Media Sets and Rotations

[jeff_stevens]

Hey everyone -

Here is what I'd like to accomplish:  we've got a Backup Exec server with an IBM Utrium LTO4 tape drive connecting to a Netapp2040 using NDMP over IP.  

I'd like to have 4 Weekly Media Sets, each having 4 tapes each,  that rotate based on the week of the month.

If possible, I'd also want the entire media set to be formatted prior to the job being written.

So on week 1, the tapes in media set Weekly 1 would be formatted and written to.

Week, the tapes in media set Weekly 2 would be formatted and written to, and so on.

Can this be accomplished using a single job and some kind of rotation schedule with media sets?

Thanks!

Jeff

[Ken_Putnam]

Can this be accomplished using a single job and some kind of rotation schedule with media sets?

Sorry, no.  Each job can only write to one media set

BUT

There is absolutely no reason to have to use different media sets (unless you want to run Weekly Fulls and Daily DIFF/INCR then you would need two)

You could just stick external labels on the tapes for each week  id Week1 Daily, Week2 Daily., Week1 Full etc

If you want to control which tape each night's job is written to, you would  need to partition your loader, and have a separate job for each night, pointed at the associated partition 

[hansdeleenheer]

Jeff - just keep it simple.

* Just create 1 media set and give your tapes a number (or barcodes if the loader can scan them)
* create 1 media set and set the retention priodes right (append 7 days, overwrite after 4 weeks)
* use the a off-site media vault and appply it to the media set (after 7 days to vault, back to media set after  4 weeks)
* run the media vault wizard and take the non -overwritable tapes out for offsite storage
* look at the media set en put the tapes in the loader with no protection 

PRO's:
* if you only need 3 tapes for all backups, why using 4 in a media set?
* you always have enough tapes in the loader if for any reason it takes 5 tapes that one specific weekend :)

[Ken_Putnam]

create 1 media set and set the retention priodes right (append 7 days, overwrite after 4 weeks)

Since the OP wants four weeky sets, the OPP would have to be 23 days for Append jobs, or 27 days for All Overwrite Jobs

[hansdeleenheer]

In my suggestion ou append a max of 7 days after first attempt  - you take out those tapes after that week - and they are protected for 4 weeks when you can reuse them again. Why would I have 23 day append periode if i want a media set for each week?

[Ken_Putnam]

Sorry, mis-keyed that .  s/b 22 days.   

Because when you Append, the OPP is reset each time the tape volume is closed. 

For example if Monday Week 1 is the 1st.  and you append Tue, Wed, Thurs and Fri, (and the job finishes after 2400, ie: on the 6th ), if you have a four week OPP, the tape cannot be reused until 28 + 6 = 34   Tape is reusable on Sunday of the fifth week, not Monday

If you use a 22 day OPP then 22 + 6 = 29,  tape is reuseable on the 30th (the fifth Monday)

[hansdeleenheer]

your absolutely right; when using an attend period of 7 days, you need to set the overwrite protection to 3 weeks.
However; if you remove the tapes every weekend you don't have any issues and can even set the append period to infinite :)

[jeff_stevens]

Guys - THANKS for the replies!

Sorry for not getting back sooner.  Apparently I wasn't subscribed to the thread.

The tapes will be living in an offsite library and one set will be pulled per month as a monthly DND.

We will be running weekly fulls, due to having to backup entire volumes.

As Backup Exec is entirely new to me, I definitely do not know the best practices for accomplishing this.

The media set is 4 tapes in size because that will provide us with enough space to expand over a period of time. 

In testing, I created 4 jobs that use a single media set.  Job A runs Monday morning, Job B runs Tuesday morning, etc.

The long way of doing things would be to create 16 jobs total (4 jobs x 4 weeks) and have them each point to a weekly media set.

It seems long-winded, so any pointers would be much appreciated. 

Basically I just want to have 4 sets of tapes (Week 1, Week 2, etc) that are formatted prior to the first job running and then having the remaining jobs appending.

[hansdeleenheer]

Jeff,

now why would you create 16 jobs? Are those different jobs or just the same job on a different time? Don't do this. It only gives you extra headaches.

This is 'a' best practice to create a job:
1) create a selection list
2) create a policy (for exaple: "base policy")
3) in that policy you create 2 templates:
   * daily incremental  - schedule: every weekday 8 PM
   * weekly - schedule: every saturday 8 PM

On monday you look at the tapes that are protected and take those out of the library and replace them by unprotected tapes.

[jeff_stevens]

Hans,

They are the same 4 jobs, just set to run every week.

We will not be doing incremental backups - only weekly fulls.  We have to stagger them throughout the week based on the total amount of data and snapshot times.

Also, this site is located offsite.  We only want to remove/add tapes once a month for the monthly DNDs.

Thanks!

[jeff_stevens]

bump.

[Ken_Putnam]

Ok, so you want four sets of tapes, changed out each weekly, Fulls every night of different data

Sounds like you need five jobs  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  They can all write to the same media set - Call it "Daily Fulls", set APP to 4 days and OPP to 22 Days.  Make the Monday job Overwrite and the rest Append

To use tapes in slot order, the first time that each set is mounted, (re)label them in slot order and BackupExec will then use Slot1, Slot2 etc.  Once you have done this for each set, SetA/Vol1  will be used first each time that  SetA is mounted, no matter what slot it is in

How do you plan to handle fifth weeks, or do you just want to retain four weeks of data?

Where would your monthly DND come from?   Do you just plan to replace setA  (for example) with new tapes each month?

[jeff_stevens]

Ken,

Thanks for the repsonse!

Maybe this is because BackupExec is foreign to me or I'm just not grasping the concepts.

With a single media set, how will I be able to know that which tapes that a job wrote to?

When the Monday job is set to overwrite, which tapes will be formatted?  The tapes that the Monday job will use, or all the tapes in the media set?

Always forgetting about the elusive 5th week!  The goal is just to retain 4 weeks of data.

Monthly DND would be a separate set that gets pulled from the library every month and replaced with new tapes.

Jeff

[Ken_Putnam]

With a single media set, how will I be able to know that which tapes that a job wrote to?

You really don't need to know.  When you select data from the catalog to restore, BackupExec will prompt you for the volume it needs (knowing ahead of time will shorten the restore time, of course)


When the Monday job is set to overwrite, which tapes will be formatted?  The tapes that the Monday job will use, or all the tapes in the media set? 

None of the tapes will be formatted when re-used,  the headers just get rewritten. (OK, that's a quick format)   When an overwrite job starts, it will overwrite the "oldest" volume it can see ( the one that has been in scratch status longest)  This should be the one used first in the last cycle, containing Monday and possible Tuesday data, depending on how much gets backed up Monday

Monthly DND would be a separate set that gets pulled from the library every month and replaced with new tapes.

OK, so do the label in slot order each time that you add a new set, then

One more thing, do remember to inventory or scan (if using bar codes) each time you change tapes in the loader.  This is the only way to tell BackupExec which tapes are in which slots