New To Retrospect, Not To Rigorus Backup

[packetfire]

So, at long last, I had a laptop disc start to go flaky, and Retrospect was put to the test. I found several issues of concern.

 

1) Catalogs Stored On Same Disc As Application

This one puzzles me. Why not store the catalogs on the same logical drive as the backup(s) included in the catalog? In the assumed most common case of a single workstation being backed up to an external firewire drive, a restore is impossible until Retrospect is able to rebuild the catalog(s).

 

2) Backup Plans That Change Backup Sets Weekly

Confused here, too. Why not flip-flop the backup set daily, so that one has both the most recent, and the next-to-most-recent copies of data on (in a perfect world) two different discs? Have I not understood the documentation, or is there no way to make retrospect save to "A" on odd-numbered days, and "B" on even-numbered days?

 

Anyone want to give a fellow a clue on either of these? I am guessing here that I missed something very basic. I am a long-term AMANDA backup user, if that explains anything.

 

[rhwalker]

1) Catalogs Stored On Same Disc As Application

This one puzzles me. Why not store the catalogs on the same logical drive as the backup(s) included in the catalog? In the assumed most common case of a single workstation being backed up to an external firewire drive, a restore is impossible until Retrospect is able to rebuild the catalog(s).

You can store the catalogs anywhere you want. As an alternative, you can set up a copy (duplicate) operation to copy the catalog to another storage location. It's standard practice to back up the catalogs.

 

2) Backup Plans That Change Backup Sets Weekly

Confused here, too. Why not flip-flop the backup set daily, so that one has both the most recent, and the next-to-most-recent copies of data on (in a perfect world) two different discs? Have I not understood the documentation, or is there no way to make retrospect save to "A" on odd-numbered days, and "B" on even-numbered days?

You have not understood the documentation. This is easily done, and we have been doing that for over 15 years with Retrospect. Just adjust the schedule for the backup script accordingly. Put each destination backup set where you want it, setup one backup set's schedule for MWF, the other for TueThuSat, as desired.

 

Russ