incremental backups in cms

[TelcoRod]

Hi,
Is it ok to use a blank data cartrideg when doing an inremental backups in the cms? Or do I need first perfom a full backup on that tape before doing an inremental backup? Thanks.

 

[nohuhu]

TelcoRod,

when you run backup, it rewrites whatever there was on the tape so be careful NOT to put full backup tape when you want to do incremental.

 

[TelcoRod]

Thanks Dwalin for your immediate reply. So this means that incremetal backups can be run in a brand new data cartridge without any data written on it right? I'm asking this because our vendor told me that when I do incremental backups, I should first do a full backup on the said tape before doing the incremental. I'm a little bit confuse.

 

[Toni269]

They probably mean run the full backup on a separate tape. Here is the process I use to run backups in ASA:

[COLOR=blue yellow]CMS Backups:[/color]

Incremental = Daily- Call center data
o 5 Tapes Labeled Monday thru Friday Switch tapes each day Monday thru Friday

Full Maintenance = Every 30 days
o Insert new tape into the CMS Backup tape drive
o Log in via ASA and use cms login
o Terminal type is 615 [enter]
o $ cms [type in “cms” and enter]
o Terminal type is 615 [enter]
o Select “Maintenance”
o Select “Backup Data”
o Accept the defaults and press “Enter” to get to the menu in the upper right
o Select “Run” [enter to continue]
o Follow CMS routine, selecting enter to defaults, when complete, label the tape with the date as well as the information displayed by CMS as instructed & store in fire proof safe.
o Return the Incremental tape for the appropriate day back into the tape drive.

ADM = Only after patches or software changes, login as root at the # sign type “cmsadm”
o Insert new tape into the CMS Backup tape drive
o Log in via ASA and use cms login
o Terminal type is 615 [enter]
o $ su root [enter] [enter in root password, enter]
o # cmsadm [enter]
o Select “3” for Backup [enter]
o Press “Enter” when ready
o Follow CMS routine, selecting enter to defaults, when complete, label the tape with the date as well as the information displayed by CMS as instructed & store in fire proof safe.
o Return the Incremental tape for the appropriate day back into the tape drive.

 

[TelcoRod]

Your procedure looks good. I'll be applying this to our cms. Thank you very much for your helpp.

 

[AWYNOne]

Toni269, can you tell me what the difference between running an incremental backup and a full backup every day is?

My understanding is that if I miss tape replacement or the incremental doesn't run for some reason one day out of the week, and my CMS crashes two days later, the incremental data prior to the day I missed is no good.

Is it imperative to be running incremental instead of full on a daily basis?

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got!" Anonymous

 

[Toni269]

Sorry I don't know the answer to that question. I hope someone else will be able to respond with help. Thanks!

 

[jimbojimbo]

No mention as to what system you have or tape drives. In the newer systems with higher capacity tape drives, I don't know of any reason why you wouldn't run a full backup every day. The use of incremental backups was needed when all the data wouldn't fit on one tape. You would perform a full backup spanning several tapes and then run an incremental backup daily afterwards which would hopefully fit on one tape.

 

[Tolson]

If you have a newer system and a full maintenance backup fits on one tape do a full backup daily and do not do incrementals. make it easy on yourself.