Backup Tape Rotation Schedule

[Bill86]

I am creating a new backup tape rotation schedule for my server. I would like to have backup on 30 days of data. Any ideas?

 

[JockMullin]

Hi, Bill.

Well, you could use 30 tapes (grin). A bit expensive, wot?

My environment involves weekly and month-end processing,
like many operations, so I want to ensure I have good
backups at end of week and end of month.

The cycle uses 10 tapes:

MTWTF - one for each day of the week.
However there are 4 Friday tapes, and when
Friday comes the oldest one is used. Then it gets
taken off-site and becomes a weekly tape.
There are 3 other weekly tapes, the oldest one
gets brought back for use the following Friday.
The first Friday tape of each month becomes a
monthly tape, of which there are two.

Thus there are 10 tapes:

MTWTF - dailys
WWW - weeklies
MM - monthlies.

That way I have daily backups for the last week,
weeklies for the last month and monthlies for
the last 2 months.

At least 3 times in the last couple of years I have
gone back to the oldest monthly to recover something
that didn't get noticed until month-end.

BTW I also rotate the MTWT dailies with weeklies on
a non-specific schedule to ensure all tapes get
similar usage.

Tapes more than 3 years old get replaced.

Complicated but it works for me.

Brgds
Jock

 

[Bill86]

Thanks Jock! That sounds like a good system. I'll develop a schedule based on your model.
Bill