Deleting files off of backup tape(s)

[davidgreen]

I have an issue where one of my clients needs me to remove all instances of a project I worked on. Even if the data is encrypted, I will still need to remove it from my backup archive.

 

Is there any way that Retrospect will allow for me to delete files from the catalog and also to remove individual files off of a tape?

 

Competing software will allow files to be removed from the catalog, and you can then copy an entire tape to a new tape. The files you removed from the catalog will not be copied to the new tape(s). You can then destroy (or recycle) the original tape(s).

 

Does this functionality exist in Retrospect?

 

Thanks

[twickland]

You cannot remove individual files from a tape.

 

To fulfil the demands of your client, you would need to use Tools> Copy> Transfer> to transfer all other files from your old backup set to a new backup set. You will need two tape drives to accomplish this in one step.

 

You can either define criteria for selecting files to be excluded from the transfer, or you can manually select the files before performing the transfer.

 

Once you've done this, forget the catalog of your old backup set and erase the tape(s) that were members of the old set.

[davidgreen]

Great, thank you.

 

Will I need to create a new catalog from all my tapes?

[twickland]

If there are a lot of members (tapes) in your backup set, you might consider an alternative and just copy and erase the members which contain the client's files.

 

The catalog does not indicate which member contains a particular backup, so unless you have an extraordinary memory, you would need to identify the dates and times of backup of the files in question (easiest way to do this would be to run a mock Restore), and then compare this information with the date and time that data was first written to each backup set member (listed in Configure> Backup Sets> Configure...[name of backup set]> Members> ).

 

Then, after you perform the Transfer, instead of forgetting the entire catalog of the old backup set, you would return to Configure> Backup Sets> and mark the copied tape members as "Missing" before erasing them.