Don't Use Named Blank Media

[cmcfarling]

Is it possible to make Retospect NOT skip to blank media that has been explicitly named?

 

For example, I have two backup sets, A & B. A runs for a week, then B runs for a week, then A again for the next week and so on. I have a 10 tape library (with barcode reader) so I load it up with 10 blank tapes. Each tape has a barcode label applied to it. My automated schedule runs for the first week, backing up to A. Only 6 of the 10 tapes get used however. Now, when backup B starts the following week, Retrospect searches the drive for correctly named OR blank media. Since there are 4 blank tapes in the drive, Retrospect begins writing data to those tapes. The problem is that those tapes are supposed to be part of the A backup set. At this point the barcode labels are all screwed up (the tape with barcode 0000007A has actually become the 1st tape in the B backup set).

 

I tried naming each tape in set A by using Retrospect's Erase function. This has no effect though because, as mentioned above, Retrospect searches the drive for correctly named *OR* blank media. So even if the media is named differently than what it's looking for, as long as it's erased it goes ahead and uses it.

 

Someone can't always be at the drive at the moment it switches to the new backup set each week. I'd like to somehow make Retrospect wait each time it switches to a new backup set until someone can physically verify that it is starting with the correct media.

 

Is this possible?

 

Thanks

[twickland]

Quote:

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Is it possible to make Retospect NOT skip to blank media that has been explicitly named?

 

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No. If there is no data on a tape, it is blank, no matter what you may name it.

 

Frankly, what I'd recommend is simply to label the tapes AFTER they have data on them, which is what we do. I find this a lot simpler.

 

If you really want to label the tapes in advance, you will have to adjust the schedules of your scripts.

 

It sounds like you are probably using Backup Server scripts, rather than Backup Scripts. If so, you could set the active schedule for the next week's server script to "Never active" via the radio button (this will retain any custom schedule you have created). When you switch tapes, change the schedule of the current week's server script by selecting the "Custom" or "Always Active" radio button, as appropriate, and change the server script for the previous week's server script to "Never active" via its radio button.

 

Alternatively, create a custom schedule for your backup server scripts that makes them inactive during the period of time you are likely to be changing tapes.

 

If you are using regular backup scripts, avoid having the script(s) run on Mondays, and instead launch the script manually on those days from the Run menu, or else set the script to run late enough in the day that you will have time to change your tapes.