Unwanted data duplication

[void269]

I recently setup BE 2012 R3 for the first time.  I setup my Backup Selection Lists and created Backup Policies and I am having an issue with my Full backup jobs that were created where the data that is being backed up is being duplicated to different tapes.

The Backup Selection Lists are a mix of shared folders off a NAS and a couple workstations using the Remote Agent.

The policies consist of a backup template and Export Template with the below settings...

    Backup Template

      Device: All Devices

      Media set: Keep data for 4 Weeks

      Eject Media after job completes: Box Checked

      Backup method: Full using archive bit

      Verify after backup completes: Box Unchecked

      Compression Type: Hardware if available, otherwise software

      Run according to schedule: Every 1st Friday

   Export Template

      Highlight to select the job template that is source...: Backup_Job_01

      Upon successful export move media the media vault: Offline

When the backup runs it seems to work fine.  The backup completes and tapes are moved to the Mailbox\I/O door on my library.  But when i look at the reports of the backup jobs the tapes that are listed as being used are not the ones that were exported.  For example, if Backup_Job_01 shows as used just tape 1001, tape 1002 will be in the library door.  I checked both tapes and both have the same data.  I also checked the time stamp on the tapes and tape 1002 was backed up to first.  Then on 1001 the time stamp will be after the first tape finished backup.  So what it seems to me is, it started backing up to 1002, completed, exported it, then started re-backing up to tape 1001.  I did not setup any kind of data duplication and most of the settings are still default.  Can anyone help explain why this is happening and what i can do to prevent it?

[pkh]

It is probably because your job uses both tape 1001 and 1002 and you have only one mailslot.  After the first tape is exported and not removed, the next export is unable to move tape 1002 to the mailslot.

If your job exceeds the capacity of one tape then it will use another tape.  This is to be expected.  If the amount of data backed up is less than the capacity of one tape, check that the job is overwriting the tapes and is not appending to it.

BTW, for tape jobs, you should target the tape library and not All Devices.  If it is the latter, your data can end up in a B2D folder.

[void269]

The job only displays just the one tape, not both.  Also, I have 6 Mailslots so there are plenty free.  The total amount of data in the one job is 60Gb (I'm using LTO1's) but should have more than enough space to fit it all on one tape.  As for whether it is appending or over writing existing data on the tape...the tapes are all empty so there should be anything to append to.  Good to know about setting the library rather than 'All Devices', I will do that going forward.

Please let me know if you have any more ideas...

[pkh]

Try the following

1) Change your backup job property to Overwrite

2) re-create your backup and export jobs.

[void269]

Interesting...

While I was posting this issue I did a quick erase of all the tapes and reran the set of Full backups.  The only change I made was set all the policies to use the library rather then 'All Devices'.  This time the correct tapes were listed in the backup report and exported.  Also, there were no duplicated tapes.  At this point I'm going to run the nest set of Full backups and see how it goes.  If no issues are encountered I will mark the issue as resolved.

[gilbert08]

re-create your backup and export jobs if ok replace the tape as well

[pkh]

I have said this yesterday.