WORM Backup to File

[redleader]

I want to be able to do a backup Script of changed/modified Files only

I want this backup Script to be to a Backup File

I want to be able to set the maximum size of that Scripts Backup File [say 500GB]

I want the backup Script to delete older Files once the Backup File is full, thereby making room for newer Files

In essence a WORM Backup File process

Can Retrospect do that?

 

[DavidHertzberg]

redleader,

Yes, Retrospect Mac 14.6.x (your current version per your other recent post) can do that, once you get over your presumed hangup on wanting a File Media Set.  The facilities you want are not available for a File Media Set, which is a hangover from Retrospect Mac 6 that EMC left in Retrospect Mac 8 because people were still using it.  The references I'm going to give you are from the Retrospect Mac 12 User's Guide, for a reason that will become evident. 

The reasons you should not use a File Media Set are spelled out on pages 50-51, but the following is how to define a Disk Media Set that will give you the results you want.  First, follow the steps on pages 95-98 to Add a Disk Media Set with its only Member on the drive you choose.  Item 5 on page 96 tells you how to specify that the Catalog File for that Media Set be on that same drive, if that is what you want—although for safety reasons Retrospect Inc. advises against it.  The last sentence in item 2 at the bottom of page 97 tells you how to specify the maximum size for the single Member.

Next, set the Grooming Options for the Media Set per pages 211-212 to something other than No Grooming.  Observe in passing that the italicized Note paragraph on page 212 says "Because Catalogs for Media Sets with active grooming policies need to store this additional data, they will be larger in size than Catalogs belonging to [presumably non-Groomed Disk Media Sets, but the last part of this sentence was left out of the UG]"; this is a reason why you probably want to avoid putting the Catalog File on the same drive as the Member.  When you actually set the Grooming Options, you will observe an additional Months to Keep box under Groom to Retrospect Defined Policy; this is explained on pages 8-9 in the second paragraph under "Improved Grooming" in the "What's New" chapter, but that explanation was then heedlessly overwritten in later versions of the UG—which is why I'm referring you to the Retrospect Mac 12 UG.  Setting a Grooming Option other than No Grooming will cause "the backup Script to delete older Files once the Backup File is full, thereby making room for newer Files", rather than asking for a second Member.

I'm not sure how you could specify "changed/modified Files [my emphasis] only", if that is actually what you want. I suppose you could mess around with Rules for your Backup script, as per pages 183-191, but I don' know how to exclude all changed folders.  There is a discussion of a somewhat similar Product Suggestion here.  As I'm sure you know, deduplication of changed/modified files—via the Snapshot for a Media Set—has been a feature of Retrospect for many years.  Besides, given the length limitations of Mac file names, the name of the enclosing folder(s) is IME frequently essential to figuring out what data a file actually contains.

You've been on these Forums since 2006, redleader.  Please in future use the term Media Set (or Backup Set if you're using Retrospect Windows) instead of "Backup File", which has never been a correct Retrospect term.  Also please in future post the version of Retrospect you're using, and also the version of the OS you're running it under.