Creating a 5 Week (of Daily's) rotation Retrospect 10

[cadelman]

I would like to create a script that will do the following:

- Daily backup, Monday thru Thursday to one set of tapes.

- Create 5 tape sets; Week1, Week2, Week3, Week4, and Week5.

- Once Week 5 is complete, Week1's tapes would recycle to the next 5 week cycle

 

I watched the 5 day rotation script video by Retrospect on YouTube but I'm not sure that it is quite what I am looking for. Can anyone help me with this?

[Daniels]

You could did it all in one script however it might be simple and less confusing to do it in five scripts one for each week.  The schedule for the scripts would look something like this assuming you want to do the recycle backup on Monday:

 

"Recycle" backup every 5 weeks on Monday

"No Media Action" backup every 5 weeks on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

[cadelman]

Is there a script already made somewhere that I could see how this is setup?

[Daniels]

The major problem with providing you with an actual script is that they are stored in config file which includes all settings as well as registration info.  The UI is pretty straight forward for creating scripts.

[cadelman]

Unfortunately the UI is not straight forward enough as I learned this last summer when I tried to restore one folder from backup and ended up deleting everything on the drive. So to me this software has a long way to go. It may be a good idea for them to do some sort of wizard front end with traditional tape library backups in templates for daily, weekly, and monthly rotations.

[Daniels]

Once you do one script the rest will be pretty easy.  Unless they have significantly changed the interface since 8.2 I will walk you through how to create a script.

1.  Go to the script window and click the plus button to add a new script.

2.  Give it a name and choose it as a backup script.

3.  The new script should appear in the right-hand window with a red circle with an "x".

4.  Click on this script to start editing it.

5.  Click on the "Sources" tab and select the computers you want to backup.

6.  Once done with sources click on the "Media Sets" tab and select "Week1" for the media set.

7.  Click on the "Rules" tab if you need to change what you want backed up.

8.  Click on the "Schedule" tab and click the plus button in the middle section.

9.  On the right side of the lowest section of the window select "Recycle" from the menu.

10.  Set a start time and date for Week1's recycle backup which should happen on Mondays.

11.  In the box that says repeat every 1 weeks change the 1 to a 5 and press tab.

12.  Uncheck all days except Monday on bar next to the repeat box and you should see in the middle section something that describes the schedule you just created.

13.  Remaining on the "Schedule" click the plus button again to create new schedule for your normal backup.

14.  For this one you will want "No Media Action" every 5 weeks and only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday checked for the days of the week.

15.  Once both schedules are done click the "Summary" tab and you should see everything listed in the appropriate boxes.

16.  Repeat these steps for Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5.

 

Hope these instructions help.

[cadelman]

Daniels, Thank you very much for the step by step instructions. I followed them and now have the rotation I have wanted since day one. Hopefully I can save some tapes as well.

[cadelman]

Daniels,

 Is there a way to alter the script to only backup what has changed since the previous Weekly backup?

Example:

Weekly/Monthly backups runs Friday night and backup everything on the drive.

I would like the Daily to only backup Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday what has changed since the Weekly/Monthly completed. Right now it does a complete backup on Friday and Tuesday and then the changes on Wednesday & Thursday. So i'm still using more tapes than I would like.

 

Thanks.

[Daniels]

You could try setting up a rule to include only files whose backup date is earlier than the date modified.  I have never tried this so I am not sure if it will work or how it applies when using multiple media sets.  You would then set this rule as the rule for each of your scripts.