setting up backup in BackupExec 10.0 first time end user..help

[joel_plum]

Hello,

I recently purchased Backupexec 10.0 for Windows Server 2003. I basically want to setup BackupExec to backup my data every Wednesday and Friday. When the tape is full I would like it to eject so that I can use a fresh tape. When the 2nd tape is full I would like to return back and use the 1st..etc..I only have 3 tapes to rotate.

I would like to know if I set this up correctly. I setup the media set as follows: Overwrite protection period = None
Append Period = 1 Hours

Questions: Will backupexec eject the tape once its full ...i'm afraid that it will continue to overwrite the tape. Please let me know if I have to make configuration changes to get it to do what I want.

thank you

[uz]

This will NOT work.

as your append period is set to 1 hour, 1 hour after the first backup started, no more sets can be appended ! As you have set overwrite protection to none (0 hours) the second backup will simply overwrite the tape.

What you are trying to do is not possible with BE, as all the three tapes will get the overwrite protection you set within the media set.

You could allow appending for lets say three weeks and set the overwrite protection to 2 days. so any tape written could be overwritten by the next friday or wednesday backup - otherwise when the third tape is full and the system asks for the next tape, it will not be able to use the first tape, as it belongs to the same tape family.

The BEST thing you can do and should do is buy some more tapes !!! 3 Tapes is far not enough !!!!!!

Second you can learn about the overwrite/append period handling by looking at the following TID:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265

Regards

Uz

[Amruta_Purandar]

Hello,

Backup Exec will not eject the tape once its full but it will eject it after the backup job, if so configured.

However to configure you overwrite protection period and append period refer the following technotes.

Title:
An explanation of the "Overwrite Protection Period" and the "Append Period"
http://support.veritas.com/docs/237374

Title:
The basics of Advanced Device and Media Management for VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) for Windows Servers
http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265

Also some media rotation strategies are given in the Admin manual. Please refer them.

You may download the admin manual from the following link.
VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) 10.0 for Windows Servers Administrator's Guide (English)
http://support.veritas.com/docs/269777

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

[joel_plum]

Alright we bought a total of 7 tapes now. A bit of a schedule change in our backup. We want to be able to do full backups Monday through Sunday so I set the schedule for that.

Now my question is what would be the best way to set it up so that when the tape is full it will eject the current tape out and request for another tape...I want to do this till I run out of tapes, then return back to Tape 1 which should allow me to overwrite it.

I read the articles provided, just didn't get overwrite protection vs append here. PLEASE help me configure this correctly and will attempt trial and error after. thank you for your time and effort.

[uz]

ok - once more in short term:

append period (AP) is set ONCE at the first start of an overwrite job. In your case when the first backup starts. It will not be extendet at any later state, until the tape gets overwritten again.
AP is the time where it is allowed to append another backup to a tape that already holds another backup set.

Overwrite protection (OP) is set EVERY time a backup finishes !! That means it is reset in total after every backup you do.

Example: AP = 1 day OP = 2 day
If you backup on monday, the system protects the tape to be overwritten for two days (until wednesday)
The next day you do an append job to append after mondays backup, which is still allowed by the one das AP.
The backup appends to the tape and when finished, resets the OP to 2 days. (until thursday)

And this is the problem in your case. If the first tape is full, the system will request a second tape to append, leading in the OP set to 2 days for both tapes.
If you would span the backup over all your tapes (by always append) the OP would never end, until the last tape is full, what would protect all the other tapes.

You got to split the tapes in two sets.

Use one set for about a week - than change to she next set for a week change again and so on.

This way you could set AP to 1 week and OP to 6 days.

If three tapes will not be enough for one week - you got to buy more tapes.

Or just take the easy one if you can verify that one backup
(daily full) fits on one tape:

7 tapes = 7 days. use a backup job that runs every day mo- so / 1 week OP no AP (0 hours) every day overwrite.

This way you got to change tapes every day what gives you the add. advantage of being able to store the last days backups off site - or at least outside the streamer.

Hope this helps

regards

uz

[joel_plum]

The issue is the end user simply wants daily backups to happen without having to swap tapes on a daily basis. From what I'm gathering from you is I can't just put in a single tape let that run till full, then put in the next tape??? this is not something that can be set?? if thats the case then BE 10.0 isn't for them.

[uz]

thats it - a the tape will never get full... because if the AP still allows an append, the system will request the next tape. And this tape can not be the first tape of the set !

Besides, if the tape gets full tonight and noone is there to insert the second tape, than the backup runs tomorrow morning, if someone inserts the second tape....

What is the estimated backup volume there ? If the backup does not fit on one tape they will have to change tapes daily anyway.... If two or more days fit on the tape, they will have to check the BE GUI daily to find out whether to input a second tape or not.

The way you describe they need - won't work with BE.
(or buy a robotic library or a sufficient disc space for backup to disk... :) )
regards

uz

[joel_plum]

thanks for your input. Basically the data is 3gb. All I need it to do is backup daily monday thru sunday at 11pm. my tapes are 80/160 exabyte. Eventually what I believe will happen is as it nears the END of the first tape it will need to append one half of data on the first tape and the second half on Tape#2. If I can get it to do that that will be fine. I don't want the end user to interact with B.E. , I just want the first tape to eject and then the end user will know to insert Tape#2 and #3 and #4..so on. I can't believe this can't be done.

Lets say for example I do want it to append to the next tape till tape 7 is reached which will then want Tape#1 to be reinserted..can this be done..if so then this will do the trick for now. what settings would be required then?

[Alex_Ackley]

Normally, when BackupExec runs out of room on a tape, it will generate an alert. Version 10 even allows response to the alert right from the Job Monitor.

The alert will state something like Please Insert Overwritable Media. It will have ejected the old tape at thsi time also.

If the end-user is comfortable relying on a single tape for multiple days (it's highly not recommended), then they will have to keep track of this. You can set the server to email the end user with alerts. That way they know when the tape is full and it's time to change.

I can't stress enough that this is very poor design and just asking for trouble but if that's what they want to do, it will work.

Set append to be infinite (unless you know how many days it will be between changes) and overwrite to 1 to 2 weeks depending on how long your rotation will be.

Then configure email settings and set alerts to be sent to the user.

[joel_plum]

thank you. Well what I've done is setup the Media Set 1 to ask follows

Overwrite protection = none
Append Period = 5 weeks

however in the little description box below the media set it shows this:

Name: Media Set 1
Creation Date: 6/9/2005 7:17:46 PM
Overwrite Protection Period: 5 Weeks
Appendable Period: 5 Weeks

seems strange since media set properties show overwrite protection = none and in the media set description overwrite protection period = 5 weeks.

As of right now, I'm able to backup and retain all previous days backups, my question is after this tape is full it should hopefully eject and allow the end user to insert Tape#2 and then 3 ..4..5..6..7..once Tape#7 is full...the end user once again returns to Tape#1 ...I hope its setup now to doing what they want.

[Amruta_Purandar]

Hello,

Thank you for the update. We hope that the tapes are now functioning as intended.

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.