Setting 1 full / month then differential on the same tape...

[mrdindon]

Good day,

I've been trying for days to setup the following scenario without success :

-On the first monday of each month, Do a full backup
-Then the rest of the month, do a differential on the same tape. (1 tape per month.)

-Do not do a differential the 1st monday of the month since a full is scheduled..

I want to do it like that because we really dont have a lot of data... around 50gb per month...

Any idea ? any suggestions ? All your help is appreciated !!

Thanks a lot !&jscallback=

 

[davidmichel]

setup 2 custom jobs
1 Day of Month - full runs on the 1st
2 Every - runs every day differential, have this job start after the start time of 1 with a 5min. timeout. worse case it runs but who cares since it won't find anything to backup since the Full just cleared all the Archive bits.

 

[mrdindon]

Yes but what happen if the 1st fo the month happen on a sunday...

-If I change the tape friday before, it will do a differential on the next month tape ?

-If I change it lately (next monday), it will try to happen the new full on the last month tape

... it is erally confusing !! all your help is really appreciated !

 

[mrdindon]

I know I change it a little bit ( 1st monday vs 1st of the month) ... I don't know yet what's the best.... any recommendations ?

 

[davidmichel]

Sorry I was going to fast and not paying enough attention.

Repeat Method Weeks of Month
First Monday

That said, since you asked for recommendations...

What's best is what's best for your location.

Sometimes it is difficult because someone comes from a different setup such as mainframe backup and they have it stuck in their mind the backup needs to be done the same way.

If you are not sure then spend some time to do a real evaluation for things like:
total amount of data
average increase in data
what data is vital and what is of minor importance
how often does vital data change
how often is there a need to restore data
what type of data gets restored
how much is the data worth
what would it cost to replace it

realistically tape is cheap
now compare the cost of a tape to the above values
for most locations it is penny wise dollar foolish to put a month's worth of backups onto one tape