sniperlc
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Making copy of tapes
Hi all,
We are using Veritas BackupExec to make backup of system on tapes such as DLT IV, SDLT I, and LTO I tapes. However, my boss wants to have an extra copy of the tapes that we've made. Does anyone have idea of how this can be done?
Thanks,
Ed
We are using Veritas BackupExec to make backup of system on tapes such as DLT IV, SDLT I, and LTO I tapes. However, my boss wants to have an extra copy of the tapes that we've made. Does anyone have idea of how this can be done?
Thanks,
Ed
ASKER
I believe that can be done for the subsequent month end/year end backups. However the problem I'm facing now is about those that we've already done. For example, an extra copy of last year's year end backup would be what my boss like to have. Would there be any solution that would allow for tape duplication in this fashion (either in house or via a 3rd party vendor)?
Not that I'm aware of..(so I won't say 'impossible').
Seems to me that you'd either need two tape drives chained together (even IF that's possible to read from one and write from the other - which I doubt)
or a 'test' server to restore to and then back up onto another tape...
To me, only the latter sounds feasible...
Seems to me that you'd either need two tape drives chained together (even IF that's possible to read from one and write from the other - which I doubt)
or a 'test' server to restore to and then back up onto another tape...
To me, only the latter sounds feasible...
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I am suprised that Backup Exec does not have a tape copy function.
(Sorry but I've only briefly tried out Backup Exec so I'm not up on it's details)
If is has a RAID Level 1 (mirroring) option you can use that for future backups instead of the double backup method.
As for the old tapes a lower cost in $s but not in time solution is to setup an empty volume and then restore the tape to the volume and back it up to another tape.
(Sorry but I've only briefly tried out Backup Exec so I'm not up on it's details)
If is has a RAID Level 1 (mirroring) option you can use that for future backups instead of the double backup method.
As for the old tapes a lower cost in $s but not in time solution is to setup an empty volume and then restore the tape to the volume and back it up to another tape.
I have seen rackmount devices, (1U IIRC) with two tape drives in a single enclosure.
Feature set in the ad listed,
Spanning, (Fill tape a, notify backup program of tape change, and start writing to tape b)
Mirroring, (Same data written to both tapes)
Striping, (Just like RAID0 for better backup performance)
Offline copy, and offline compare, (Compare to mirrored tapes, to check accuracy of job, or duplicate a tape without involving the server.)
Sorry, but it was a really long time ago.
An Automated tape library may be able to do the same thing, if it has more than one drive,
Frankly I'd recommend doing a full backup on two consecutive days, first one goes off-site, after the next full backup occurs,
A Grandfather, Father, Son, rotation should work as well.
4 tapes re-used once a week, 5 tapes re-used once a month, 12 tapes re-used once a year.
Feature set in the ad listed,
Spanning, (Fill tape a, notify backup program of tape change, and start writing to tape b)
Mirroring, (Same data written to both tapes)
Striping, (Just like RAID0 for better backup performance)
Offline copy, and offline compare, (Compare to mirrored tapes, to check accuracy of job, or duplicate a tape without involving the server.)
Sorry, but it was a really long time ago.
An Automated tape library may be able to do the same thing, if it has more than one drive,
Frankly I'd recommend doing a full backup on two consecutive days, first one goes off-site, after the next full backup occurs,
A Grandfather, Father, Son, rotation should work as well.
4 tapes re-used once a week, 5 tapes re-used once a month, 12 tapes re-used once a year.
>>An Automated tape library may be able to do the same thing, if it has more than one drive,<<
We've used dual-tape drive libraries and this feature was not available; though in our case it was a software (& licensing) issue as opposed to a hardware limitation.
We've used dual-tape drive libraries and this feature was not available; though in our case it was a software (& licensing) issue as opposed to a hardware limitation.
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Friday's job has a 27-day overwrite protection and Saturday's has only a 6 day so it can be reused the following week...