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dgreer1201

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Proper Setup for BackupExec

I'm relatively new to BackupExec, so I wanted to put this question out there to make sure I have BackupExec setup and optimized properly.For our work environment, we have 4 servers we are backing up.........which I will refer to as Server A, Server B, Server C, and Server D.  This is BackupExec 2010 R3.  I am performing a differential backup Monday - Friday, with a Full Backup on Saturday.  Under job setup, this is the way I currently have the jobs setup and named:
Disk - Monday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER A
Tape - Monday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER A (duplicate)
Disk - Monday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER B
Tape - Monday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER B (duplicate)
.....etc etc....
Disk - Tuesday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER A
Tape - Tuesday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER A (duplicate)
Disk - Tuesday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER B
Tape - Tuesday Daily Differential Backup - SERVER B (duplicate)

You kinda get the idea.  I also do the same exact for the Weekly Full on Saturday.  Under the media setup..........I created a new media folder for each day of the week.  I also associated each of the tape barcode labels with the corresponding media folder.  For example.........on Monday's tape, the barcode is MO10000L2.  I associated it with the Monday media folder.  Also, under job setup, I pointed each of the Monday TAPE duplicate jobs to the Monday media folder.  Does all of this appear to be setup correctly so far?

Also, one of the concerns I have is the B2D folder.  For the Backup to Disk, we are actually using a Drobo unit (8 TB) through an ISCSI connection.  This is just showing up as the local E: drive on the server.  This drive seems to be filling up extremely quickly.  I believe I know why, but I'm not sure if I need to change it.  I noticed that, by default, the B2D folder is using the Media Set "Keep Data 4 Weeks".  I guess it won't start overwriting any of this data until those 4 weeks are up.  I know a lot depends on company data retention requirements.......but the company has never set any retention requirements.  Is it really necessary to keep it overwrite protected for 4 weeks???  Would you recommend creating a new media folder, naming it maybe "Keep Data 1 Week", and only keep it 1 week?  I'm not really sure what I need to do here.  Looking for suggestions.  

Sorry for the long post.  But since this software is new to me..........I just wanted to make sure I have it setup properly (optimized).  Looking for suggestions.
Thanks!
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chakko
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Backup jobs and policy is really different for each company, you should bring up the subject and discuss it then come to an agreement what the policy should be.

Since you are backing up the Tape and Disk, I would guess that your B2D can be a short period. 1 or 2 weeks, that will give a faster restore procedure from Disk for recent data.

The Tapes will be your long term archive for backups.  Do you have enough tapes for a 4 week history?


Just my thought.  
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dgreer1201

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Hi chakko,
Thanks for the reply.
Yes..........actually after doing some research on the GFS media rotation method, they recommend 19 or 20 tapes.  We only have 10 times right now..........but I will be ordering more.
As I understand it, the tape media rotation will look something like this:

1.)  Monday - Friday (son tapes).......reused each week (5 tapes)
2.)  Weekly Full Backup Saturday (father tapes)........use a different tape for each weekly full backup until the end of the month, and then start back on the first weekly full backup tape (4 tapes)
3.)  Monthly Full Backup (grandfather tapes).........at the end of each month, take a full backup, and then store this tape offsite permantely (12 tapes)

Does this look correct?  However...........I'm coming up with a total of 21 tapes.
This would be the method we are trying to achieve.
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chakko
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