arnstein Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 I am using Retrospect 7.5 Pro on Windows XP Pro. I would like to configure my Retrospect backup scripts to groom automatically in a simple (at least to me!) way. What I would like is for the backup script to groom whenever the backup medium is too full to complete the backup job. When this "full medium" condition occurs, I would like the oldest snapshots in the backup medium to be groomed (destroyed). I noticed that the backup script can be configured to groom according to "Retrospect policy." This is what I am using now, but it is not ideal for my purposes. If I understand this correctly, the "Retrospect policy" seeks to retain a snapshot that is one week old. It has some other rules as well. All I want to do is to groom the oldest snapshots, and continue grooming them until there is sufficient space for the new backup job to run. Is this possible? How to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekr0phage Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Hi David, Instead of the Retrospect defined policy, select the option to 'Groom to remove backups older than X.' This will remove backups in chronological order, leaving only the number of backups that you specify (X). You can access grooming options for your backup set by going to Configure>Backup Sets>(Backup set) Properties>Options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnstein Posted June 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Hello Foster, Thank you for your prompt response! I did see the option you describe, but I would like to understand this option better. Suppose that I set the number of backups (X) to be a very large number. Therefore, the backup medium will eventually become full before (X) snapshots (backups) are written. What does Retrospect do now? Does it prompt the user to add another member to the current backup set? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekr0phage Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 Hi David, Yes, that is what will happen. If you tell Retrospect to keep too much data then the grooming option will basically become useless unless you actually do have another disk to use as a member. Grooming across members is possible, and may be necessary in some scenarios, but it isn't very elegant in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnstein Posted June 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 Thanks again for your help Foster. This is an obvious request to EMC-Insignia, but I am going to state it anyway. Grooming is a GREAT feature and it really distinguishes Retrospect from its competition. How sweet it would be to offer a third mode of automatic grooming: keep the most recent snapshots; as will fit on the backup medium. Automatically groom the oldest snapshots as required to make room for new ones. In this (proposed) mode, the backup medium would always be nearly full, and it would contain the most recent N snapshots, where N would vary. Please EMC-Insignia please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekr0phage Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 David, You can basically do this now, you just need to figure out how many snapshots you can store on your media, then set up a grooming script to prune the snapshots regularly, perhaps on a weekly basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnstein Posted June 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 Foster, Of course you are right. However, the number of snapshots that one can store on ones media will vary, depending on how much user data is created and how rapidly it changes. I am not trying to criticize you or "get in the last word." I just want EMC-Insignia to notice this feature request and consider it. Wishful thinking, I know. Cheers Foster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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