Backup script advise please

[reg163]

Hi Everyone,

 

I was wondering if I could get some advise of how to setup my backup scripts to automate them as much as possible.

 

I have one xraid (around 800GB) attached to one Xserve backing up around 50 powerbook users... Current I use the "Backup Server" script type to backup the users to the xraid. I am not backing up to tape or even have that option at the moment. (It is in the plan though)

 

I manually change the backup sets every week at the moment, is there a better, less manual way to achieve this? I read about the "Backup" script type but it doesn't work well with powerbooks by the look of it.

 

Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

Reg.

[Chief Technician]

A backup script would allow you to automate the process of alternating between backup sets. What makes you say that it doesn't work well with PowerBooks in your environment?

[reg163]

hmmm.... I thought the "backup" script type only ran once and didn't cycle through constantly looking for Retrospect clients. As people move around a lot with powerbooks I thought it best to use "Backup Server" script type.

 

Is my understanding wrong?

 

Thanks.

 

Reg.

[twickland]

Your understanding of the limitations of a regular backup script is correct. It's your call what type of script works best in your situation. We use a combination of regular backup scripts (to back up everyone who's connected at the regular backup time) and backup server scripts (to catch clients as they connect).

 

Couldn't you mount both/all of your backup sets at the same time? Backup Server will then select the destination backup set for each client such that the client's successive backups will rotate among the available backup sets (though not in any particular order). This may be as much automation as you need.

 

Incidentally, using regular backup scripts will not eliminate the need to manually mount or load your destination backup set media; in fact, you might consider it to be somewhat worse in that the backup will fail if you haven't loaded the scheduled media.