Total noob question here. We are moving from Netware 5.1 with ArcServeIT 6.6 to Windows Server 2003 R2 with Backup Exec (thank you Jesus). So far, it has been a quantum leap in terms of reliability and usability. However, one very basic procedural item eludes me. When I come in in the morning, which tape do I stick in the tape drive (single tape LTO3 drive)?
I've setup a GFS backup scheme (Son at 2:30 a.m. Tues - Friday, Father at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Grandfather at 2:30 a.m. last Saturday of every month). Daily, Weekly, and Monthly media sets have append times of 1 hour ( I don't want data appended to any tape) and Overwrite protection periods of 6 days, 5 weeks, and 4 years (SFG).
Very similar to our old ArcServeIT setup. Every day, the old ArcServeIT report tells me, "Put in tape serial number 1153-6298-12 for the next backup". This is a tape in the appropriate media set whose overwrite period has expired.
I cannot find, in any report produced by Backup Exec, an analogous piece of data. I have specified that it should use recycled tapes in the appropriate media set first, then tapes in the scratch set, then recycled media. Backups complete just fine, but in the volume of data in the backup report, not one line says, "Use this (or one of these) tape/tapes in the next backup".
Do I really have to fire up this application every day, examine the media sets, figure out whether the next backup is daily, weekly, or monthly, look for a blue colored media label (indicating it is recycled, or past its OPP), procure blank media if no appropriate recycled media is available, and then load that into the drive? Not to whine, but that is WAY more time consuming than ArcServeIT ever was. Plus, there are a slew of reports with essentially useless data for me, but not one that produces two lines. 1. Success or failure of last backup. 2. Tape to put in the drive or next backup.
I feel like I am missing something crucial, as this really shouldn't be hard. Probably just too stuck in the old ArcServeIT world to see the obvious. Any help would be appreciated.