Neolithic Posted October 21, 2002 Report Share Posted October 21, 2002 I'm running Server 5.6. I would like to force to the next member in a backup set. As I don't have an autoloader I don't wish to babysit the drive to add a new tape when one fills. I would like to add a new tape once a week whether the previous tape is full or not. I can manually do this. When I run the script for the next day it (rightly) complains, for example, Please insert the backup set member: Name: 2-Backup I click on the Choices button and select "Skip Copy to a new member, ignoring remaining space on this member" and proceed to create 3-Backup. I would like to have Retrospect skip to a new member every Tuesday, regardless of remaining space in the previous member. Is this possible or will I just have to be there to manually force to a new tape? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted October 23, 2002 Report Share Posted October 23, 2002 You can set the option to always skip to blank media when the correct tape is not available. This is done under Special > Preferences > Media Request Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neolithic Posted October 31, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2002 Sorry I didn't get back sooner. I've been busy, as well I waited for the next week to see if this worked on schedule. Well, it didn't. I logged on to the machine and found Retrospect waiting with the message to please insert the same tape as was used the previous day. I had the Choices button again and selected Skip and it proceeded as I've been manually doing it so far. Looking back in the Preferences, there is a Media Request timeout. It was unchecked and therefor had a value of (never). Should I check that and set a value, i.e. 10 minutes? Any other suggestions (if needed)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted November 1, 2002 Report Share Posted November 1, 2002 Was the tape in the drive blank/erased or did it have previously written data on it? The Skip to blank media option will only work if an erased, unnamed tape is in the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neolithic Posted November 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2002 It had data on it. Is there then any way to automatically erase the tape? I'm trying to recycle through a set of tapes to keep costs down. Once a month a full backup with a weeks worth of incrementals per tape for 4 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted November 7, 2002 Report Share Posted November 7, 2002 You can use Recycle backups in your script to reuse old backup sets. With a recycle backup, Retrospect will automatically erase tapes belong to the set you are recycling. A popular strategy is to set Retrospect to Recycle a set on Friday, and then schedule normal backups the following week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neolithic Posted November 9, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2002 I have a recycle script every four weeks. This initial backup occupies an entire tape. DLT 40/80. So, for the remainder of that first week I need a new tape to handle the daily incrementals. And as I stated before, there are times when there are large file turnovers so I wish to be able to enter a new tape for a new week to handle incremental data rather than let Retrospect incremental until a tape fills up at some random day. In other words, cut the schedule of a new tape requirement short and force additional members to be used to work with my schedule as opposed to when the tape happens to fill up. I sacrifice some tape space, yes, but I gain in predictability and ease of management. And then, recycle all these tapes over and over again. i.e. Tue : Week 1 : Recycle : 1-Backup (fills tape) Wed : Week 1 : Inc : 2-Backup (short of full) Tue : Week 2 : Inc : 3-Backup (short of full) Tue : Week 3 : Inc : 4-Backup (short of full) Tue : Week 4 : Inc : 5-Backup (short of full) Tue : Week 5 : Recycle : 1-Backup (fills tape) Wed : Week 5 : Inc : 2-Backup (short of full) etc. etc. And the only way I seem to have found the ability to do this is to insert the new tape, manually run the impending script, let it complain about wrong media, Options -> Skip to a new member, proceed. All I want to do is put in a new tape and go about the rest of my work. Because the tapes have ran through this process before, they are labled appropriately. They just have data on them. Does this make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted November 11, 2002 Report Share Posted November 11, 2002 The way that Retrospect is designed, it will always request the last member used for normal, incremental backups. If you choose to have Retrospect "skip to blank media" as previously discussed, you'll need to use a blank, erased tape. For data safety, we do not provide a way to overwrite just any tape that is in the drive, regardless of the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neolithic Posted November 19, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2002 Is there something I can do with an external script to check the tape in the drive and if it matches a certain name, erase it, and proceed with skip to blank? Or even to use an external script to do what I am currently doing manually? Where can I find in-depth resources on external scripting? Particularly VBScript as that is the method I'm more experienced with. I find it hard to believe that what I'm doing manually can't be handled automatically, somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.