Backup Exec Incrimental Backup Question

[Asgorath]

I have a question on how to best implement this idea in BackupExec 12. I'll tell you what I'm trying to do, and you tell me the best way to do it. Note, all servers are connected via gigE and are on modern hardware.

On server 'FILESERVER' I have a folder with millions of small files. These folders are hosted on an EMC SAN connected to the server via iSCSI. All servers mentioned from here-on-in have connections to the iSCSI network. I have another server, 'BACKUP' that has a very fast 1.5TB hard drive array and an LTO3 tape drive (400/800GB).

My goal is to be able to look at any file from any day. I would like to be able to look at the last 30 days from disk and be able to pull tapes if I have to go farther than that. I would also like the tapes to be set to never 'accidently' overwrite themselves if they are put in out of order. In other words, if there is a tape that gets pulled out of archive and it is put in the drive with a 'push to tape' operation pending, the operation should reject the archived tape. Also, I want AT MAX 2 tapes in long term archive per month.

Here are a few of my current methods...

1) I use the continuous protection server and keep a copy of the file system on the backup system. Because of the ridiculously large file structure, it takes over 25 hours to copy those files over the network. Pushing from local disk is the only time efficent way to do it, unless you have a better idea.

2) I use shadow copies and make 3-4 snapshots / day. This allows me to recovery a file from ~2 hours ago. Not to mention the ease of use compared to pulling tapes and using the backupExec recovery wizard.

3) Just an idea...but I was thinking of making a backup folder called 'Main Files'. Then doing a full backup to it on the first of the month, deleting the contents of that folder before every full backup. On the 2nd-31st I would make incremental backups to it daily. Then backup that folder to tape on working days (M-F). The last tape of the month would become that month's archive which would be moved to the company safe. Seems like a good idea, but I don't know how difficult recovery is off all those backup files.

4) Symantec has a neat web interface to BackupExec. Is this worth the trouble? Never looked into it that much.


I'm re-doing all the backup stuff around here. This is just one of many questions to come. Thanks in advance for the expertise and advice.

 

[Cmustang87]

I have some knowledge in BackupExec 12, but I am far from an expert. A few things I may be able to help you with:

1. Overwrite protection. This is fairly easy, if this is what you meant. What I gathered is that you want your tapes to be protected so they can't be written to "accidentally". There's an option in BE12 when you're creating your job.

[/URL][/IMG] Choose the option to "keep data infinitely". That will put the information on the tape to not allow it to be written to again.

2. If you're creating a tape backup for every day, you can go back as far as you want. You'll just need to catalog each tape as you put them in. Keep in mind though, this is a time consuming process. The easiest way to do it is to use ntbackup built into windows and catalog it through there.

I hope this helps.

 

[Asgorath]

I have some knowledge in BackupExec 12, but I am far from an expert. A few things I may be able to help you with:

1. Overwrite protection. This is fairly easy, if this is what you meant. What I gathered is that you want your tapes to be protected so they can't be written to "accidentally". There's an option in BE12 when you're creating your job.

[/URL][/IMG] Choose the option to "keep data infinitely". That will put the information on the tape to not allow it to be written to again.

2. If you're creating a tape backup for every day, you can go back as far as you want. You'll just need to catalog each tape as you put them in. Keep in mind though, this is a time consuming process. The easiest way to do it is to use ntbackup built into windows and catalog it through there.

I hope this helps.

Daily tapes get rotated. We would only archive once a month. We can't store 365 tapes / year. That is just out of hand. LTO3 tapes are ~$80/ apiece.

 

[Cmustang87]

We can't store 365 tapes / year. That is just out of hand. LTO3 tapes are ~$80/ apiece.

That's why I was quite a bit confused.