Tape Rotation

[gagz]

Hi-

I need help figuring out how to set up the tape rotation scheme I want. I want to have full backups on Sundays, with incrementals Mon-Thurs. I know in theory how to arrange a schedule for it in ArcServe, but I don't understand the concept of media pools and naming the tapes, etc. I have BrightStor 11. Any help or someone pointing me in the right direction for a good tutorial would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Marc

 

[davidmichel]

On the Schedule tab select Use Rotation Scheme.
From the drop down list select
7-day weekly incremental, full bkup Sunday
In the list of days select Friday and click Modify to change incremental to Off.
do the same for Saturday.

Tapes can either be erased to be automatically used or added to the media pool by right clicking (adding only works for formated tapes).

11.0 is old stuff already.
Here is the link to the 11.0 update page.

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/premium/storage/downloads/nt/11/basb11-patchmenu.asp

QO60378 154.3 MB 10/07/04 NT -BRIGHTSTOR ARCSERVE BACKUP r11.1 UPDATE - ENG

Here is the link to the 11.1 update page.

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/premium/storage/downloads/nt/111/basb111-patchmenu.asp

QO63594 119 MB 01/27/05 NT -BAB R11.1 SERVICE PACK 1 - ENGLISH

 

[gagz]

thanks for the post, but i'm still not sure i understand the media pools, do i not need to use them? I have very little experience with setting up a tape library, we are moving from a single drive server...

 

[davidmichel]

If you have a library the above is the simplest way. The default media pool settings work without modification needed.

If you have a stand alone tape drive then you can setup two different customer jobs, one for the full and one for the dailies and swap tapes as you see fit.

 

[StevenClary]

This is a very interesting topic, as I am having some frustration trying to get my environment working as well. We too have a stand alone drive.

I don't have a grasp on how to set things up so that they run smoothly and I can just walk in the server room once or twice a day and swap tapes.

Please comment on what I think have found out:

I have to use media pools for rotation schemes (right?). If I don't use pools, I end up having to stop jobs, free up the tape drive, format a new tape, and restart the job. Of course this is unacceptable.

What I had hoped would happen is that the current tape in the drive would be filled up, and then just simply ask for the next tape in the pool. What I think I am seeing is that if one job finishes (and perhaps it only used a 1/4 of the tape) and a new one starts, it wants a new tape (even though there is plenty of room to append on the first tape and they are both in the same media pool). Does this mean I might have to make one HUGE job out of my 6 different servers?

Should I do incrementals/differentials on the same media pool?

I think Im going lunch for the person who helps me sort this out. Feel free to contact me directly: Steve_clary@urmc.rochester.edu.

 

[DJB999]

The way we do this is daily, monday to thursday, weekly on every friday except a monthly on the last friday of the month. We only ever have one tape in and the rest are kept in a fire safe. We keep the monthly's but over write the other tapes.

 

[teles]

Ditto, with our tapes in these media pools:
The M-T tapes are "daily"
The Friday tapes are "friday"
The monthly tapes are "monthly".

The backup jobs themselves are set to use any tape from the appropriate pool. E.G. the monthly jobs use any tape from the "monthly" pool, which means I don't have to assign an individual tape to a job. I just open the previous month's saved job, change the start date and run it.

Also, as one of the job options, the tape is ejected after the job is completed. That way, no tape is overwritten because I forgot to change the tape.

 

[Chilibaby]

My jobs are set up the same way as teles and are working well. I am still learning the media pools myself; but, so far, my tapes are moving from saved to scratch sets as they are supposed too.

However, I am having an odd,intermittent problem that happens on the second format with tapes not being overwritten when they are supposed to be. The job just refuses to accept the tapes although they are not in the saved pool and should be over-written. Has anyone else had this situation come up? If so, what did you do to correct the problem?

Thanks in advance!

Kay