Multiple incrementals from different job on a single tape

[Les_S]

All,

Is it possible to have multiple incremental backups from different jobs go to to the same tape? 

For instance, say I have two full backup jobs called Af and Bf and two incremental backup jobs called Ai and Bi that correspond to the full backups.  I have two tape drives.  I'd like to use one for  the full backup jobs Af and Bf that run weekly - Af on Monday and Bf on Tuesday.  I'd then like to use the other tape drive to capture the daily incremental backup jobs Ai and Bi on a single daily backup tape each day.

Basically, is it ok to include multiple daily incremental backup jobs on a single tape? 

Additonally, is it ok to have interlaced multiple daily backup jobs on a single tape?  As in,  I use the same tape for Sat and Sun such that the tape contains Ai (sat), Bi (sat), Ai (sun) and Bi (sun).

 Are there any special considerations or issues when it is time to restore these jobs? 

Thanks.

[Hemant_Jain]

It is perfectly fine. There is no reason for this strategy to not work. We keep these sets separate, so there would be no conflict.

Please mark it a solution, if this is useful.

Thanks

[Ken_Putnam]

To expand on BESymc's answer a little

You can stack as many backups to a single tape as you wish or that the tape can hold, as long as they all use the same media set.

It they use different media sets, then this cannot be done, as you can only have one media set on any one tape volume

[Les_S]

Thanks for the quick answer.

By "we keep these sets seperate", (just for my own edification) does that mean that the tape itself contains an inventory and/or database of the contents of the tape such that the restore job would know which tapes are needed in the case of a restore?

Thanks.

[Ken_Putnam · Accepted solution]

I'm not real sure what he meant by that, other than backup sets do not merge on tape, but are separate.  The catalog information that you need to restore actually resides in the Disk Catalog  (the  ..\Catalogs folder)

If the catalog info has been deleted or this tape is from another BackupExec installation, then you would need to inventory and catalog the tape before a restore woule be possible

[Les_S]

Great!  Thanks for the info.