Limit script to only run 5PM - 8AM and weekends

[bross]

I use a script to backup my servers and workstations but am finding that when I need to do a restore during the day a backup session will still be in progress. I would like the scripts to only run Mon - Fri, 5PM - 8AM the following day, and weekends all day. I tried limiting my schedule to the above times but of course it would kill my script when it hadn't finished by 8AM on a weekday. Will I still have complete backups that I can restore from? Obviously I will be missing those computers that execute later in the script, but will I be consistently missing those computers? I can't figure out what triggers the longer backups some days. Most weekdays the backup is finished in plenty of time but other days it will run all day, and push the next script execution back even farther, so it's now running into the next day etc. Any tips are appreciated. I'm a reformed Arcserve user so still trying to figure out the best way to use Retrospect.

[natew]

Hi

 

Regular backup scripts always backup the specified computers in the same order. You could move the order around if a long backup consistently happens at the wrong time.

 

You can also use set your scheduled end time to 6:00 and have a wrap up time of 3 hours. That will let the backup overshoot the scheduled end time by 3 hours.

 

Recycle backups always take the longest so you may want to see if a Recycle backup is happening on the days when backups run long.

 

Nate

[bross]

Thanks, I figured that's how it worked. I will just have to live with it and cancel backups if I need to do a critical restore. I don't use recycle backups, I am doing a New Media backup every month and then I archive the previous months tapes and never use them again. It does seem that backups are finishing OK for the first few weeks, then by week 3 and 4 is when I start to see the backups still running in the morning, which probably makes sense as my backup set is growing throughout the month. Thanks for you help.