Need to Recycle media in Server script!

[derrickfogle]

So Server scripts can't recycle backups. I absolutely must recycle backups, and I'd really like the keep the functionality of the backup server. Is there any chance this might be added? Why isn't it there to begin with?

 

 

 

If anyone has a decent solution, I'd sure like to hear it. I run a 2-week cycle on backups to large HD's, plus writing to a daily backup to a 3rd HD, and once a week I copy the latest daily ones off to DVD's for permanent offsite storage. I've now got well over 30 units backing up and 11 storage sets for each one. It's totally unreasonable for me to go to each storage set and manually set the media control every so often. Using timed scripts to reset them means I run into the same problem I've always had with portables - lots of missed backups.

 

 

 

I can go back to timed scripts, but that loses the functionality of Server scripts. That makes me unhappy because it means I paid a lot of money for 4 more clients but no new functionality.

 

 

 

Please, whatever posessed Dantz to disable the option to recycle a backup set with Server scripts, rethink that and put it back in. It's exactly the functionality I need.

[CallMeDave]

>>Please, whatever posessed Dantz to disable the option to recycle a backup set with Server scripts, rethink that and put it back in<<

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think that it was ever in; I don't see it in 4.3 Backup Server scripts.

 

 

 

As I think about it, how would you do it? Since scripts are always active, how would you tell the script to do the recycle at a certain time?

 

 

 

Can't you just make a new script, with a random small source, but with all the backup sets in it. Then make one repeating interval recycle schedule for each backup set. Set them to occur in the middle of the night, and set your Backup Server's schedule to not run during that short time.

 

 

 

When this other script runs, it will recycle the backup sets; once it's done, the Backup Server script will kick in again and it will continue to the now-empty Backup Sets.

 

 

 

Am I missing something? (perhaps I should have tried this before posting it... nah!)

 

 

 

Dave

[derrickfogle]

Dave said:

 

 

 

>>> Can't you just make a new script, with a random small source, but with all the backup sets in it. Then make one repeating interval recycle schedule for each backup set. Set them to occur in the middle of the night, and set your Backup Server's schedule to not run during that short time.

 

 

 

Because it has the same limitation that timed scripts have: it fails miserably with the 8 laptops we've got in our organization.

 

 

 

I don't see the problem with putting it in there. No activity takes place until it actually sees the need to do a backup, then it resets the storage set. What's so hard about that?

 

 

 

I have all the bandwidth I need to do full backups every day

 

I have all the time I need to do full backups every day

 

I do *not* have an unlimited amount of storage for all my backups

 

 

 

That's why I want to recycle the storage set every time.

[CallMeDave]

Derrick,

 

 

 

I certainly never doubted your _desire_ to do full backups every day, especially given the bandwidth you have.

 

 

 

But, not everyone does.

 

 

 

Most people want Retorspect to do normal (incremental) backups. For those people, a Backup Server that recycles the catalog every session would be a real time waster.

 

 

 

Perhaps a Backup Server option to recycle every session might be a good Feature Request; I believe that there is a topic on this BBS for that very thing.

 

 

 

But I think you missed the point of my suggestion. For a secondary script to reset the catalog there is no need for any of your usual sources to be online; the script would use a small defined volume as the source, but the destination would be all of your File Type backup sets. Configure each of the schedule actions you make (one for each backup set) using the pop-up menus to copy this small data source as a recycle session. Once your PowerBooks come back to the office, they'll get backed up to newly emptied sets (although for the life of me I can't understand why you'd want to do recycle backups of networked PowerBooks every day, copying the same data over and over and over and...) If this trick works (which I think it would but I still haven't tested it) this secondary script could easily be configured to only reset the catalogs when it makes sense to do so; every day for you, every week for others, etc.

 

 

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

[derrickfogle]

Dave wrote

 

 

 

>>> Can't you just make a new script, with a random small source, but with all the backup sets in it. Then make one repeating interval recycle schedule for each backup set. Set them to occur in the middle of the night, and set your Backup Server's schedule to not run during that short time.

 

 

 

OK, I did misunderstand what you meant.

 

 

 

Again, the reason I want to do recycle backups is because the time and bandwidth available *far* exceeds the storage space. Of course hard drives are cheap, but time and bandwidth are already fixed costs and I don't have to pay more for them. I do have to pay for more storage space, and spend the time moving the stuff around and telling Retrospect where I moved things to and if if happens to crash while I'm doing that I have to do it all over again, etc.

 

 

 

My real problem is that I'm pushing the envelope for the Backup Server feature, which is new to me. Unfortunately, it takes no real force to blow past the functionality of the Server feature; at this point I'm wondering whether I can use it at all.

 

 

 

I'll change strategy slightly: the typical 2-week rotation for all the servers and fixed workstations, and a single incremental backup for the laptops. If I don't keep a 2-week rotation for them, I'll have enough space to leave incrementals running for quite some time before I have to reset. And your reset script should work for that.

[tport]

Hi Derrick,

 

 

 

On a slightly unrelated note, I have a small question you might be able to answer for me.

 

You say you use HardDisks as backup media, what kind? external firewire? Removeable SCSI drives?

 

The reason I ask is that in the past I have used FW HDs with Retrospect 4.3 and was able to get the app to see each HD as a piece of removable media (kinda like a tape) and span a backup set accross several drives if one was filled. When using the Retrospect SP Preview it no longer saw the drives as removable media and I had to backup to file which was fine right up until the point it runs out of disk space and needs a new drive - it doesnt ask for one, just reports an error.

 

 

 

Can you successfully span backups fron the same set accross multiple drives?

 

 

 

TIA

 

 

 

Toby

[CallMeDave]

Toby,

 

 

 

 

 

The only reason you were able to see FireWire drives as removables in 4.3 under Mac OS 9 was because some driver software used by some FireWire vendors set the "removable" bit on their drives. OS 9 passed this information on to Retrospect, which handled the drive as if it were, indeed, removable (which it was not).

 

 

 

Mac OS X does not respect this bit if it was set by an OS 9 formatter, and using the DiskUtility software correctly will format FireWire drives as the fixed platter mechanisms that they are.

 

 

 

Retrospect 4.3 was released long before FW drives were available; if Retrospect 5.0 running under Mac OS 9 no longer sees these drives in an incorrect way (I don't know if it does), then that is a feature not a bug.

 

 

 

Dave