Media and Deduplication Storage Folder

[Cornelius]

Hi,

I'm implementing Backup Exec 2010 R3 for the first time. I have it installed it on a DELL R710 server running Windows 2008 Server x 64.

I want to know the basics of how media works with the Deduplication Storage folder. It's quite confusing to get media organized because of the limitation of being able to create only 1 Dedupe Storage Folder, and having all your backups sent there.

In my test environment, I'm backing up about 20GB of data to the Dedupe storage folder. I've created a media set called "Friday", that is set to a retention period of 0 (just for testing), and inifinte append. I created a backup job to run a full backup to the Dedupe Folder, set the media set to Friday, and set the option to Overwrite.

It created a media called OST000000##, when it did i associated that media to "Friday" (i think it did that by default), and relabelled it to "Dedup Friday". Now i ran the backup job again using the same settings as before. My expectation was it would use the same media that was created earlier and overwrite, since the retention was set to 0, and the media set was associated correctly. Instead, it created another media called OST000000##. My worry is that in time, i will end up with a messy media list of numerous medias, when i would honestly like the same media to be overwritten all the time.

My second doubt is with regards to the media size that was created. It tells me that OST000000## capacity is only 50GB, which is what was setup by default in the "Split Data Stream Every: 50GB". Eventually, my final live environment will have 1TB of data to backup, which means i'll have close to 20 OST0000000## media for a full backup????

The above is all just for testing. My eventual plan is to have a FULL back up on Friday, and incremental back ups on every other day. I will setup 7 media sets (one for each day), and 7 jobs (one for each media set)

Ideally, I'd want to have a clean inventory of media, so that when i restore a job, I'll just see 7 media present that is properly labelled, instead of seeing a whole mess of media that is labelled as OST00000##.

I guess I'm just hoping to approach a Deduplication Storage Folder device similarly to a single tape drive device, where i know that there can only be one media present at a time. I may be approaching this the wrong way, which is why I'm posting this up. Hope you guys can help me out. Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

Cornelius

[pkh · Accepted solution]

I'm just hoping to approach a Deduplication Storage Folder device similarly to a single tape drive device

Unfortunately, you cannot do this.  Dedup only backs up blocks which are modified.  Hence the blocks that makes up a file may be scattered amongst a couple of OST files.  You would not knoIw or able to find out the OST files that hold the blocks.  You should not try to manage the OST files.  Let BE and the dedup engine manage the media for you, i.e., don't even look at the OST files.  You should also not rename OST files.

I will setup 7 media sets (one for each day), and 7 jobs (one for each media set)

You only need to have as many media sets as you have different data retention requirement.  For example, if you need to keep your full backup for 1 month and your differential backups for 1 week, then you only need two media set, one for your full backup and one for your differential backups.  You don't have to different media sets for each of your differential backup jobs if the retention period is the same.  If you have less media sets, then you can have less jobs.

I would STRONGLY suggest that you familiarise yourself with the Managing your Data section of the Admin Guide before proceeding further.

[Cornelius]

Thanks pkh for your comments. I appreciate your help.

My concern with setting up 1 media set for each day was with regards to the tapes:

My tapes are labelled Week 1 Sunday; Week 1 Monday; Week 1 Tuesday.....and so on. My requirement is to have the right calendar day's backup on the right tape, no matter what.

Let's say that i have 1 media set for my weekly backups set for 1 week retention. Now let's say that for whatever reason, a backup job that was scheduled to run on Sunday night had failed to start altogether. I came to the office on Monday morning and rectified the issue. Now on Monday night, when the backup is scheduled to run it will use the Sunday's tape for the backup, because Sunday's tape meets the requirements of being overwritable and being part of the same media set as the job requires.

What do you think? Do you think that i can meet my requirement by still having 1 media set for my weekly backups?

I will definitely take your advice and have a look at the "Managing your Data" section of the admin guide. Thanks for the tip.

Best Regards,

CV

[pkh]

Are we talking about backing up to tapes or to the dedup folder?  These are two different things.

My requirement is to have the right calendar day's backup on the right tape, no matter what

Why do you have this requirement?  Especially if you have a tape library.  You are just going against the grain and having a lot of problems for nothing.  See my article on this subject

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/must-mondays-backup-be-monday-tape

[Cornelius]

WOW pkh...that was a great article i must say. Really puts perspective on newbies like myself when it comes to managing tapes.

Sorry i wasn't clear earlier, my complete scenario is that i am backing up to a dedupe folder first followed by a duplicate job to tape.

You're article is exactly right, i'm migrating from a standalone tape scenario to an autoloaded tape library, and your article really made it clear - why should we bother labelling tapes or any media for that matter? Let BE handle the job.

thanks alot. If you've posted any other articles i'd love to read them. Thanks for sharing.

C.

[pkh]

why should we bother labelling tapes or any media for that matter? 

I am not saying that you don't label your tapes at all.  What I am adovcating is that you use generic labels, not labels tied to a day or something like that.

I have written a few other articles.  Just go to the Article section and use the first drop-down box to filter for my articles.  Don't forget to vote for them if you like them :)