shankshank
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Backup Plan
I am trying to figure out a IT company policy for backups, and here is what I have come up with.
We are using Veritas Backup Exec 10d, on a standalone server with a terabyte of space and lt0 tape drive.
We have daily (mon-thur) differential tapes set 1 and 2. Set 1 runs odd months and set 2 runs even months. After a month, the set is taken off site and stored, until next month when it returns. Upon arrival, it is fully formatted and used again.
On Fridays, I run a full backup. The last friday backup is archived as a monthly.
Month 1
M T W T F
D1 D1 D1 D1 W1
D1 D1 D1 D1 W2
D1 D1 D1 D1 W3
D1 D1 D1 D1 W4
Month 2
M T W T F
D2 D2 D2 D2 W1
D2 D2 D2 D2 W2
D2 D2 D2 D2 W3
D2 D2 D2 D2 W4
So around 9PM, we have a script which dumps our SQL databases from servers to a local folder on that particular server. From there was thinking to copy that SQL dump file to a folder on the backupserver, which the backup jobs incorporate.
When backups run, they run to the backup server, and then a duplicate backup job runs immediately to copy it to tape.
This is pretty much what I have thought about so far, any help on changes, more efficient use, etc would be great. The confusion comes when trying to manually delete the SQL dumps on the backupserver folder, so that every days don't get backed up to every newer tape.
We are using Veritas Backup Exec 10d, on a standalone server with a terabyte of space and lt0 tape drive.
We have daily (mon-thur) differential tapes set 1 and 2. Set 1 runs odd months and set 2 runs even months. After a month, the set is taken off site and stored, until next month when it returns. Upon arrival, it is fully formatted and used again.
On Fridays, I run a full backup. The last friday backup is archived as a monthly.
Month 1
M T W T F
D1 D1 D1 D1 W1
D1 D1 D1 D1 W2
D1 D1 D1 D1 W3
D1 D1 D1 D1 W4
Month 2
M T W T F
D2 D2 D2 D2 W1
D2 D2 D2 D2 W2
D2 D2 D2 D2 W3
D2 D2 D2 D2 W4
So around 9PM, we have a script which dumps our SQL databases from servers to a local folder on that particular server. From there was thinking to copy that SQL dump file to a folder on the backupserver, which the backup jobs incorporate.
When backups run, they run to the backup server, and then a duplicate backup job runs immediately to copy it to tape.
This is pretty much what I have thought about so far, any help on changes, more efficient use, etc would be great. The confusion comes when trying to manually delete the SQL dumps on the backupserver folder, so that every days don't get backed up to every newer tape.
If you setup SQL to do its backup to a UNC path on the backup server you won't have the problem of deleting the backup files after a day or two since the maintenance plan backup can be set to delete the files for you. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555128 tells how to setup SQL to backup to UNC.
ASKER
I was thinking about doing that, but then I realize if i backed up to the local drive, I would have some form of redundancy, and allowing me to restore with going to tape, unless the servre completely fails.
The plan looks good, but I recommend a regular schedule of checking the backups. Many times the backup runs for years, and when you need it you discover that all the tapes are blank because something went wrong and they were never tested. So get someone to restore a file from backup every month or so (hopefully someone different than the person who created them).
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ASKER
samb39 as for testing, I run a verify after the backup to tape is complete, but you are saying to actaully try and restore a file?
SOLUTION
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What i do is the following:
Mon - Thu - Week 1-4 giving me a full month of possible restores.
Fri - Weekly 1-12 giving 3 months of possible restores.
Last working day of each month - Monthly 1-12 thus giving a possible of a full year of backups.
Then on last day of each year you do a yearly tape for historic reasons. This tape is never overwritten.
Hope that helps