NetBackup SQL policy help

[MBH71]

I have been struggling with SQL backups for some time now and I want to see if anyone has some advice or comments on how I have it set up. I am not suere if I am making it harder than I have to but I don't see any easy way to set it up other than what I have done. I currently have several sets of the same policies with several SQL servers in each policy. Here is how I have setup my SQL policies:

Policy1_weekly
Calender based Full backups run every Friday night except the 1st friday of the month
retention 90 days

Policy2_Monthly
Calender based Full backups run on the 1st friday of the month
retention 2 years

Policy3_Daily
Frequency based Differential backups that run Mon-Thursday
retention 1 month

Policy4_Yearly
Calender based to run end of fiscal year
retention 8 years

Policy5_logs
Frequency based log backups that run every hour during production hours (8-5)

Does this make sense? Is there an easier way?

[DavidParker]

Makes sense, Mike.
That's exactly how I used to do it at a previous company.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's really an easier way to get the same variety of schedules and retentions in fewer policies.

$0.02

[Taqadus_Rehman]

 if data selection, backup frequency, retention is same for each client in each policy then you can add multipel clients to a policy.

like :

Policy1_weekly
Calender based Full backups run every Friday night except the 1st friday of the month
Data path: d:\sql server data\db (all clients have data on same path)
clients:
sql1
sql2
sql3
retention 90 days

[Giroevolver · Accepted solution]

Above is the smallest amount of policies way but I do it a different way. I have a policy for each server and backup type IE...

Server 1 has a full policy, differential policy, transaction log policy and a file system policy.
Server 2 has the same.
Server 3 has the same etc etc

This may sound crazy but we have such a diverse environment where extra backups are asked for or backups are asked to be paused one night that its easier for us to do it this way. Otherwise I would continuously be creating new policies for all the extra jobs and servers that needed to be removed from a policy because the were asked to be stopped would get forgotten to be put back in!

As long as you label every policy with exactly what it does its easy to understand and may even be easier for someone to take over from in the future!

Netbackup is such a great product that you can do most things different ways but I dont think any way is "The right way"

Sorry to sound confusing I just thought i would give you another option that you might find easier.

Thanks

[MBH71]

I have been thinking of doing 1 server per policy as well. I have read several posts where people were talking about it and I think I agree even though some people think it is crazy....lol. I am only backing up ~140 servers so it wouldn't be all that bad for me and I already have like 60+ policies so it's not all that much more.

Thanks.

[Stumpr2]

NetBackup is versatile and usually offers many different ways to arrive at a perfectly sound solution. use whatever way you are most comfortable with doing.