Copying a backup set to cloud

[rookiepaul]

Hi there,

At the moment we are doing a full backup of our data to a network drive which is working fine.  The backup sits on a windows/samba share.  What I'm looking to do is have a copy of our weekly full backup sent to our amazon S3 account.  I have a linux box that is already running scripts to do similar things for our other services.  What I would like to do is point our linux box at the samba share where the full backup resides and simply copy all the backup files for that week to S3.  So what I need to know is is there anything that will stop me from simply copying all the BKF and CNF files from the backup directory to S3?  This is for DR, so if I copy all the files in said directory and then if need be pull them down, can I just simply recatalogue them on the new server (in the event of DR) and restore or are there other things I need to consider?

Any input would be much appreciated.  We are currently using backup exec 11d.

Many thanks.

[VJware]

If new server is being used for DR, then there should be no issues of copying media sets to cloud..

Would suggest also grab a copy of the Catalogs folder & BEDB when preparing for DR..

[pkh]

You should not be copying your .bkf files.  You should duplicate them.  See the document below

Reasons why copying backup to disk data files is NOT recommended.

[rookiepaul]

Thank you for the replies.  I'm guessing my way forward is to create a duplicate set.  My problem is that my cloud storage cannot be used as a disk-to-disk media set because I have no way of mounting it.  What I would like to do is duplicate the backup job into a separate folder and then transfer the contents of that new folder to S3 via a script.  Is this feasible?  What steps should I take as far as backup exec is concerned?

[pkh]

If you cannot mount the the cloud as a disk, then I don't think there is a way of using it for BE.  You are likely to run into trouble when you copy back the files and use them.  Furthermore, the VMWare situation, copying the backups to another location would render them useless.

[VJware]

Thanks for sharing that document, however I guess the one who has marked me down missed out on the last para -

Verbatim quote -

File system copies of B2D data is valid for complete Media Server DR, in situations where the recovery plan does not introduce inconsistencies, as the inventory and catalog data is also unavailable (or is a consistent copy) in DR situations.

File system copies of B2D data are valid when migrating a Media Server to new hardware (where the new server has not yet run any backup jobs, so has no conflicting media names).

[rookiepaul]

So a folder containing a backup set isn't portable at all?  The backups have to be written to the device and stay on the device?  

[pkh]

It is portable if you are copying to a brand-new media server which has not done any backups.  If you are going to copy it to a media server with existing backups then you would get into trouble.