Backup retrieval

[lyalem]

I'm not sure I'm backing up correctly because I'm having difficulty recovering a file. I have two scripts that run each night, one begins 15 min after the other. I'm backing up networked clients. They are run as "normal" scripts every day except every other Friday I when I run them as a "recycle script". I think what is happening is that the 2nd recycle script that runs wipes out the 1st recycle script. I'm only seeing snapshot data from the 2nd recycle script. Is that the way it is supposed to be? I thought a recycle script would back wipe out only the data from that script from the last time it ran as a normal script, not the whole drive. Need some help, thanks.

[twickland]

Are both your scripts backing up to the same destination backup set?

 

A recycle backup will reset the catalog of its entire destination backup set, so that all the backup set members can be reused. If both your scripts are writing to the same backup set, then indeed the second script, when it recycles the backup set, will wipe out any data previously written under either the first or second script.

 

What type of backup set(s) are you using? Old data in a File Backup Set will be unrecoverable after it's been recycled, but you should be able to rebuild the catalog from those members of a tape, CD, etc., backup set that have not yet been rewritten to.

 

Sounds like you may need to rethink your backup strategy so that you are backing up to multiple backup sets, and that you recycle your backup sets in an alternating sequence so that you don't lose everything at once.

[drrdub]

Please, advise me to retrieve "entire volume" from an external hard drive- "M" and copy a back up file A to my new hard drive- "C". After proceeding as follows, Restore> Entire Volume> Opening a B/U file> selected "M"> Retrospect> Backup Set A> 1-Backup Set A, when I click to open "1-Backup Set A" the space indicated the opened file remains blank. I have tried to open other of the Backup files. Always at the point I try to "open" the Backup file, it does not drop into the field so that it can be opened. I know the file is not empty because the size in GBs is appropriate.

Help?

[drrdub]

RJ,

TY. I have a doctoral degree, but I can't follow your suggestion. Before I swapped out the old hard C drive twice I copied the entire C drive to the external back up and called them Backup A and Backup B. Of course I still have the old hard drive. Are you suggestiong that when I "thought" created a new file by copying to the external drive, somehow the file was written over and nothing was saved.

 

What is a script? I back up by periodically with the "One Touch" feature of my extemal hard drive. Is the script an instruction set that dictates the backup schedule. And where might I find the "snapshot" to place onto the new hard drive?

TY, again.

Roger W

[lyalem]

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Are both your scripts backing up to the same destination backup set?

Yes they are- I have two firewire drives I rotate, but there is only one backup set on each drive.

 

A recycle backup will reset the catalog of its entire destination backup set, so that all the backup set members can be reused. If both your scripts are writing to the same backup set, then indeed the second script, when it recycles the backup set, will wipe out any data previously written under either the first or second script.

Didn't know that!

 

What type of backup set(s) are you using? Old data in a File Backup Set will be unrecoverable after it's been recycled, but you should be able to rebuild the catalog from those members of a tape, CD, etc., backup set that have not yet been rewritten to.

I know I can get the data from the drive that is currently in a safe deposit box.

 

Sounds like you may need to rethink your backup strategy so that you are backing up to multiple backup sets, and that you recycle your backup sets in an alternating sequence so that you don't lose everything at once.

 

I have two scripts right now, one for managed clients and one for my servers. They both get backed up normally every night, but every other Friday I want them to be recycled backups. Sounds like I need a "backup set" for each script. That way when I run a script as a recycle, if it is its own set, it won't wipe out the data for the other script because that will be it's own set, too----correct? I'm assuming I can have more than one set on a firewire drive.

Thanks for your help- this Retrospect terminology has always confused me.

 

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[twickland]

OK, so you already have two backup sets that you're rotating through. That's good and may be sufficient for your needs. There is no need for a separate backup set for each script unless that's a particular need, which doesn't sound like the case.

 

The solution may simply be to change your second script so that it never recycles the backup set, and let the recycling be handled by script 1. You only want to reset the appropriate backup set once at the two week interval, but instead you've been doing it twice (once in each script).

 

Can I assume that what you're doing is backing up to Backup Set A for two weeks; then placing that drive in the safe deposit box, and putting the drive with Backup Set B into service on Recycle Friday for the next two weeks, after which you switch back to Set A, etc.?

[lyalem]

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OK, so you already have two backup sets that you're rotating through.

That is correct.

 

Can I assume that what you're doing is backing up to Backup Set A for two weeks; then placing that drive in the safe deposit box, and putting the drive with Backup Set B into service on Recycle Friday for the next two weeks, after which you switch back to Set A, etc.?

That is exactly what I am doing. Set A and Set B have two scripts each, one for clients, one for servers.

 

The solution may simply be to change your second script so that it never recycles the backup set, and let the recycling be handled by script 1. You only want to reset the appropriate backup set

once

at the two week interval, but instead you've been doing it twice (once in each script).

 

The only thing about this is that script 1 backs up individual networked clients and script 2 backs up my servers. So if they are on two scripts (one that begins 15 minutes after they other)but are on one backup set, how do I do a recycle of both scripts every other week without wiping out one of them in the process.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

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[twickland]

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The solution may simply be to change your second script so that it never recycles the backup set, and let the recycling be handled by script 1. You only want to reset the appropriate backup set

once

at the two week interval, but instead you've been doing it twice (once in each script).

 

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The only thing about this is that script 1 backs up individual networked clients and script 2 backs up my servers. So if they are on two scripts (one that begins 15 minutes after they other)but are on one backup set, how do I do a recycle of both scripts every other week without wiping out one of them in the process.

 

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A Recycle Backup doesn't recycle a script; it recycles a particular Backup Set. That is, it resets the catalog to an empty state, which in effect wipes out all the sessions in that backup set, no matter which script wrote them there in the first place. So if your early-running script performs a Recycle Backup on those alternate Fridays, what it will do is first reset the catalog of the destination backup set, and then back up your clients to the newly-empty backup set. The second script will back up your servers to a backup set that now contains only that Friday's client backup sessions.

 

If your second script also performs a Recycle Backup, as you've apparently been doing, the catalog gets reset again, wiping out the Script 1 client sessions that were just performed. You don't want to do that.

[lyalem]

Here's my goal- I want to do a normal (just back up changes to files) every night. Once every other week I want to do a back up of all files.

 

What is the best way to go about that with running two differernet scripts? One back up set or two?

Should the first script should stay a recycle script and the second just be a normal backup?

 

Obviously I need some help- thanks!

[twickland]

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What is the best way to go about that with running two differernet scripts? One back up set or two?

 

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To me, "best" means avoiding unnecessary complexity. Unless you have a good reason to change, I'd continue to back up both scripts to the same backup set during a given backup cycle.

 

You do, of course, want at least two backup sets so that you have redundancy in your data. It sounds, though, like you're using each backup set for two weeks before rotating in the other set. Consider what would happen if one of the drives went belly-up. Your most recent backup could then be as much as two weeks old. Could you afford the loss?

 

Of course, you also need to weigh the hassle of rotating the backup sets more frequently. (We rotate daily among three backup sets.)

 

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Should the first script should stay a recycle script and the second just be a normal backup?

 

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You only want your earliest-running script to perform a recycle backup at whatever are your selected intervals.

[lyalem]

Twickland, thanks for your responses. As a school we have decided that we can afford losing two weeks data, should that happen. I changed my later running script to be a normal backup, not a recycle backup. I'm assuming since the first script wipes out the Back up Set, then when the second script goes to do a normal backup it will know that there are no files there from those clients and will back up their entire documents folder. If I'm wrong, please let me know and thanks for your help!