Symantec Backup Exec 2012 - media rotation question

[jonnob]

Hi,

  I recently purchased Symantec Backup Exec 2012 and would like to replicate our old NTbackup system (defined by our policies).

We currently have a media rotation system whereby we have 4 tapes that cycle through on a schedule:

Week 1 Sunday = Full 1

Week 1 Monday to Friday = Incremental 1

Week 2 Sunday = Full 2

Week 2 Monday to Friday = Incremental 2

 Once they are full the tape is archived in a FIRESAFE and a new tape is created.

I am just wondering if someone can advise me on the best way to approach this media rotation, using USB HDDs. So far I have created a storage pool and assigned 4 different tasks to each of the USB HDDs. However, it doesn't seem obvious how I can specify the USB HDD to restore from in the event I need to restore back to an earlier date. Plus Symantec keeps complaining when the USB HDDs are disconnected (only 1 is connected at any given time and full USB HDDs will be archived in a FIRESAFE).

Cheers.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

See my article below on how to rotate your disks.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-rotate-external-harddisks-be-2012

When you do a restore, all you need to to is to pick a restore point and BE will find all the necessary backup sets to restore to that point.

[jonnob]

Hi, Thanks for that. My only problem is that over time I could have many backup HDDs (roughly using 10 per year), and over a 4 year period it would become difficult to determine which backup HDD contains the restore points. When I used NTBackup all of the backups appeared within the specified tape drive (labeled) so I could easily open the latest one (or earlier if required) and restore in that manner. I could start a register to record the dates assigned to each HDD (start and end) but it just seems like extra work that didn't used to be required. cheers.

[jonnob]

Hmm, just had a look on the server. I see 'backup sets' for each USB HDD. I guess this would provide the option to see the backups (including dates) for that HDD? Just a shame I cannot go there, right click one of the dates, then select files to restore from that date. Cheers.

[pkh]

You got to take note of the backup set that you want to restore and then specify that when you create your restore job.