete but continously receive errors in the backup that the job cannot be completed because of media.

Here is the goal: Use 12.5  to configure one single nightly backup which willl be configured to backup a couple different servers.  We have options and agents installed to perform additional specific backups such as exchange, sql, etc.  We would like all this data that us backed up to be placed on an external 500GB HDD we have that is connected 24/7.  We predict the average backup will be about 250GB or so each night (if backed up in full).  We would like an incremental backup i believe (correct me if i'm wrong) that will allow us to only backup the changed files each night - of course that will happen once i believe we've done 1 full backup.

Can someone please note the steps in order to properly configure such a backup job? 

Thanks!

[Ken_Putnam]

First, I would recommend a periodic (Weekly for example) FULL backup, with intervening Daily DIFF or INCR backups, and all jobs Overwrite, not Append

Do you have multiple external drives, or just the one?  Any plans for off-site storage in case your building burns down?

if you have two drives, I would set the media set OPP to 7 days, Do a FULL/Overwrite on Friday for example and an INCR FULL  the rest of the week, on Friday swap drives.  This way, you have last week's backups off-site, and approx four weeks total data

 

[rjw3326]

Hello,

I agree.  I could implement a weekly/monthly full backup with daily incremental with the job set to overwrite.  We currently have 1 external drive to be written to thats always connected.  In the future, we will be implementing an off-site backup where we'll simply copy the files SymBE creates and back them up over the internet via FTP to a remote server.

I re-configured the whole backup last night - created a Backup-To-Disk folder (via creating a device pool)and pointed it right to the external drive.  I then ran the wizard to create the backup job and schedule it.  I attempted a test run after but it shows that it failed due to the media checks.  It looks like under Media Capacity Check - the failure was for capacity check status and under the Media Check - the failure was insufficient online media to start job.  Also under there it says for overwrite media check that there was no media online.  Yet i assure you the Backup-To-Disk folder/external drive were online and connected.

Any thoughts?

[rjw3326]

Hello,

Here's an update for anyone.  Even with the failures mentioned above, i just decided to run the backup job and see if it completes - lo and behold it completed successfully - its an incremental backup but it successfully backed up the files. 

However, there is still one BIG remaining task to observe here.  Now that we have a successful backup, I will verify that it actuall does overwrite the previous nights backup and not append to it.

Can someone who knows SymBE best answer the following:

1. Even though i believe i have the OPP level set to None and a 20 hour OPP - will it still append to my backup until the folder is full and then overwrite it?  Or will it just keep the space and simply overwrite what was written in the successful backup just now?

2. The backup job is incremental, since this is the first job ran, does this mean it actually did a full backup but from here on out it will be incremental again?  Or do i have to create another job which will do a full backup?

Thanks for any input its appreciated!

[rjw3326]

Update again,

SymBE is actually appending backups to our external backup drive not overwritting.  Even though the OPL is NONE and the OPP is 20 hours, can someone tell me why this is occuring?

Here's a change i'm considering making which coincides with Ken Putnum's recommendation: 1 full backup every week.  Each other weekday would consist of an incremental backup.  This shouldn't fill up our 500GB external with a weeks worth of backups and if i create specific folders in this drive - it should allow us more organization and then we can also verify with each folder that the contents are overwritten each week.

Can someone PLEASE help with getting this configuration off the ground?

Thanks!

[Ken_Putnam]

SymBE is actually appending backups to our external backup drive not overwritting.  Even though the OPL is NONE and the OPP is 20 hours, can someone tell me why this is occuring?

is your job defined as Overwrite or Append? 

Also from the Global Options\Media Management, is the setting at "Use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch" selected?

[David_Perrin]

I think you need to look at your media set.  Each job uses a media set. 

Create one media set for nightly that allows append up to 5 days and overwrite protection for 5 days, and use that media set for your parial nightly tapes.  Then create a media set for weekend that allows append for a couple of days but no overwrite for at least a week, and assign your full weekend jobs to that media set.

At our site we like to keep quarter and year ending full backups, so you may want another media set that never allows overwrite for archive tapes.

[rjw3326]

Ken and David,

Thanks for your input I appreciate it!

I hate to be all over the road with this but as of this moment i did put in place the stategy Ken mentions.  A full backup job made 1 time each week and the other 4 week days theres an incremental backup job (5 jobs total for this).  Each backup points to a folder on the external backup drive - making things nice and clean and organized.  So far this is working.  My only gut feeling is now however that after 1 week has passed, this 500GB HDD will be full at that point and i'm doubting that Symantec will then overwrite the previous weeks info and keep going forward.

Not sure if now the qustions you asked are still relevant but...

Ken - each of the 5 jobs are set to Overwrite Media. In the global settings, YES that setting is selected.

David - I have 1 media set which all 5 backup job use and as mentioned its OPL is NONE and 20 Hours OPP and 0 Hours Append. Thanks for your advice, but do you agree now with what I have in place that I should have more then 1 media set (perhaps 1 for the full and 1 for the incremental)?  Please keep in mind we do want the files to be overwritten each week with the newest data.  For off-site protection we're copying all of the Symantec files off-site during the weekend to a remote server.

Thanks again!

[rjw3326]

bump....


Anyone who can help tell me why now after my 500GB is filled (with a combination of full and incrementals backups backed up into specific folders so we know what is what) Symantec is NOT overwritting the previous backup in the folder and continuing to run the job.  Now when it attempts to run the job it just says Queued and nothing.  The HDD is full. 

Thanks!

[David_Perrin]

Dear RJW,

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that you want the old full backup overwritten by the new full backup.  That means the media set must have overwrite protection for a period of time up until you want it to be superceded.  If you are making a full backup once a week, and run a nightly incremental, you probably want overwrite protection for a little more than 6 days.so the full backup will overwrite the disk file every week.

Clear as mud?

[rjw3326]

Absolutely sir and thank you very much for your input! :)

I'll keep the Overwrite Protection Level (OPL) set to NONE as it is now and change the Overwrite Protection Period (OPP) for 6 days for the full backup.  If i'm correct, this means i'll have to do as you noted and created two backup media sets.  One for the 4 nightly incremental jobs where OPP is set to 20 hours and another for the weekly full backup which will be set to 6 days.

I'll let you know tomorrow how this has progressed after tonights incremental backup.

Thanks again!

[rjw3326]

David,

Hate to say it, but after creating 2 media sets with the OPP we mentioned (6 days for full and 20 hours for incremental)  - the backup job did not run last night.  This is 2 nights in a row now that it has just Queued my incremental jobs and not ran them and overwrote the previous data in the B2D Folder i created for that nightly job. Any other suggestions? Anyone?

[rjw3326]

Another food for thought on my error here....

I believe the jobs are getting Queued simply because the HDD is full.  Not because of speciying any settings with OPP or OPL levels or media sets, etc. My reasoning is because Tuesday's incremental job was Queued yet there was actually a backup of data within my Tues Incremental B2D folder.  For the Wed B2D folder - there isn't even any data in there yet the Wed incremental job was also Queued.
 
I'm thinking i simply have too small of a HDD (500GB) but for some reason i may need a 1 Terabyte drive or so. 

But heres the baffling part - my Monday full backup consist of about 203 GB, my Tuesday incremental - 234 GB.  That doesn't soun incremental to me but the job does say its incremental so idk.

[David_Perrin]

Dear RJW,

I think you should delete the B2D files manually so you will have space to create new files.

Either that, or if you go to the media tab and select the media sets you can see what media is in each media set.  I am speculating that the media is currently in the media set that does not allow overwrite.  You can change that by dragging the media into the media set that does allow overwrite.

David

[rjw3326]

Hey David,

Thanks again for your assistance in this.  Before deleting them i did go into the media tab and check the B2D files - all of these files named B2DXXXXXX or IMGXXXXXX are all overwrite files as the files themselves say under the Overwrite Protecion Until column. After noticing that i have yet to remove them since they're supposed to be overwritable. 

But moreover, wouldn't you agree we shouldn't have to manually remove them?  I can do that but what about next week when time comes up again? Will i have to manually remove them again?  Surely there's an automatic way to achieve this.

I really am starting to believe that the issue is the fact that i have a 500GB drive - since theres barely any room left, the backup job cannot write to the folder with anything in it because it doesn't have the room.  I'm "TESTING" something now with this.  Since i do have media written for Friday in the Friday B2D folder, i'm going to see if tonight (Friday) the backup completed successfully and overwrites the Friday data.  If it does, a large drive is needed.

[Ken_Putnam]

But moreover, wouldn't you agree we shouldn't have to manually remove them?  I can do that but what about next week when time comes up again? Will i have to manually remove them again?  Surely there's an automatic way to achieve this.



From Options\Media Management , verify that the option to "use Overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media" is selected rather than "Use Scratch  media before ..."

[rjw3326]

Thanks again Ken,

Yes i verified that is selected.  I this time decided to create things individually.  For example - for every 1 media set, theres 1 device B2D folder and 1 job for it.  I created 5 jobs total for each day. One of the 5 is a full job and all others are incremental.  Lets see if that works.  If not, time for another software program.  Thanks for all your help folks!