Will Backup Exec always fill the backup media completely before overwriting?

[BadWednesday]

I believe I have our client's Backup Exec configured properly to overwrite backups outside of our retention policy. My question is if it's possible to overwrite first if possible, then occupy new space second, or if there is a command I can run to erase all the media that is marked for overwrite.

We're running several backup to disk jobs to different B2D folders on a SAN. The issue we're running into is that the smaller jobs will keep using new space instead of overwriting, so that we end up with 3 weeks worth of backups for these jobs that are marked for overwrite. Meanwhile, the larger jobs can't run because there is no more space.

If this is a dumb way to set this up please let me know what the better way is to backup multiple servers to a single file storage area so that they can overwrite each other properly and not run out of space and break.

[Larry_Fine]

With old versions of BE like you appear to be using, the disk backups were managed the same way as tape, which isn't a good method.  You need to configure a number of settings to get the overwrite and append processes to work properly with your intentions.  Some of this is in the media set setting, some are job properties.  Similar to managing a tape library that you never change the tapes in.  If you don't get your settings correct, the device will fill up when you want it to overwrite.

I would suggest studying all the overwrite and append options and documentation as it is possible to do what you desire, but it isn't always easy.

If you can upgrade to BE 15, the disk backup set management is MUCH easier as you only set a simple retention time and BE does the rest.

[Colin_Weaver]

The Admin guide has a section in it on how Backup Exec chooses overwriteable media which I suggest you read as it contaisn a table summarizining the order used based on different options set.

BTW even though we allowed it in older BE versions such as the one you appear to be using, appending to disk based media is bad practice.