Backup script/set help please

[chrisric]

Hi Everyone,

 

I need some help/advise with backup scripts/sets please, we want to backup 360 odd users daily and keep those backups for 30 days before over writing them automatically.

 

Should I use a "backup sever" or "backup" script? The "backup" script looks to have many more scheduling options but can it handle mobile users? We have a lot of Notebook/Laptop users so the script needs to handle them too.

 

I was thinking of something like:

 

Script: Monday to backup set: Monday

Script: Tuesday to backup set: Tuesday

Script: Wednesday to backup set: Wednesday

Script: Thursday to backup set: Thursday

Script: Friday to backup set: Friday

Script: Saturday to backup set: Saturday

Script: Sunday to backup set: Sunday

 

But I am not sure on how to over write them after a month...

 

Thanks for your help.

 

-Chris

[CallMeDave]

Since "Server Scripts" are always "Normal" backups, you can create a "Backup Script" who's only function is to Recycle the appropriate Backup Set. Give it a small Source (such as the folder that holds all your catalogs, so that it can backup the other 6 catalogs) and schedule it as appropriate.

 

Server Scripts are ideal for mobile users.

 

Dave

[chrisric]

Thanks for the advise Dave.

 

I just want to confirm I understand the "Backup server" script... It does "incrementalPLUS" backups, daily in my case - this means I would need to restore all a users "snapshots" for the month to provide the user with a complete restore?

 

Is that right?

 

Thanks.

 

-Chris

[twickland]

Chris:

 

A Snapshot lists the file structure of the source disk at the time of backup, including files that don't need to be backed up. To perform a restore, you only need the Snapshot from the date which has the conditions you want to recreate. (By default, this is the latest backup date, but you can retrieve earlier Snapshots, as desired.)

 

As to your earlier question, using seven backup sets may be more of a hassle than you need. Three is probably adequate. A simple setup might be to use a M-Tu backup set, a W-Th backup set, and a F-Sa-Su backup set.

 

(We use a schedule that rotates through sets A, B, and C on consecutive weekdays, but that requires a lot of schedulers, =[number of days of the week being backed up] X [number of backup sets], and is probably more complicated than most people need.)

 

As Dave notes, you can create a script to perform a recycle backup at the desired interval. You can also write monthly schedulers into your routine backup script or else do it manually in Configure> Backup Sets> [configure desired backup set]> Options> Media Action.

 

One thing to think about is that when you perform your recycle, you suddenly have a pretty shallow history of backups. Also, unless everyone is being backed up diligently every evening, you could end up for a while with no backups of certain users. You might instead consider running a new media backup at the 30-day point, retaining the previous backup sets for another 30 days before reusing that media.