Simple 1-Time MultiTape Archive

[benace]

Hey All-

Ok, I know this should be REALLY simple... but for some reason ArcServe is making my hair turn grey. I'm able to put together some moderately complex GFS rotations, but a simple archive is driving me insane! I was wondering if someone could give me some step-by-steps to accomplish the following:

I have an array of 8 servers, all Win2k, that I want a 1-time archive of so I can stick them in a safe some where and start deleting replicated data that's been sitting on our file servers (backups of data stores, program files, installation executables, etc). Stuff that never gets used, but we don't want to lose.

I have a compaq StorageWorks SSL2020 with a 19 tape magazine. I have allotted 4 tapes for this operation, which should be WAY more than enough. I'm not using any file agents, just picking the C$/D$/E$ etc from MS Windows Networking in ARCserve. I just want to get one massive job to back up all the data over a weekend, and get it over with. Here's what I tried:

I emptied the magazine except for the 4 tapes I'm using.
Performed an inventory
Went to Device Manager, and formatted each tape:
Archive_1
Archive_2
Archive_3
Archive_4

I did not assign them to a media pool
I did assign them to the "Archive" device group
Each tape has a sequence number of 1 (i'm assuming this is part of my problem)

I then went back to device manager, and mounted the magazine

I created the job, picking all the files/shares I wanted backed up, told it to back up to the Archive Device Group.

I then started the job

The job went on for 22hrs, and after ~60-70gb, it popped up a message "please mount blank media". Perplexed, I tried doing the mount magazine again... tried doing an inventory, etc... nothing worked. had to cancel the job.

I don't mind erasing everything and starting over - i've got plenty of time. I just need to know the exact steps to go through to do a one-time NON-ROTATION backup that spans up to four tapes - and have it start on the first tape, filling each one sequentially. Please be specific as I'm not terribly familiar with ARCServe - other than I know it's very process oriented and things have to be done in a very specific order. Thanks again!!!

-ben

Ben McMahon
Perry's Ice Cream
ben.mcmahon@perrysicecream.com

 

[Cyklops]

Ben,

when you use standard rotation or GFS rotation jobs you, in fact, hand over the administration of tapes to ARCserve.
This includes the naming of tapes and the rules for overwriting media. With the standard rotation scheme you specify the name of the tapes ( all on a WEEKLY basis - you cannot, for example setup an odd/even ( two-weeks ) rotation scheme ) and you can set the rules for protecting tapes within the 'save'and 'scratch' sets.
With GFS you can only specify a 'media pool prefix' which will be part of the tape name - the rest will be backup type, day and date - and you can specify the rules for the three GFS media pools that will be created by ARCserve.
In order for ARCserve to build thes rotation schemes it will, by default, ask you for blank media, simply because ARCserve MUST format in order to name them according to the media pool settings. After being formatted and used for backups the tapes become part of the save and scratch sets and will only be overwritten according to the media pool rules.
This is the way it works, you'll have to do some testing on this I guess. I hope this is clear to you

regards