Spanning Multiple Media in Partitioned Robotic Library

[Rufguy]

Using a LTO2 drive in a Dell PowerVault 124T autoloader. BE11D for Small Business Server.

Our backups no longer fit on one tape so I configured two slots per partition. We do two backup jobs per night. Both are full backups. The first is for exchange and sql and is done separately from the data as i was told to not use the Advanced Open File option for Exchange and SQL backups. This exchange backup is set to overwrite. The second backup is for everything else, uses the AOFO, and is set to append.

We do daily backups M-F with the Thursday backup considered a weekly backup so that the tapes can be taken offsite on Fridays. We also do a monthly backup on Sundays so that a monthly set can also be taken offsite.

All backups were directed to particular partitions (again, two slots/tapes per partition).

Media protection was set to Partial. The media set was configured based on whether the backups were daily, weekly, or monthly which involved enough overwrite protection to protect the media for 2 days short of the next time a backup would run in that partition and no append protection.

However, the above would not work as I would always get an insert overwriteable media alert. Why? Both media in the partition had no overwrite protection before the Exchange/SQL job started and although that job created overwrite protection, the data job was set to append.

Disabling media protection (setting to None in Options|Media Management) seems to resolve the problem. However, I don't like that there is no overwrite protection. Does BE know to span the media in the partition and not overwrite the media it has already written to for a particular job? For a particular day? It seems the problem is that BE doesn't see a partition as a single media but rather as two different media with different overwrite protection levels.

Please explain how I should best configure BE11d to do two full backups (one exchange/sql and the other everything else) per day/week/month with some overwrite protection and the ability to know which tapes should be removed for offsite safety.

Thanks,

John

[Ken_Putnam]

Do both backups use the same media set?  They must for the second to append to a tape created by the first

if they do -

from the media tab, right click the media set\properties

What is the Append period for that media sertt

[Rufguy]

Thanks for your reply.

Both jobs use the same media set. The append period is infinite-allow append.

I thought about my first post and realized I wasn't too clear about when I get the insert overwriteable media message. You seemed to have understood my post anyway. Thanks! :)

Anyway, the first job (exchange/SQL) runs and overwrites the media. The 2nd job stops partway through and seeks overwriteable media even though it is an append job. Just doesn't make any sense.

[Ken_Putnam]

sounds like the first tape is filling up, and the job does not go to the second tape in the partition, but asks for Overwritable Media instead.  That's not what I got from your first post, and leads us into a completely different area.  (all continuation tapes are overwrite, even if the job itself is an Append job)

When the first job starts, both tapes are in Overwritable Status, right?

and the job definitely points to the partition, not the first slot?

if you shut down all BackupExec services, does NTbackup automatically roll to a second tape?

[Rufguy]

Really appreciate the help Ken.

I agree that the problem is that the first tape is filling up and the job is not going to the second. The weird thing is that disabling media protection causes the jobs to span both tapes (I checked by creating a restore job and viewing by media) so both tapes are being overwritten. I think the problem is that "all continuation tape are overwrite" (didn't know that, why?) and the second job can't overwrite anything due to the overwrite protection set by the first job.

The first job does not fill up the first tape.

When the first job starts, both tapes are in overwriteable status. The job definitely points to the partition.

Haven't tried it with ntbackup. Are you saying to disable the BE services and run the same jobs in ntbackup with substantially the same media protection levels, and see what happens? Will I have to start the removeable storage service? (it's presently set to manual).

Thanks again. Very grateful.

[Ken_Putnam]

Are you saying to disable the BE services and run the same jobs in ntbackup with substantially the same media protection levels

yes, just to absolutely rule out a malfuntion in the loader itself

If that works, you may be down to opening a paid incident   since everything else sounds good to me

Just to verify, the second job does write to the first tape, right, not the second?