arnstein Posted July 10, 2003 Report Share Posted July 10, 2003 Here is how I plan to use Retrospect Pro. I'll be depending on it to save all my data, so I'd appreciate it if anyone can find an error in this. Backup plan Create tape backup set I will create a multi-tape backup set. I will create a Retrospect backup script to copy almost all disk data to the snapshot, and execute the script once. Schedule nightly backup I will create another Retrospect backup script that copies most disk data to the snapshot. I will schedule this script to execute every night. This script will be slightly less comprehensive than the above, once-only script. I will continue writing to the backup set until it fills up. If I don't do any work on the computer on a given day, I will not put a tape into my tape drive, which will cause the nightly backup job to fail. I see a few potential problems here, I'd appreciate comments before I bet the farm on this plan. First, is there any problem with using two different backup scripts (file selection logic) on the same backup set? Second, is there any problem with letting a nightly backup fail by letting the tape drive become empty? I will probably power down the tape drive, too. Third, I plan to repeat this nightly process until the backup set fills up. Thus, the last nightly snapshot will fail, after writing a partial snapshot to tape. This strikes me as the most risky part of my plan, since backup software generally puts important summary information at the end of (tape) media. Will I be able to do a complete restore in case of disk drive failure? In such a case, the on-disk catalog that Retrospect uses will not be available. Thanks for any suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted July 11, 2003 Report Share Posted July 11, 2003 Quote: First, is there any problem with using two different backup scripts (file selection logic) on the same backup set? No, this perfectly fine. A backup set is essentially a container that you can use with any data set or script. Quote: Second, is there any problem with letting a nightly backup fail by letting the tape drive become empty? I will probably power down the tape drive, too. The script will not fail unless you go into the application preferences and set the "Media Timeout." Otherwise, Retrospect will wait for the tape indefinitely (until you manually cancel). Quote: Third, I plan to repeat this nightly process until the backup set fills up. Thus, the last nightly snapshot will fail, after writing a partial snapshot to tape. This strikes me as the most risky part of my plan, since backup software generally puts important summary information at the end of (tape) media. Will I be able to do a complete restore in case of disk drive failure? In such a case, the on-disk catalog that Retrospect uses will not be available. A backup set won't fill up - it will span multiple tapes. If you are saying that you will end your set when a tape fills, you may not have a complete backup - or even a snapshot - from the last session to restore from. A snapshot is not created until _after_ all the new/changed files have been copied. If you stop the backup before the snapshot is created, you'll have access to the files that were copied through a "Find" restore, not by a Snapshot restore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnstein Posted July 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2003 Quote: AmyJ said: A backup set won't fill up - it will span multiple tapes. If you are saying that you will end your set when a tape fills, you may not have a complete backup - or even a snapshot - from the last session to restore from. A snapshot is not created until _after_ all the new/changed files have been copied. If you stop the backup before the snapshot is created, you'll have access to the files that were copied through a "Find" restore, not by a Snapshot restore. Thanks for the reply Amy. Suppose I fit 9 complete normal backups/snapshots on the backup set, and then I terminate the 10th backup/snapshot in the middle. Assume that the 10th snapshot is not written. Will I have full use of the 9 complete backup sessions? Will I be able to use all features of these 9 backup sessions, including snapshot restore? If my disk drive breaks, and I lose my Retrospect catalogs, and I have to recover all my computer data from these 9 backup sessions, will I experience problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted July 11, 2003 Report Share Posted July 11, 2003 Quote: Will I have full use of the 9 complete backup sessions? Will I be able to use all features of these 9 backup sessions, including snapshot restore? If my disk drive breaks, and I lose my Retrospect catalogs, and I have to recover all my computer data from these 9 backup sessions, will I experience problems? Yes, yes and no (catalogs can be rebuilt from the media). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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