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Give me the option to erase tape at the outset


CAOgdin

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There is a fundamental difference between my strategy and Retrospect: I want to "recycle" tapes (that is, make a 100% backup), and I want to keep the catalogs (which "recycle" prohibits). To solve that problem, give me the simple option to enable an Erase on the medium at the beginning of a "Normal" backup (which DOES create a new catalog and keep old ones).

 

 

 

Background:

 

I make a 100% Full backup every Sunday on my server. The only way I can do that is to change the TRAVAN tape during the week, and schedule a Recycle backup. BUT, recycle always deletes the like-named catalog from the previous week. So, if I have to Restore from an older backup, I have to spend an hour or more rebuilding the catalog. In addition, I find that sometimes a tape I've inserted has the wrong name, or wrong format, and it must be erased...so Retrospect doesn't do the backup, but it "stalls" waiting for me to manually fix the problem.

 

 

 

Proposed solution:

 

Give me an option to "Always erase medium" at the outset of a "Normal" backup (with no matching). That way, I can be sure the tape has been retensioned, erased, and positioned at the beginning of the tape, that I get a 100% backup, and that I can keep the catalog(s) as long as I want.

 

 

 

Workaround:

 

I've written a VBScript for Windows that keeps a structured history of old catalogs by moving them to a uniquely-named (using the date of the catalog) subdirectory of where the catalogs are stored, then launching Retrospect using a Run document.

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  • 2 weeks later...

To help us better understand your request, some clarification is required. It sounds like you might be trying use a media rotation schedule that would be necessary with other backup software, but isn't with Retrospect.

 

 

 

Retrospect's catalogs are each mated to a backup set. If you erase a tape belonging to a backup set, then that set's catalog no longer accurately reflects the state of the backup set.

 

 

 

Can you describe your media usage in more detail?

 

 

 

Thanks!

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It sounds like a New Media Backup would suit your purposes. It creates a brand new catalog and expects a new, erased tape for the backup. It's designed to allow you to take backup tapes off-site and rotate in new tapes. Just schedule a New Media Backup on your script instead of a Recycle.

 

 

 

Irena Solomon

 

Dantz Tech Support

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  • 1 month later...

I agree with CAOgdin, but I think the flexability should be with the recycle backups. Here is my situation:

 

 

 

I rotate between weekly backup sets. All the backup sets have 5 members, one for each day of the week. On Mondays I schedule a recycle backup to the first member in the set. Normal backups are scheduled to run Tuesday - Friday. This rotation works without any user intervention other than to swap out tapes every morning - but only if the tapes are erased to begin with. Once a tape becomes a member of a set, the next time a normal backup is run to that member (following the Monday recycle backup) it can not be written to unless it is first manually erased.

 

 

 

It would be nice to have a "Recycle Member" backup so that a single member of a backup could be overwritten, still keep the same member name, and function as a Normal backup to the set.

 

 

 

A disadvantage with the current recycle backup is that all the catalogs and snapshots from all the members are wiped out. If you have only one multi-member backup set, everytime you perform a recycle backup you lose the ability to easily retrieve data from the other members in the set. A recycle backup should at least remember the other members of the set.

 

 

 

If there was a "Recycle Set" backup, it would request the first member of the set, perform what is now a recyle backup (as if there were no other members in the set,) still keep the same member name, and remember the catalogs of the other members of the set. Any additional backups to the set could use the "Recycle Member" backup, or the Normal backup if you wanted to append to a member. If you really wanted to wipe out all the members of the set, you could manually "Forget" the set and proceed with "Recycle Set" and "Recycle Member" backups. Performing a Normal backup to a "Forgotten" media would still require a manual erase.

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In response to Kraigyb, The setup you are using we do not recommend.

 

You have 5 members per backupset, one for each day of the week. From what I gather, you are doing a recycle backup on Monday and then normals Tues-Fri. The problem with this is, lets say you ruin your Monday tape. That means you only have the incremental backup left on your other tapes. Incremental plus backups are only "new or changed files". This means that these tapes only have new or changed files on them. (Not the entire system). So if you lose your Monday tape, then you do not have a complete restore.

 

 

 

What I recommend for people who want to backup to a new tape every day, is to have a backupset for every day. i.e. Monday Set, Tuesday Set, Wednesday set, etc. This way every day you can have a full complete backup to your tape. If you were to lose or damage Monday's tape, then Tuesday would have a complete full backup. Not just the incremental portion.

 

 

 

This also allows for the feature that you wanted of:

 

" It would be nice to have a "Recycle Member" backup so that a single member of a backup could be overwritten, still keep the same member name, and function as a Normal backup to the set. "

 

That way the Tuesday set can be recycled and continue the backup with the same name, same catalog (just a fresh new backup).

 

 

 

Each backupset has their own snapshots. If you have a backupset for each different tape you wish to use then when you do the recycle, just that days snapshot gets erased. This would eliminate the problem of

 

"everytime you perform a recycle backup you lose the ability to easily retrieve data from the other members in the set"

 

If every day has their own set then it won't erase all the data for all the other days. Just the backupset that it is on for that day.

 

 

 

Dantz has a 5 day rotation script example setup at:

 

http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=tutorials

 

This might help you understand what I was trying to convey.

 

 

 

Hope this helps!

 

Melissa

 

 

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Thank you, Melissa, for the reply.

 

 

 

Since my last post I have changed my tape rotation for the very reason "lets say you ruin your Monday tape." I now rotate 3 2-tape sets for Mon-Tue (which are rotated off-site), and 2 3-tape sets for Wed-Fri. Recycle backups are performed Mon and Wed. Normal backups are performed Tue, Thur, Fri. So if the first tape in the set is ruined, I only lose 2 or 3 days instead of 5.

 

 

 

The reason I use the same backup set 2 or 3 days in a row is that all the data will not fit on one tape. I backup multiple clients using the Server Edition. If all clients are present, a complete backup requires 1 1/2 tapes. I use an AIT3 drive which can backup appx 65GB of data per tape. Idealy you would have a tape drive that could backup everything to one tape or use an autoloader, but we do not. I have not seen a rotation solution for this type of situation.

 

 

 

If the first tape in the set does not get filled up (because some clients may not be available), the following night's normal backup wants to append to the same tape or an erased tape - so I manually erase the next tape in the set. If the first tape in the set does get filled up, I still need to erase the next tape in the set because there would not be enough room to append the rest of the full backup. This is why "Recycle Member" would be nice. Or, if a Normal backup were smart enough to know that "a Recycle backup was performed to the set, and I can erase the data on this tape because it is older than when the recycle was performed".

 

 

 

The problem with running normal backups is that eventually, possibly every backup, the tapes will fill up and will need to be erased. Recycle backups will erase the first tape in the set, but additional tapes need to be erased manually.

 

 

 

I have been using Retrospect Server Backup for over 6 months now. It seems to work better and be more reliable than Backup Exec. I just wish Retrospect had more flexablity when it comes to erasing media. Other than checking the log everyday for errors, I should not have to manually perform any other tape tasks.

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

Craig Booth

 

 

 

 

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Thank you for the reply! Your solution sounds great!

 

 

 

I have noted your feed back and concerns as well in this post. Maybe in a future version Retrospect will be able to erase any tape that is in the drive and this will solve your issue.

 

 

 

Melissa

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