GFS to TAPE second copy

[1Greeny]

Hi,

Trying to work out how to configure the second copy of GFS data to tape.
I have set up the GFS media pools and created a bunch of jobs and pointed them to my GFS copy jobs.

My copy jobs are set to create a monthly vbks at the end of the month and yearly on the last day of the year.
I have 30+ copy jobs running and a 4 drive library. The GFS media pools are each set to use no more than 2 drives per job.

My queries are:

how am I best to set up the jobs to copy the monthly vbks created by the copy jobs to tape?

My copy jobs only hold two active points so when month-end happens the monthly vbks are created once those vbks fall out of the active points, so generally, two days after month-end I see the copy job-creating GFS points. Do I set the Tape job to run on the 1st or later? If it runs later will it pick up the monthly or will it pick the active vbk?

Whats happens if it can't run due to the drives all being busy?
With so many jobs of all different sizes not everything will run on the day, from what I read I have 21 days in order to capture that required Monthly VBK, so will it scan every day and attempt when a drive is free?

I hope that makes sense!

[Dima P.]

Hello Iain,

how am I best to set up the jobs to copy the monthly vbks created by the copy jobs to tape?

Make sure that you run the monthly to tape at the same time when vbk is created by backup copy. This will be the most optimal way since synthetic full backup wont be required - tape job will simply pick full backup from disk instead.

Do I set the Tape job to run on the 1st or later? If it runs later will it pick up the monthly or will it pick the active vbk?

Tape jobs waits for the restore point for the day set in the schedule. If there is no restore point by the end of the scheduled day it will select the most recent restore point as a GFS candidate.

Whats happens if it can't run due to the drives all being busy? With so many jobs of all different sizes not everything will run on the day, from what I read I have 21 days in order to capture that required Monthly VBK, so will it scan every day and attempt when a drive is free?

Tape job starts and then awaits for the drive availability, so, basically, tape job will write data to tape as soon as it gets access to the drive. Cheers!

[1Greeny]

Hi thanks for the reply.
How do I set the schedule to use the GFS created?

So if GFS on the copy job is set at the end on the month do I need to set the tape to also generate at the end of the month?
As technically the VBK for the month-end doesn't get generated till about 2nd or 3rd as its still part of the active chain for 2 days.

[Dima P.]

Iain,

Now I get a better picture, thanks! Existing GFS restore points in the backup copy is not used for GFS on tape processing, so you can ignore those. Just set the desired schedule in the tape job and that's it.