Tape from Backup Copy - most recent point ignored

[skrause]

I have been noticing this for a while now and it is getting to be annoying. When you use a backup copy job as a source job for Backup to Tape jobs, the most recent restore point is always ignored with a message "no restore point for {date&time} available, using previous restore point". In the case of new copy jobs that have just the initial full, this results in it ignoring the source job entirely and "succeeding" without copying any data.

I thought maybe this was because the job had the most recent point locked while waiting for the next interval to start so I disabled all my copy jobs before running the tape job and it still ignored the most recent point.

We run our copy jobs on a 1 week interval to keep 5 weeks of restore points in a secondary location which happens to have our tape library connected to it for our monthly tape jobs.

[veremin]

That's by design. More information can be found in the User Guide:

If the source job is backup copy job, keep in mind that the last restore point of the backup copy job stays active until the next restore point is created. The tape job does not copy such active points, because they may be updated. For this reason, the backup chain on tape will be always one restore point shorter than on disk.

So, the best idea would be synchronize both start time of tape job and start time of new sync interval of backup copy job.

Thanks.

[skrause]

Does it treat GFS restore points the same way? We purchased some additional backup storage and may have enough space available to hold GFS points but if it ignores the most recent point that again will cause us issues.

[veremin]

You mean GFS restore points created by backup copy job? Nope, most recent GFS restore point won't be ignored, because it's not the point that will be modified within currently opened interval. Thanks.

[Thrawn]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to optimize the daily cycle of my backup to tape jobs.

I have 2 sites : a datacenter and a local site.
In the Datacenter, I have the main backup server that manages every jobs with a large repository.
On the local site, I have another server that is used as a backup copy repository and that is connected to a library with 2 drives.

My backups jobs are done on daily basis to the first server, then a backup copy job replicates the data to the secondary server, and finally there is a backup to tape job that uses the backup copy as a source.

I want to improve the delay between the end of the backup copy job and the beginning of the backup to tape job.
One example :
- Backup copy job cycle starts at 05:00
- Backup job starts at 19:00 and finishes at 23:00
- Once the backup job has ended, the backup copy job replicates immediately data to the local site.
- At 01:00, the replication has ended and the merge begins.
- To backup to tape from the backup copy job, I need to wait the end of the backup copy job cycle (5:00), otherwise the vib are not available. So I scheduled the backup to tape at 06:00.

Do you think there is a way to reduce the delay between the end of the backup copy job replication and the beginning of the backup to tape ?
I don't understand why vib files are locked until the end of the backup copy job cycle, even if there is no more replication running.

Thank you for your help.
Regards,
Pierre

[PTide]

Hi,

I wonder if the BCJ latest restore point gets copied to tape before the next one is created? The thing is that by design they should not be copied until the next restore point is created.

Thanks