Daily backup configuration on backup exec 2012 with multi slot tape library

[Kevin_Xau]

Hi all,

We 've installed Symantec Backup Exec 2012 SP4 on the windows 2012 Std, and do the backup to the HP StorageWorks LTO-6 tape library ( 8 slots). We want to do the daily full backup (Monday to Sunday) for 5 servers. Below is the information:

      - The first week 7 tapes will be labeled as: WK1-MON (slot 1), WK1-TUE (slot 2), WK1-WED (slot 3), WK1-THU (slot 4), WK1-FRI (slot 5), WK1-SAT (slot 6), WK1-SUN (slot 7), the last tape will be monthly backup (slot 8).

      - The second week 7 tapes will be labeled as: WK2-MON, WK2-TUE, WK2-WED, WK2-THU, WK2-FRI, WK2-SAT, WK2-SUN, the last tape will be monthly backup.

The scenaro is:

      - On Monday (12/05/2014) , we want to backup all servers to WK1-MON, on Tuesday, the backup will be on WK1-TUE

      - On next Monday (19/05/2014) , the backup will be on WK2-MON, on next Tuesday, the backup will be on WK2-TUE.

We've do the inventory and create backup job for all servers ( the media set is Robotic Library 0001) ; however, when we check the job history, it seems 1 server backup to 1 tape, so 5 servers backup to 5 tapes already. Not the result we want. 

And one more thing, what is the sequence slot number, is left magazine is slot 1 - 4 or right magazine ?

Thank you so much for your help.

[CraigV]

Hi,

1. Windows Server 2012 is not a supported OS for BE 2012 yet. This is being addressed by BE 2014 which releases in June 2014. As such, you have an unsupported configuration!

2. Make sure that you can append to tape correctly by checking your Append/OPP settings on the media set. Check the TN below for more information on this:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH5459

Thanks!

[Kevin_Xau]

Hi Craigv,

So can I backup all servers into one tape instead of 5 tapes on specify date or not base on my requirement?

[CraigV]

Hi Kevin,

Check the TN below...

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH189306

Again though, you're running an unsupported (currently) OS for BE 2012 so you might run into other issues.

Thanks!

[ecnivnaj]

hi Kevin,

Yes you cna backup your servers into one tape as long as the append period and OPP are OK.

Hope this helps..

Thanks,

[Kevin_Xau]

Hi,

So how can I put the backup data all the correct tape on the specify date. For example: tape WK1-MON will stored the backup on Monday? tape WK1-TUE will stored the backup on Tuesday. And the backup will start to run from 11:00 PM untill 3:00 AM to complete, what retention period I need to set?

Thanks

[CraigV]

Hi,

this is all duplicated information that was posted about an hour before this. Please read previous posts.

Thanks!

[VJware]

There are probably couple of options available if the backup needs to go to a specific tape. One way would be to ensure only the specific tape is loaded and the other option is to partition the tape library and target the specific backup job to a partition holding the specific tape.

KB about partitions - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO73442

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi,

best bet is to read that TN I posted in order to understand Append/OPP settings and make the necessary adjustments.

The Append/OPP settings should then dicate that a tape is protected or a certain period of time. In terms of making sure a specific tape is used for a specific day, the only way around this is to partition your library and target jobs at those partitions. However, if you don't have an appendable tape in a partition (assuming you started spanning tapes), then BE would either queue or fail the job...it wouldn't look in another partition.

pkh (another TA) wrote an excellent article around why a specific tape doesn't need to be used for a specific job. I personally wouldn't concern myself in having the backups so granular as it makes management of the environment harder.

Thanks!

[Colin_Weaver]

If you insist on using a library with specific days going to specific tapes then you will need to partition the slots in the library and create multi stage jobs where the stages are split for each day to target the correct partition.

Media sets alone will not help you achieve what you seem to be asking for although you will need suitable overwrite protection and append settings (append covers getting more than one job in the same tape, overwrite will cover when you can re-use the tape during the next cycle(month etc) You probably will also need to start 1st job of each day as an overwrite with subsequenet jobs starting as append but defiend to use the same media set and partition as the first job in order to get multiple servers on one tape.

Please bear in mind that using single slot partitions in effect makes your library work like multiple stand alone tape drives giving you the same limitaions as for a stand alone drive

For instance:

- if usable tape is not in the partition then job will go queued or fail asking for a valid tape.

- if job fills the tape then job will go queued or fail asking for a new tape.

EDIT: Oh and to make things slighly easier (even though you might still need partitions for your scenario), upgrade to BE 2014 when it is released as we return the ability to backup multiple servesr in one job in BE 2014