Normal vs. Recycle

[jtfey]

I'm trying to work a backup strategy for 176 gigabytes. My company has an Exabyte VXA-2 1U Packetloader, which has a 10-tape library. I was hoping to do a Normal backup each day Monday through Friday. On Saturday I'm doing a recycle backup.

 

 

 

I had figured the weekday backups would use five tapes (1 tape per day) and the weekend Recycle backup would use 2-3 tapes. We're using V23 tapes (80/160 GB). Much of our data is graphics. Most of it won't change from day to day.

 

 

 

I'm completing the second week of backups so all the catalogs have been built. But what I'm finding is that my Normal backups are accounting for all 176 gigabytes. I thought the Normal backup would only copy those items that had been altered.

 

 

 

The bottom line here is each day's backup is using two tapes. That's fine for the weekend but not the weekday.

 

 

 

My question is why do the Normal backups copy all 176 gigs? What am I missing or don't understand?

 

 

 

Thanks.

[natew]

Hi

 

Retrospect will only copy files that don't exactly match files already in the backup set. If anything changes the source files (even slightly) they will be backed up again.

 

Are you backing up files from a local disk or a network share? Are you using Retrospect client?

 

Thanks

Nate