Migrate Completed Job from HD to Tape

[eleventhal]

Our Tape Library broke down this weekend, and while we are in the process of getting this repaired, we need a temporary solution to keep our backups going. (especially our full backups for long term archival)

I was hoping to modify the jobs so that they backup to a hd disk (plenty of space for now), and then when our drives come back online, transfer the job onto the tape drive. Does anyone know how to do the second part (moving the completed job)?

I know that I could simply backup the files that makeup the backup-to-disk device, but then my BE database would not function properly if I needed to restore from that job in the future.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[Ken_Putnam]

Use a duplicate job with the Disk as source and Tape as the target

[eleventhal]

Okay, but I'm not sure if this will solve my migration problem...?

If I'm understanding you correctly, you are suggesting that I backup the original disks or the "backup file"?

If I backup the original files again when my tape drive is fixed (just a duplicate job, with different targets), then I won't be able to permanently archive the old backups.

If I backup the backup files, I will have permanent archives, but to restore, I would have to restore the "backup disk", then mount the backup disk, and do the actual file level restore from there. (That and the database won't track that, I don't think)

Am I following you?

[Brian_Blackwell]

what I believe Ken is suggesting is to backup the files you backed up to the hard drive when you did the backup-2-disk. not the files you backed up from the remote server.

I think, now don't quote me on this, that is you did a duplicate job with different source and destination it will hold the same properties as what your backup files on the media server hold. in theory it should work that way but I have no experience with it.

but good question, I am curious too

[eleventhal]

Right, okay I follow that. So the suggestion is to backup the .bkf files inside my backup2disk folder.

Now this will be a correct solution, in that all my data exists. However, if I try and restore a file from this original backup, BE will look for the file inside my backup-2-disk folder, using the .bkf file.

(Now, I'm not 100% certain on this next part, but I can't see it functioning any other way...)
When BE can't access the correct .bkf file(s), then it is going to request that I supply it with the correct media. However, it will not automatically take the next step, of searching the database for the .bkf file itself, and asking me to insert the tape that contains the correct .bkf file). Most likely I will have to do the search manually, perform the 1st restore job (the .bkf files); then setup the 2nd restore job to restore the actual file.

The main issue with this, is that down the road, no one will most likely remember this event, and what was done to handle it. Even though it will be documented, it becomes a rather arduous process to restore files.

I was originally hoping for an easy means of transferring a backup from one media to another (perhaps a tool for trying to duplicate a tape even....). It would appear as though BE 10 has some of these features, since it can apparently backup to HD first, then after a preset period, move the data to tape (to allow for faster restores of recent backups). That being said, we are still running 9.1, and it doesn't seem smart to upgrade now, especially when our tape drive is down.

If anyone has any new ideas I would be appreciative, but it seems from what Ken and Scoutt have informed me, there is no easy way to do what I'm trying.