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Power Vault 132T backup Strategies
I have found lots of info here but not exactly what I am looking for so I am looking for a little more help. Here is what I have:
PowerEdge Server running Backup Exec 11d and CPS
PowerVault MD3000 - 4TB in a RAID 10 Config so really only half that is usable though
PowerVault 132T using both drives and I have a total of 30 tapes on hand to use
I will be doing backup 2 disk to the MD3000 and then backing up to tape
Here is what I am wanting to accomplish:
1. I am looking for help in getting the most out of this setup
2. With the amount of tapes i have what is the best rotation schedule?
3. Once I have a rotation schedule set how do i know wich cartridge I would take out and how do i get the tapes that I want out into that cartridge?
I will probably have more questions but want to start with those
PowerEdge Server running Backup Exec 11d and CPS
PowerVault MD3000 - 4TB in a RAID 10 Config so really only half that is usable though
PowerVault 132T using both drives and I have a total of 30 tapes on hand to use
I will be doing backup 2 disk to the MD3000 and then backing up to tape
Here is what I am wanting to accomplish:
1. I am looking for help in getting the most out of this setup
2. With the amount of tapes i have what is the best rotation schedule?
3. Once I have a rotation schedule set how do i know wich cartridge I would take out and how do i get the tapes that I want out into that cartridge?
I will probably have more questions but want to start with those
ASKER
Thanx, for the info. That brings me to some more questions.
1. Is there any way to setup a script or a setting in BUE that can automatically export the tape(s)?
2. Once you export the tape do you just put another one into the I/O slot to take its place?
3. Also how would it work if the backup spans more than one tape would I just go in and export each one? I will be backing up about 11 servers.
4. How do you have your backup jobs setup, do you have one job or are you running more than one?
1. Is there any way to setup a script or a setting in BUE that can automatically export the tape(s)?
2. Once you export the tape do you just put another one into the I/O slot to take its place?
3. Also how would it work if the backup spans more than one tape would I just go in and export each one? I will be backing up about 11 servers.
4. How do you have your backup jobs setup, do you have one job or are you running more than one?
1) Yes, there is a setting to export the tape after a job completes, it is in the job set up. All it does is leave the tape in the laoding slot so you can pull it out.
2) We only load tapes once a week (Monday) when the Boss brings in a weeks worth of tapes in one go. I load them all tape by tape and then spend the rest of the week just removing each tape as it is written to. This saves too much hassle with him having to bring in a tape at a time.
3) If the backup uses two tapes, just right hand click on each one and export.
4) We have one job that runs each day. Our system here does not work with incremental backups due to the software we use and the files it creates. So on ejob does us fine.
Since you have a lot of spare disk space, I would look at doing Backup to disks (create a backup to disk folder and direct your backups to it) on top of the tape backup. I don't know how critical the data is but you could say do daily disk backups and then a weekly tape which you remove.
How much data are you looking to backup? Are you using the CPS for your Exchange server? And what sort of criticality soes your data have, i.e if it was lost, how much of a business impact would it have?
2) We only load tapes once a week (Monday) when the Boss brings in a weeks worth of tapes in one go. I load them all tape by tape and then spend the rest of the week just removing each tape as it is written to. This saves too much hassle with him having to bring in a tape at a time.
3) If the backup uses two tapes, just right hand click on each one and export.
4) We have one job that runs each day. Our system here does not work with incremental backups due to the software we use and the files it creates. So on ejob does us fine.
Since you have a lot of spare disk space, I would look at doing Backup to disks (create a backup to disk folder and direct your backups to it) on top of the tape backup. I don't know how critical the data is but you could say do daily disk backups and then a weekly tape which you remove.
How much data are you looking to backup? Are you using the CPS for your Exchange server? And what sort of criticality soes your data have, i.e if it was lost, how much of a business impact would it have?
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ASKER
When doing backup to disk how can I have the b2d folder renamed to like the date and then another folder created and named b2d? And then how can I get the backup to disk device back online without user intervention? Another question would be is this even the correct way to do this? I need to keep a certain amount of b2d backups available on the md3000 and do not want it to be overwritten or appended to it needs to be seperate for each day if that makes sense. I was checking out the mdate util but not sure that it can create a folder that is named something other than a date, any input on this or another util that would work for doing this?
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thanx for the input I have went with a GFS rotation with backups to disk and then duplicating to tape with export jobs to kick out the tapes. One problem i am having is with the duplicate to tape I am only getting 4mb/min speeds most of the time other times I get up to 2000MB/min has anyone seen this before?
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Updating the firmware and drivers fixed the problem. Thanks for everyones help.
we have a PV132T and what we do is:
Full nightly backup.
Each tape is taken out and kept off site.
Saturday tape goes to my house
Sunday Tape goes to Boss's house
Once a month a tape is taken out of the loop and kept permanently.
Our tapes are on a 27 day overwrite cycle so that whatever the month, they are ready to overwrite in time for the next time they are used.
In BUE, you see which tape was used in the Job Report. I then export that tape. But to be honest it is easier than that because in Devices, the next tape is coloured blue (overwritable) so I know that the tape beore that is last nights backup and I can remove it.
To remove, right hand click and export. It will move it for you and it appears in the I/O slot ready to take out. We don't use the cartridges at all unless loading in bulk, which we only do once.