Help needed for Best Practices on Backups and Media Sets

[Brandon_Baker]

I hope I don't get stoned for asking this.

I just installed Backup Exec last night and have never used it before. I have been using NT Backup. I need some ideas on media sets. I have read information in the book but could use some common sense applied.
I want to run full backups M-F with a 4 week rotation. Does that mean I should creat a media set for each week such as Week1, week2, etc..? Do I really need overwrite protection on these media sets?

If you have any best practice information please let me know.
Thanks for your help.

[Ken_Putnam]

You could create one media set "Daily Fulls" .

I would set the Overwrite Period to 26 days, with whatever append period you want

And yes you really do want OPP set. This way if you grab the wrong tape, and for instance use Monday 2 rather than Monday4 by mistake, you won't overwrite the data.

'Course you won't get a backup that night either, but at lease the "Known Good" backup is still availbale.

[Brandon_Baker]

Thanks for the help, I am sury you will hear from me again.

[574506403]

I've been using BackupExec for a few years now and don't use the media set process. I choose to set the system to erase/retention the tape and do the backup. This way, like previous comment, if I pick up the wrong one, a backup will still work. I do have two sets of tapes with the Friday always being a different one for every Friday, therefore five Friday tapes. Every other week I swap the set. Also allows the opportunity to swap out a defective tape with ease. Additionally, also use a separate tape for end of month each month.