Tape Job - Backup Window

[Peter_Riederer]

Hi,

will there be a backup window function for tape jobs in future too, like in normal backup jobs?
Currently i have the problem, if the customer forgot to enter or change the Tape, the job will never be terminated. This has do be done manually then.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards

Peter

[veremin]

Could elaborate on what you’re trying to achieve a little bit? I’m wondering what particular option you’re after. “Prohibit job execution during the specified interval” or “Terminate the job if it exceeds allowed backup window”?Thanks.

[Peter_Riederer]

Terminate the job if it exceeds allowed backup window

[Dima P.]

Peter,

Thank you for clarification. Currently, if the tape is not loaded / or there is no clear media to create a media set (in case you use option to create a new media set for each backup session) the job will sit in the idle status unless the new media is loaded. I am interested what negative impact you see in this scenario for your infrastructure?

Thank you in advance.

[Peter_Riederer]

Dmitry,

i have a schedulded daily Backup to Disk job from monday to thursday. and a backup to tape job which runs directly after the backup to disk job is finished.
and i have a scheduled weekly Backup to Disk job on Friday, and a backup to tape job which runs directly after.

e.g:
User forgot to insert the monday's tape. Backup to Disk Job will be successfull, but Backup to tape started and is waiting for a tape.
On tuesday the user inserts the tuesday's tape. Will the still running Backup to Tape Job from Monday immediately use the Tuesday's tape?
If yes, then the Backup to Tape Job for Tuesday cant use the tape anymore due to retention policy and is waiting for a correct tape again.
When this happens i have the backups on the wrong tapes. Currently we dont use media sets, would this provide any advantages?

sorry for my poor english, but i hope you can understand my problem.

Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Peter,

Will the still running Backup to Tape Job from Monday immediately use the Tuesday's tape?

Yes. Backup to tape job sits in idle status unless the new tape is loaded - when it happens all the restore points created before plus just created restore point would be written on tape.

Backup to Tape Job for Tuesday can’t use the tape anymore due to retention policy and is waiting for a correct tape again

Could you please elaborate: what retention would prevent backup to tape job to write restore points which were created while backup to tape job was waiting for a new media?

Currently we don’t use media sets

Media set is a bunch of tapes (or one tape) taken from the specified media pool for backup to tape job/file to tape job, and it is created/or used each time backup to tape job run. Media pool settings would allow you to specify media set creation option and create tape retention.

I suggest you to use the following options on Media Pool:

- Do not create; continue using the current media set;
- Never overwrite data

This would ensure you would have every backup written on tape that is currently loaded into the drive, and data would not be overwritten. However when you are out of space - you would need to change tape media anyway.

As for backup to tape window, we have this option in backup to tape job settings > schedule >As new backup files appear – Schedule button. You can select time window when job would not look after the new backups created during the specified time period. In case the job would exceed time window it will continue to run unless the backup to tape finishes, but again it should not terminate job.

For the detailed explanation of all Media Pool / Backup to Tape options please refer to User Guide p.424 where all the settings are fully described
Thank you.

[Peter_Riederer]

Dmitry,

i think i missunderstood something, but thanks for your detailed explanation:

Currently we have 3 MediaPools (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) each of them has a retention policy (6 days, 3 weeks, 11 month)
and the option "- Do not create; continue using the current media set; - Never overwrite data" is choosen on all 3 MediaPools.
Hence i think it should be okay now.

Thanks anyway.

[arielcabral]

Hey guys,

I'm reactivating this thread, as I have the same issue as stated on the first message

Let's say I have (as an example) just one drive, and two media pools
MediaP 1 (daily backups)
MediaP 2 (weekly backups)

Job 1 starts, there is no tape for that pool, and the drive goes to idle status waiting for tape: Tape drive goes locked
Counting that Job 2 starts, and MediaP 2 has available tapes, the tape job cannot start because tape drive is locked by Job 1

Is there a way to have a tape job window so the job gets cancelled if it kept waiting for tapes for too long?

Thanks a bunch,
Ariel

[Dima P.]

Ariel,
In the existing implementation you can adjust the default waiting for tape timer via regkey (in minutes):

Code: Select all

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication 
DWORD WaitForValidTapeTimeoutMin