Utter newbie has questions

[Kevin_Sio]

I muddling my way thru video archiving using BE 12.5 and a Quantum LTO-4.  If you have a few minutes and some patience, I have some basic questions:  What happens when my LTO cart becomes full?  Will it ask for a new cart?  Does the software know which cart (or carts) has my material on it?  Will it number them in sequence?  See, simple questions, but not easy to find the answers.  Now what about that master file of all back up activity?  Should that be backed up regularly?  What happens if my C drive dies?

I like the speed of the system, having used a much older version of a LTO back up years ago, this is so much faster.

I'm sure I will have more questions, but that's it for now.  Many thanks for your help!

Kevin

[Kiran_Bandi]

Whenever a media become full BE will prompt you to insert new overwritable/appendable media.

After a job has been processed, the job’s results are stored in a job history database.

A record of the data that was backed up is kept in Backup Exec’s catalog.

Media used in Backup Exec is identified by its media label. When new, blank, or

unlabeled media is used during a backup operation, Backup Exec automatically

labels the media.

Another type of media label used by Backup Exec is the media ID, which is a unique

label assigned by Backup Exec to individual media used in Backup Exec. The media

ID is used internally by Backup Exec in order to keep statistics on each media.

Catalog backups are recommended at least monthly, but backing up the catalog more frequently provides additional security if the catalog becomes corrupted.

If your backup server crashes, you can use this catalog backups for making your backup server up....

[RahulG]

What happens when my LTO cart becomes full?  

When the Lto cart become full it will look for an overwritable tape or a new tape in your robotic library .backup exec select the recyclable medai  and scratch media based on the settings you have under tools --Option . Incase if it does not find any tape in your library it will prompt you to insert an overwritable tape .

Will it ask for a new cart?  If it does not find any overwritable cart it will promt you to insert a new tape .

Does the software know which cart (or carts) has my material on it?  Will it number them in sequence?  When you put any cart in your library the first thing you do is run Inventory on the Cart .. So once the inventory ,the tape will get recognized and get register with the database and get an automatic label assigned to it . (the media label setting --tools-option --media managment)

what about that master file of all back up activity?  Should that be backed up regularly? I guess when you say master file you must refferring to the backup exec database which hold all the information about the all the configuration and the information . Backup exec perform its own maintainance and it backups its own database .so when you just backup the program files\symantec\backup exec directory the bak file gets backed up .You shoudl ahve a backup of the catalog and the data folder as if you have this two folder backed up you can recover all the backup jobs and configuration for you backup exec

 What happens if my C drive dies? Incase if you C drive Dies you can perform the restore and get it up. Incase if you have backup exec installed on the C drive then you need to install the OS , Install backup exec oon a seprate drive , perform the restore of the C drive and then delete the backup exec directories from the other drive after the restore

refer the following document http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH10797

[Kevin_Sio]

OK, thanks for the great information.  I will read over and post again if I have more questions.  I think that this software is way overkill for my needs...I am simply archiving video media to get them off line and into safer storage than spinning disks.  But it was free and so far working OK.  Again, thanks.  Kevin