problem with incremental Backups

[AdVertum]

Hello,

we got a problem with our incremental Backups. We created two media sets. One for weekly full backups and one for the other days incremental. On saturday each week we create full backups of our data. on monday night the first incremental backup is scheduled. Now we are facing the following behaviour. The first incremental backup seems to be a full backup. The folders and files seem to have the same amount and the data is approximately the same as from the full backup two days ago. The following incremental backup the next night works fine. The amount of data is much less. We are backing up first to disk and then copy to tape. The incremental job is based on change bit. I hope somebody has an idea what is going wrong in our case.

Markus

[pkh]

Between the full backup and the Monday incremental, is the server scanned by an anti-virus software?  If it is, this may reset the archive bit.

See my blog

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/incremental-backups-become-full-backups

although I am using modified time, a similar mechanism may cause the archive bit to be reset

[AdVertum]

Well,

you are completely right. There is an antivirus scan in progress between these two backups. I will try that and write my results back next week. Thank you very much so far.

[pkh]

After the anti-virus scan, check whether the archive bit has been reset.  If it is, then you have your cause.  In fact, you should be able to scan a small direction and see whether the archive bits are reset.  If this is so, then you can contact your anti-virus vendor to see whether there is a solution to your problem.

Another way to verify that the anti-virus scan is the culprit is to turn off the scan for this weekend and see whether your Monday incremental becomes full.

[AdVertum]

I changed the day for the scanning procedure. So it should work the next week. We are using Endpoint Protection as antivirus. I tried to scan some files without the archiv bit set but endpoint protection seems not to set the archiv bit again...

[tech29]

Hi There,

I just want to make sure that you are talking about windows clients here and not about

UNI X, if you need to backup UNIX clients then you should use Modified time option and not arhive bit.

Regards,

Tech29

[AdVertum]

Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 Server. No UNIX clients. Thank you for your statement.

[pkh]

You can contact Symantec Tech Support and ask them whether the document in my blog also applies to archive bits or is there a similar document for archive bits.  The document only talk about modified time. I have tested the registry modification and it works, at least for modified time.