change tapes on backup exec

[juliano1kl]

Hello
He have a library with 8 tapes, but we only want to use 2. We want to do in one tape a full backup and until the and of the month incremental backups on the same tape. In the other month change the tape and do a full backup and incremental backups until the end of the month on the same tape, and so on. Is it possible?  to select only 2 specific tapes and rotate they every month?

If so, how can we do that?

[Colin_Weaver]

Yes you can do it, however with this strategy have you considered what would happen if your full and incremental backups combined fill a tape within 1 month?

[juliano1kl]

yes, its capable, our full backup is about 200 gb and incremental not more then 4 gb a day. Could you give me a hint about how to do it? Im new in backup exec and Im little lost!

Thanks.

[Colin_Weaver]

Create a media set  with append period long enough to cover how many days from the full you still intend your incrementals to write to the same tape and an Overwrite period covering how long you then want to keep that tape for (from the end of the last incremental) before you want it to be overwritten.

Create a selection list for what you want to backup

Create backup policy and in this policy create a template for the full backup, specifying any required settings but starting the job as an overwrite and using the media set  you created earlier. Specify a schedule for when you wnat the full to run. Create a second template for your incremental settings, making sure that this template starts as an append and uses the same media set. Specify a suitable schedule in this template for your incrementals.

When complete use this policy along with the selection list to create your jobs.

And make sure that the first time you use each tape it is in the scratch set when the full job starts as the job will then move it to the correct media set. Once the tapes are in use you should not have to move them back to scratch if yoru overwrite and append settings are correct.

Also As you have a library you could also partition the library into a known slot and then target both templates to the partition to force it to use a specific tape  and not the tapes in other slots.

[juliano1kl]

Thank you, I think I got it.

Just to make it clear, I want to backup 30 days (one full the others incremental) and keep it for 30 days after the last incremental backup, so i have to set the overwrite protection period 60 days and the append period 30 days. Is it right ?

[pkh]

No.  The OPP should be set to 30 days because the OPP is calculated from the end of the last backup job that writes to the tape..  If you set the OPP to 60 days, then you would not be able to re-use it for 60 days after the end of the last job that writes to the tape.

[juliano1kl]

OPP 30 days and Append Period 30 days also ??

[pkh]

Yes.  AP is calculated from the time when the tape is first overwritten and will not change.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Since you have 8 slots in your library, you should have some overwriteable tapes in your other slots in case they are needed.

[juliano1kl]

ok, thank you all guys!