Alternative to Recycling Proactive Backups?

[wysard]

Hi folks - I've read in these forums that there's a relatively simple way to add a Recycle backup option to proactive backups, which is fine, if that's the only choice. My question is, is there an alternative to this?

 

Our current setup is backing up all our Windows boxes to a main server store - tons of room on it - and then having Omniback back it up to our tape library. The linux folk want Omni as the main backup solution, so I have no choice. They are still in the process of setting this up, though, so I /could/ recycle the proactive backups, but that would leave me with no snapshots for recovery until the next backup. The server's been running for about 2 months now.

 

What if I limited the disk space that each backup set uses? Will the backups go into that store in sort of a FIFO fashion, or will they just stop, and warn me that there's no space? I don't feel right blowing away a ton of snapshots until they're on tape, but I will likely either run out of backup space before all is ready on the linux side, or Omni will have a mountain of data to throw to tape.

 

Any suggestions?

[natew]

Hi

 

Retrospect backup sets still are still linear even though you are using random access media to do your backups. Unfortunately FIFO type backups are really tough with this kind of a setup. Once a disk is full it will stop and ask for more media.

 

One thing you could do is move some of the backup files to another disk temporarly to free up space. In the event of a restore you can move them back or just access them from where they are stored.

 

Thanks

Nate

[wysard]

Thanks a million for the answer (again Nate!