Latest complete Chain to Tape

[f.neumann]

Hi,

i'm trying to get daily Disk to Tape (Backup to Tape Job) including latest full backup chain.
Source Backup Job is configured as foreward incremental with weekly full (active/synthetic) on saturday.

Backup to Tape Job should run daily. "Process latest full backup chain only" is activated, "Archive incremental backups to tape" as well (same standard media pool).
On first run after creation Tape Job transfers vbk from last saturday and all following vib until today to one tape - that's fine.
On all following runs every day Tape Job places only the latest vib on tape - no vbk, no previous vib... = no full chain...

Is this expected behavoiur? Is there any other way to get the latest COMPLETE CHAIN to tape on every run?
Or is the only way to achieve this by changing all source Backup Jobs to Reverse Incremental (with all its disadvantages)?

Am i missing any checkbox to reach my goal? As on first run after Job creation behavoiur is like i want it to be everyday/run.

Thanks in advance!
Florian

[HannesK]

Hello,

Is this expected behavoiur?

yes, that's correct.

For the synthetic full backup jobs, you could switch to forever forward incremental and then enable daily virtual synthetic fulls. That sounds better to me, than having all the VIBs on tape.

For active full jobs it's tricky... file-to-tape could be a way, but that's ugly. So for active full, reverse incremental is the easier way.

Best regards,
Hannes

[jcalvetm]

My customer also wants full backup on tape daily.

As said just above

Backup jobs configured as forever forward incremental
Tape job with virtual synthetic full scheduled Monday to friday (Tape drive is stand alone and tapes are changed manually - nobody changes them on the weekend, so Sat and Sun incrementals are added to Fri tape.)

Hope it works.

[HannesK]

Hello,

Backup jobs configured as forever forward incremental

hmm, above you say with "weekly full (active/synthetic) on saturday." I really man forever forward incremental without any full backup.

Hope it works.

only with forever forward incremental without synthetic / active full.

Best regards,
Hannes

[jcalvetm]

hmm, above you say with

HannesK,

Maybe my mistake. Original message was from f.neumann and I Posted a reply, just simply because I found myself in the same situation and i thought I could help.

My customer also wanted Full backup on tape everyday. Not negotiable.

To solve this situation I configured Forever forward incremental with X restoration points (First backup is full and when X backups are on disk, new full is created consolidating existing full with oldest incremental). Just configured the number of disk restore points and no Fulls (No synthetic / No Active)

Then I configure a tape job with virtual Full (Tape job / properties / Media pool / Schedule button / Full backups / and on selected days I choose all days) -tape is secondary destination to all disk backup jobs-. This is how I get a full backup on every tape. In my case tape drive is stand alone drive (Tape is manually changed daily and erased before every backup)

In my case, it works. I have got a vbk file in every tape.

Sorry if I caused some confusion.

Best regards

[HannesK]

Hello,
ah well... I did not check the name, as your question fits perfect to the situation

Glad to hear that it works as suggested.

Best regards,
Hannes

[ITStaff]

I have this same problem. Incrementals, with weekly active fulls on main backup job. A brand new tape job will do exactly what I want, copy the latest backup chain: The VBK and all its VIBs. However on day 2, I only get a VIB. I need the full backup chain on the tape, how can I get this without rebuilding the tape job every day?

[HannesK]

Hello,
as mentioned above, there options:
1) switch to forever forward incremental without active / synthetic full
2) switch to reverse incremental (that allows active full)

Changing the product would be another option, but it will not happen in foreseeable future.

The question for me would be, why active full is really needed. Is it a compliance thing or is there a technical reason for that?

Best regards,
Hannes