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Q: Reuse of Subsequent Members in a Recycle Backup


JohnWSaundersIII

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There's something I'm not getting about Recycle backups.

 

I've got four scripts. Each has a Recycle backup on Sunday, every four weeks, plus a Normal backup Monday through Saturday, every four weeks. The four scripts each start on sequential weeks. The backup sets they use are called EXSW1 through EXSW4.

 

The first time script 1 ran the Recycle backup, it backed everything up to ZIP disks 1-EXSW1 through 8-EXSW1. During the remainder of the week, members 8-EXSW1 through 14-EXSW1 were used. The equivalent happened with the other three scripts.

 

But the second time script 1 ran, I had 1-EXSW1 in the drive. It was erased and used.

 

But the media request dialog requested a new disk, to become 15-EXSW1 instead of asking for 2-EXSW1, which is what I had thought it would do. Clicking "Show Members" in the media request dialog shows that 2-EXSW1 and onward are "100%" free. Checking the properties of any given member shows that it is 100% used.

 

I have "Automatically reuse named media" on. Am I missing some other setting, or am I missing a concept instead?

 

Thanks for any help you can give. I've got a Sunday backup sitting here waiting for an answer. Last week (Week 2, execution 2), I punted and manually erased 2-EXSW2 et. al. and let it call them 16-EXSW2 et. al. This week, I'd like an answer.

 

John Saunders

 

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Hi

 

The only way that would happen is if the Sunday backup for that set was not actually a recycle backup. Retrospect is trying to do a normal backup instead.

 

Make sure your recycles are set up properly using the "Preview" feature under the automate menu.

 

You can always manually recycle a set by right clicking on it in configure->backup sets

 

Nate

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Thanks, Nate,

 

I'm afraid it really is a Recycle backup. Here's the log:

 

Quote:

+ Recycle backup using Daily Week 3 at 8/10/2003 6:00 AM

To Backup Set EXSW3...

8/10/2003 6:00:28 AM: Recycle backup: The Backup Set was reset

 

- 8/10/2003 6:00:28 AM: Copying Data on DiskC (C:)

8/10/2003 6:02:06 AM: Snapshot stored, 5 KB

8/10/2003 6:02:10 AM: Comparing Data on DiskC (C:)

8/10/2003 6:02:25 AM: Execution completed successfully

Completed: 12 files, 24.0 MB

Performance: 90.0 MB/minute (75.7 copy, 120.0 compare)

Duration: 00:01:57 (00:01:24 idle/loading/preparing)

 

- 8/10/2003 6:02:25 AM: Copying Documents and Settings on DiskC (C:)

E-mail notification failed: error -591 (invalid e-mail address)

 

 


 

Ths reminds me of one factor I hadn't mentioned. The backup is of two subvolumes and one "full" volume. Perhaps this wouldn't be happening if there were only a single volume in the backup?

 

Thanks,

John Saunders

 

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Hi

 

 

 

It does not matter what your backup sources are. Take a look at the details of your backup sets under the configure-> backup sets window. when you look at properties for your backup set take a look at the members tab. It will tell you how many tapes have been used since the last recycle. There should be enough info in the properties to figure out what went wrong.

 

 

 

By the way, if you look at your log entry closely you will see that the recycle backup in your posted log is for your week3 set. Retrospect always tells you which backup set it is using for an operation.

 

 

 

Nate

 

 

 

 

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Quote:

natew said:

Take a look at the details of your backup sets under the configure-> backup sets window. when you look at properties for your backup set take a look at the members tab. It will tell you how many tapes have been used since the last recycle. There should be enough info in the properties to figure out what went wrong.

 

 


 

Nate, thanks for responding.

 

Looking at the configure -> backup sets, the summary shows 1 member in use. The details show only the first member as having 0% in the free column. The other members have 100% in the "free" column.

 

Quote:

 

By the way, if you look at your log entry closely you will see that the recycle backup in your posted log is for your week3 set. Retrospect always tells you which backup set it is using for an operation.

 

 


 

Yes, thanks. This is Week 3.

 

John Saunders

johnwsaundersiii@hotmail.com

 

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Quote:

natew said:

Try this

 

In the preferences under media handling, make sure the use pre-named media box is checked.

 

Do all of your backup sets exibit the same behavior?

 

Nate

 


 

Nate, the preference is set and all of them exibit the behavior.

 

I'm going to try to reproduce this with a simpler situation. I've got a pile of old ZIP 250 disks I've no use for...

 

John Saunders

johnwsaundersiii@hotmail.com

 

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Ok, I've reproduced it. Here are the steps:



  • I created a new Simple/Dynamic volume of 512Mb, formatted as NTFS with all the defaults.
  • I copied 505Mb of files to it in 32 directories
  • I started Retrospect and created a new script with Manage Scripts, called Test:

    • The source was my new volume (K:)
    • The desitnation was a newly-created backup set, "TestW1"
    • The selector is "All Files"
    • I used the default options
    • I scheduled it for One-Time execution as a Recycle backup

  • I exited Retrospect and let the backup run.
  • This took three 250Mb Zip disks.
  • When the backup and compare were complete, I started Retrospect again and edited the "Test" schedule to add one more execution as a Recycle backup.
  • I exited Retrospect to allow the script to launch on its own
  • The script started normally, and began to backup up K: to the first member of the backup set, which I had left in the drive.
  • When the first member was full, the backup asked for a new member (4-TestW1)

I suppose I could simplify this further by removing the Compare, and maybe removing Open File Backup.


Any more suggestions, anyone?


John Saunders
johnwsaundersiii@hotmail.com


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