How does the append really works?

[oithim_yew]

Hi,

I would like to know how does the "Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available" works. I have 2 existing daily jobs with 2 (200GB) tapes allowed for this. The first is a file server backup (Differential+Overwrite) and it would normally fill up one tape while the second job, exchange backup will take more or less than 200GB. My question is, when the first overwrite job completed, will the second append backup job appends to the just completed backup tape and then when it is full, it will overwrite the second tape. FYI, i had sent the overwrite to 6 days and Inifinite for the  append. Thanks for the help.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Yes.  BE will always overwrite the 2nd and subsequent tapes.

[AmolB]

My question is, when the first overwrite job completed, will the second append backup job appends to the just completed backup tape and then when it is full, it will overwrite the second tape

Second append backup job will append only if the media is appendable else it will look for an

overwritable media. Now BE may not pick up the same tape which was used by the 1st backup job 

it may pick up an appenable tape with an older allocation date (assuming you are using a library 

without partition)

[rendersr]

Hi,

If the tape is appendable, it can be used for appending data. However, AmolZeroCool has a good point concerning the library (partitions). You are never quite sure what tape he will be using for the second job.

What I always do is the following: i set my protection time to six days in your case, but I limit the append period within the backupwindow (for example 8 hours). With this configuration he will append to media when he has a tape available (append period limited = so normally it will be the recently written tape). If there is not enough space available on it to start the backupjob, only then he will overwrite another tape.

Hopefully this is helpful!

Ruben