Backup Software - Retrtospect 7 back up issue

Author

Retrtospect 7 back up issue

Inovic@gmail.com

2005-07-29, 5:49 pm

I have 4 Seagate 160 GB external drives and I want to configure a back
script to allow for the following:

--Disks are traded once a week
--Any disk can be used as the back up media

I have tried the following:

--Proactive Backup, not working even though I know files have changed
--all four disks as members in the same backup set, not working, always
looking for the initial member in the set

Can anyone provide me any guidance or direction?

Thanks

David Arnstein

2005-07-29, 5:49 pm

In article <1122665187.084339.173900@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
<Inovic@gmail.com> wrote:
>I have 4 Seagate 160 GB external drives and I want to configure a back
>script to allow for the following:
>
>--Disks are traded once a week
>--Any disk can be used as the back up media

I don't think you can fully automate this. Here is how I approximate
your scenario in Retrospect 6.5:

I create a backup script that has four backup sets defined. These would
be your four disks. The way Retrospect interprets this is that there
are four "potential" destinations available for use in schedules.

I create a backup job that uses the above backup script to control it.

I create a schedule for the above backup job. One of the properties of
this schedule is the destination. I set it to one of the four backup
sets.

Once a week, I change the destination of the above schedule. I haven't
automated this step. I don't know how to create a schedule that is "on"
for one week and then "off" the next three weeks. If I could do this,
then I would create four schedules, each one using a different backup
as its destination.

Here is something you could try. I have not attempted this method,
because it seems dangerous to me:

You create a backup script and backup job as above.

You create four schedules for the backup job. Each schedule uses a
different backup set (disk) as its destination. Other than that, the
four schedules are identical: they all occur at the same time.

You configure Retrospect to abort after waiting 5 minutes for media to
be "inserted."

You make sure that at any time, only one of your four disks (backup
sets) is connected to your computer.

As a result, three of your schedules will abort and one will succeed.
It may take up to 15 minutes for the schedules to give up and abort.

The reason that I consider this dangerous is that it could lead to you
filling the WRONG disk with data. There are special cases where a disk
is empty. It could lead to operator error. If you leave two or more
disks connected, then trouble.
--
David Arnstein
arnstein+usenet@pobox.com

Joe Rom King

2005-07-31, 7:46 am

With Relative Rev Backup it is doable.

Create 4 backup sets, each configured to backup into a different disk. You
can even set all of them to the same schedule (only the present disk will be
used, the other will be skipped). If you have two disks connected both of
them will be incrementally updated.

--
Joe Rom King - http://www.datamills.com

Hassle Free Eternal Incremental Backup to Disk Software

Slashing backup time & space; minimizing attention.

Extending data restore-reach beyond days and weeks.

"David Arnstein" <arnstein@panix.com> wrote in message
news:dce9rc$lea$1@reader2.panix.com...
> In article <1122665187.084339.173900@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> <Inovic@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't think you can fully automate this. Here is how I approximate
> your scenario in Retrospect 6.5:
>
> I create a backup script that has four backup sets defined. These would
> be your four disks. The way Retrospect interprets this is that there
> are four "potential" destinations available for use in schedules.
>
> I create a backup job that uses the above backup script to control it.
>
> I create a schedule for the above backup job. One of the properties of
> this schedule is the destination. I set it to one of the four backup
> sets.
>
> Once a week, I change the destination of the above schedule. I haven't
> automated this step. I don't know how to create a schedule that is "on"
> for one week and then "off" the next three weeks. If I could do this,
> then I would create four schedules, each one using a different backup
> as its destination.
>
> Here is something you could try. I have not attempted this method,
> because it seems dangerous to me:
>
> You create a backup script and backup job as above.
>
> You create four schedules for the backup job. Each schedule uses a
> different backup set (disk) as its destination. Other than that, the
> four schedules are identical: they all occur at the same time.
>
> You configure Retrospect to abort after waiting 5 minutes for media to
> be "inserted."
>
> You make sure that at any time, only one of your four disks (backup
> sets) is connected to your computer.
>
> As a result, three of your schedules will abort and one will succeed.
> It may take up to 15 minutes for the schedules to give up and abort.
>
> The reason that I consider this dangerous is that it could lead to you
> filling the WRONG disk with data. There are special cases where a disk
> is empty. It could lead to operator error. If you leave two or more
> disks connected, then trouble.
> --
> David Arnstein
> arnstein+usenet@pobox.com