Starting a backup (to tape) job after a backup (to tape) job finishes (multiple times)

[Luke_Cassar]

Hi,
I am trying to back up a lot of data and work out a schedule which will allow all of this to run.. but its not possible. Backup times for the same set of data can vary up to 20 hours between passes, so I give up trying to schedule this.

What I want to know though, is there some way I can have a job which backs up one folder of data, then when that job finishes (be it in 50 hours or 70 hours) it calls the next job which backs up another folder of data, then when that job finishes it will call the next job to back up the next folder.. and continue to do this for about 8 - 10 folders of data.

I plan to start the initial job manually, then just leave the jobs to run on their own until complete.

I know there is the post job command line in each job, but I dont know if this would work since it will hold the initial job as incomplete until the chained backup jobs are all finished, which will probably hold up the tape drive and etc..

Any suggestions or comments?

Cheers!

[Nathan_Kippen]

 What about configuring the policy to only allow 1 job run at any given time (maximum jobs 1).

Then in the backup selection list put your folders like this:

NEW_STREAM
folder1\
NEW_SREAM
folder2\
NEW_SREAM
folder3\
..
..

Also select allow multiple streams in the policy attributes.

[CraigV]

Hi Luke,

If you run a GFS policy, you would create a rule which states that after Job A completes, job B needs to run. It would kick off immediately after the first job, and would run to the same tape if configured correctly.

Laters!

[Luke_Cassar]

Hi Craig,
I think I get the jist of what you are saying..

I create a policy with a bunch of job templates in it. The first is overwrite, and the others are append, but they all point to the same destination and media set.. this will give me a job that overwrites a tape, then a bunch of append jobs to continue. That part makes sense.

I then create template rules saying that if job A finishes, start job B. I make this rule several times, but increment the A and B jobs (if job 1 completes start job 2, if job 2 completes start job 3, if job 3 completes start job 4). This part also makes sense.

The part I dont get is that job 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all meant to be different selection lists. You can only assign one selection list per policy so far as I know.. so the above policy  backs up the same folder 4 times rather then 4 folders one after the other.

Unless I am mistaken?

[pkh]

You are correct.  You can only have one selection list per policy.

[CraigV]

Basically...however, if you know how long your backups take, you could possibly create 4 separate selection lists, and stagger the jobs accordingly.

[Ken_Putnam · Accepted solution]

If you need to use different selection lists, uyou can fall back on the old wa of doing it  (before policies)

Create job for each step (you have already done this

Create BEMCMD job to execute the 2nd thru nth jobs

Set the BEMCMD job to run job 2 as  a POST job for job 1, etc

Not as neat as policies, but it does work

[Luke_Cassar]

Hi Ken,
This sounds promising.. I am currently trying to learn what BEMCMD is and how to use it :S

I have the manual somewhere so I'll have a dig through that and see what I can find.

I will post my results in here!

Cheers,

Luke

[Ken_Putnam]

the v11 BEMCMD guide is at

ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_for_WindowsNT/287388.pdf

v12.0 is at
 
ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_for_WindowsNT/297835.pdf

[Luke_Cassar]

Hi Ken,
Your idea worked out just fine.. but rather then launching the script post command, I just made all of the jobs run from a script and told BEMCMD to wait for one job to finish before beginning another.

Hooray!

Now I can just start the batch file and in 2 - 3 weeks the jobs will all be finished!

Thanks heaps for that!