ARCserve GROUPS and Utilising spare slots in a tape library

[markhoward]

Hi,

I've got ARCserve v9 with the Tape Library Option installed and am currently creating an automated backup solution.

Our weekly backup (done on a Friday) utilises 7 tapes and each daily backup (Monday to Thursday) utilises 4 tapes (23 tapes in total).

I have 30 slots in my tape library and am planning on performing my backups using groups.

I am going to assign slots 1 to 7 as a group called WEEKLY then 8 to 11 as a group called MONDAY, 12 to 15 as a group called TUESDAY etc, etc…

I then plan to create a job for the weekly backup which utilises the WEEKLY group, a job for the Monday backup which utilises the MONDAY group, a job for the Tuesday backup which utilises the TUESDAY group etc, etc…

The operator will then just ensure that the correct tapes are in correct slots every week (i.e. he will ensure that the weekly tapes are in slots 1 to 7 etc...).

Firstly, will this work? It sounds quite logical but I know computers aren’t always logical. In fact they’re sometimes downright stupid.

Secondly, assuming our backups will grow, and that I will have around 7 slots spare. Is there any way to configure these spare slots to come to life in the scenario that the weekly backup requires 8 tapes all of a sudden but there is no operator around to see this till Monday morning?

 

[speshalyst]

HI,


What you have drafted might work provided your server doesnt turn out to be downright stupid

You can create a ROTATION job from the BAB 9 backup manager.
The Process is detailed on the BrightStor manual...

Please read thru this.. ( though i know Network Admins never seem to have the time to do this )

Feel free to write back...


cheers
Speshalyst




So it Shall be Written!
So it Shall be Done!!

 

[ajtmcse]

What you want to do is create a GFS rotation backup job. Here is an excerpt from the Arcserve 9 help file.

"The GFS strategy is a method of maintaining backups on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. GFS backup schemes are based on a seven-day weekly schedule, beginning any day. A full backup is performed at least once a week. All other days, full, partial, or no backups are performed. The daily backups are the Son. The last full backup in the week (the weekly backup) is the Father. The last full backup of the month (the monthly backup) is the G
randfather.

By default, you can re-use daily media after six days. Weekly media can be overwritten after five weeks have passed since it was last written to. Monthly media are saved throughout the year. These can and should be taken off-site for storage. You can change any of these media rotation defaults to suit your particular environment.
Note: A five-day GFS rotation scheme requires 21 media-per-year, while a seven-day scheme requires 23 media-per-year.
The primary purpose of the GFS scheme is to suggest a minimum standard and consistent interval at which to rotate and retire the media."

© 2003 Computer Associates International, Inc. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

 

[markhoward]

Ok, so what you guys are basically saying is that creating groups in the way I described will work, but that I should simplify the backup jobs by using rotation or GFS.

Yeah?

 

[mohamdr]

Hi
Yes it will works but your way it require human intervention wherease GFS doesn't need it everything is automated.

regards,
mohamdr