tlemons Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 Hi I'm still evaluating Retrospect, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge. I have a customer that : - has a dedicated backup server and SCSI tape library - requires backups 5 days a week - requires a retention strategy for some of the data for weeks, months and years - requires an offsite storage rotation - requires bare-metal recovery (disaster recovery) My reading of the manual is that a disaster recovery CD, once created, is tied to a particular data set; if the data set, is destroyed, the disaster recovery CD needs to be re-created. Is that true? So, if a particular data set is superseded by another data set, does that mean that the disaster recovery CD should be re-created? And how can I create a schedule that, at least to my traditional backup eyes, looks like o daily backups, kept for one week then over-written o weekly backups, kept for one month, then over-written o monthly backups, kept for one year, then over-written o yearly backups, never over-written I can't figure out how to do this in Retrospect, though I've read over 100 pages (so far) of the manual. is there, perhaps, a white paper that summarizes this? Many thanks! tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 20, 2003 Report Share Posted October 20, 2003 Hi The Disaster recovery CD can be used with any catalog file. There was actually a change in the newest version of Retrospect (6.5 .336) so the catalog file is now never stored on the DR CD. In other words once you create the CD you are good to go until you upgrade to a new computer or OS. Can you be more specific about your strategy. I.E. which backups do you want to run on which days? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted October 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2003 Thanks, Nate. It sounds like the DR process might do what I need. So, let's set that aside, and work on the schedule. I want to create a schedule that looks like: o daily backups, kept for one week then over-written o weekly backups, kept for one month, then over-written o monthly backups, kept for one year, then over-written o yearly backups, never over-written Does this make sense in Retrospect? Thanks tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 21, 2003 Report Share Posted October 21, 2003 Hi Here is an example of how you could do this: Create 3 backup sets named: "Daily"- for backups every day (kept for a week) "Weekly"- for backups once a week (kept for a month) "Monthly"- for backups once a month (Kept for a year) Create 3 scripts "daily script" Recycle backup to set "daily" on Mondays. Normal backups Tues to Thurs. "Weekly script"Normal backup to set "weekly" on Fridays only. do a recycle backup once a month. "Monthly Script" I would run this script manually rather than schedule it. Once a month do a normal backup to the "monthly set". Once a year do a recycle to this set. This way you have 3 full backups running all the time. Clear as mud right? Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted October 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2003 "Clear as mud, right?" No! This is getting much clearer, thanks very much. Just a few more, if I may: I really want to schedule this backup jobs to run automatically. I won't be onsite, and the are no IT/IS people on site. So this needs to be automated as much as possible. o so, can't the monthly job be automated? o will Retrospect prompt the user to enter the media that needs to be over-written? o how will this play when I want to have the weekly, monthly, and yearly tapes to be offsite after they are written? o finally, given this schedule, how does creating disaster recovery CDs play with this rotation schedule? Thanks very much for your help! tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted October 24, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2003 I scanned some of the other postings about schedules, re-read the book and, hey, I think I got it! I now want to: o run backups M-F (no Sat or Sun) o keep three of these four weeks of backups for four weeks, then recycle them o keep one of these weekly backups offsite for, say, a year I think this is the machinery that I need: o create one script, four backup sets, and a bunch of schedules - normal backup to SetA every 4 weeks on M/T/W/Th - recycle backup to SetA every 4 weeks on F - normal backup to SetB every 4 weeks on M/T/W/Th - recycle backup to SetB every 4 weeks on F - normal backup to SetC every 4 weeks on M/T/W/Th - recycle backup to SetC every 4 weeks on F - normal backup to SetD every 4 weeks on M/T/W/Th - recycle backup to SetD every 4 weeks on F - new media backup to SetA every month on the last Friday How's that? The only thing I can't figure out is how to make the SetA backups 'expire' after 1 year. Thanks! tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Hi You can't set a time limit on a set but you can schedule a Recycle backup any time you like. New media backup every month means you will have a new set of tapes each month - so at the end of the year you will have 12 backup set A`s with numbers appended to the name. Is that what you are after? Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs1937 Posted October 30, 2003 Report Share Posted October 30, 2003 Is this also true for Retrospect Express 5.6, where the disaster recovery disk was generated from a file backup set on a hard drive? More specifically, will the recovery recognize updates to the initial backup and/or additional backups on the same hard drive, or is it necessary to burn a new CD? And oh yes, while I have your attention, how far can I go in testing the recovery disk without actually initiating a restore? I am unable to find any documentation on what menus to anticipate in this process, and need to know at what point to exit. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted October 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2003 Hi Nate Thanks as ever for the help. "New media backup every month means you will have a new set of tapes each month - so at the end of the year you will have 12 backup set A`s with numbers appended to the name. Is that what you are after? " Maybe. After 13 months, I want to recycle the backup from the first month; after 14 months, I want to reccyle the backup from the second month, and so on. Also, I want to keep the monthly backups offsite, and I want to keep the weekly backups offsite. That's why I didn't want to use your previous daily/weekly/monthly plan. Good grief, this is hard. The documentation definitely needs more complex examples. Thoughts? Thanks! tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 31, 2003 Report Share Posted October 31, 2003 Ok I think I have a better idea: When doing a Recycle backup Retrospect can overwrite the tape in the drive (if it is named properly) or it can write the data to a blank tape. To keep the naming from becoming a mess and to keep your schedule more flexible, take a set of tapes off site the day before it is scheduled for recycle. On the following day have a blank tape in the drive and you will be all set. The down side of this is you will have multiple sets with the same name - nothing a pen and paper can't sort out though. Just be sure to write down the date the tapes were taken off site. The other downside is you will have to rebuild the catalog in order to do a restore. This is not too much trouble with Fast catalog rebuild turned on but it could be a pain if you are in a hurry to restore something. Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted October 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2003 Thanks, Nate. But, pen and paper? Maybe I'm trying to do something that Respect isn't meant to do . . . . This shouldn't be this hard. tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs1937 Posted November 3, 2003 Report Share Posted November 3, 2003 Hi, Nate. Earlier in this thread you posted "The Disaster recovery CD can be used with any catalog file. There was actually a change in the newest version of Retrospect (6.5 .336) so the catalog file is now never stored on the DR CD. In other words once you create the CD you are good to go until you upgrade to a new computer or OS." I posted a follow-up question, but (this being my first post) I guess I didn't make it clear as to whom the question was directed and to which posting it referred. (When I selected the reply option I assumed it would associate the reply with a particular post.) Could you please tell me if the information above would also apply to Retrospect Express 5.6, where the backup is a file backup to a hard drive? That is, once having generated the DR CD, can I then restore ANY backup from the hard drive (even updates of the original)? And how can I test the recovery CD without actually doing a restore? There doesn't seem to be any available documentation on what menus to expect in the DR. I want to bail out of the restore at the last possible menu. I would really appreciate any clarification you (or any other guru) could provide. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 10, 2003 Report Share Posted November 10, 2003 Hi In the past DR CDs included a copy of the catalog file that was used when creating the DR image file. However you have always been able to select any catalog to restore from. You also have the ability to rebuild catalog files if needed. In short, After you run the DR CD you will have a full version of Retrospect at your disposal. As a result you can restore from any set you like. Running the DR is VERY similar to installing Windows except you don't have to type in your code, install drivers, install Retrospect... All the time consuming stuff. You won't have any big suprises when you run the DR CD. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvines Posted December 10, 2003 Report Share Posted December 10, 2003 Problem is that once any of the daily backups fills up, you'll either have to add a new "Daily" tape or do a recycle which will do a FULL backup to that tape. Then when you do a recycle on Monday, you will have a recycle from Monday and a recycle from the other tape. I guess it just seemed easier when you could do a Full and incremental backup. What is the big advantage with all this backup set stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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