rain3d Posted July 11, 2010 Report Share Posted July 11, 2010 I have searched the forums, but can't seem to find a good answer to my question. I have a tape drive that I am backing up to, or trying to. I have created one media set and added 5 tapes to the media set. I have the backup job set to run at 10pm every night Monday - Friday. I have the job to recycle media. The backup will not run at night, it is waiting for an OK to use the media in the drive. how do I set up a backup job correctly to just use the media in the drive? I do not care if it appends or just overwrites and reuses the tape, as they do not need to restore back for longer than a week. I just need a backup to run at night without waiting for the user to respond to a prompt. I am new to using Retrospect, I have been using Symantec Backup Exec. Perhaps I am trying to set this up with Symantec Backup Exec on the mind. I read the entire manual for Retrospect, so I must be missing something. thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniels Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Which tape is in the drive? If it is always set to recycle you should load the first tape of the media set. If you are doing incremental backups then you should insert the appropriate tape. It would also be helpful to know what type of tape drive you are using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rain3d Posted July 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 I have an LTO4 tape drive. It is a single tape drive, not a library with multiple tapes in the drive. I have 5 tapes, one for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. So on Monday, I want the backup to run on the Monday tape, Tuesday on Tuesday's tape, etc. For some reason, if they have Friday's tape in the drive on Wednesday, I still want the backup to run on the tape that is in the drive without waiting for a prompt. I guess what I want is for the backup to run without a prompt to whatever tape is in the drive when they backup is set to run. Thanks for your help.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Retrospect is trying to protect your data and will not write to the wrong tape. Think of the chaos that would occur if Retrospect were to write to random tapes - Restore would be a mess because the data would be all over the place (if it could be found). Get an autoloader. It will change your life. Really. It's the only way to do tape. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rain3d Posted July 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 this is a brand new tape drive, getting another tape drive is not an option. The tapes are taken offsite, so I do not need the software to protect the data for me. There should be an easy way, or at least any way, to have the backup run to the tape in the drive. Even if it will only let me backup on Monday to Monday's tape, Tuesday on Tuesday's tape, that is fine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 this is a brand new tape drive, getting another tape drive is not an option. Not our fault that the right equipment wasn't bought. Your statement is like saying that a PlayStation 3 was bought for the backups, and then complaining that there's not a way to use a PlayStation 3 to do what you want. Whoever specified buying a tape drive without an autoloader made a mistake. It's that simple. You have several choices: (1) buy a tape drive with an autoloader. If you can't return the existing tape drive, then sell it on eBay. (2) put the correct tape in the tape drive each day. (3) have Retrospect erase (recycle) whatever tape is in the drive, and then use that tape. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rain3d Posted July 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 The problem that I am having is when I put in Monday's tape on Monday, it still prompts me if it is OK to use the tape in the drive. I would love to do either option 2 or otpion 3, but that is what I am having trouble with. I have the backup job set to recycle the media in the drive, but it still prompts me. How do you set up option 2? Do I have to create multiple media sets and multiple backup jobs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniels Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 You would set up a script with multiple schedules and five backup sets. Something along these lines: Monday use Monday's set repeat every week. Tuesday use Tuesday's set repeat every week. Wednesday use Wednesday's set repeat every week. Thursday use Thursday's set repeat every week. Friday use Friday's set repeat every week. To do this you need to make each tape its own backup set instead of members of one overall backup set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Adopting a different approach, you might be able to use Proactive Backup to do what you want, rather than using a scripted backup. See the manual. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rain3d Posted July 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Thank you Daniels, that is what I was think that I would have to do. I am going onsite tomorrow to set it up that way and will post back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Thank you Daniels, that is what I was think that I would have to do. I am going onsite tomorrow to set it up that way and will post back. That still won't solve the following part of your problem: For some reason, if they have Friday's tape in the drive on Wednesday, I still want the backup to run on the tape that is in the drive without waiting for a prompt. I guess what I want is for the backup to run without a prompt to whatever tape is in the drive when they backup is set to run. Again, I suggest you check out Proactive Backup as a possible solution to your problem. See especially page 214 of the manual for a comparison with scripted backups: Retrospect 8 for Macintosh Users Guide Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniels Posted July 13, 2010 Report Share Posted July 13, 2010 The problem with having Retrospect using the currently loaded tape in a scripted environment is that you will lose the previous information on the tape since it will erase the tape each night. If you are okay with switching tapes daily then the scripted approach is the best way to go otherwise you should go with the Proactive Backup approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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