Tape Retention Question

[sconley]

We have a new Quantum Scalar i3 to use as an air gapped backup target. Currently all of our backup jobs are configured as forever incremental with either 30 or 45 day retention. Currently I have the media pools set to match the retention of the source jobs, and the tape jobs each have scheduled weekly virtual full backups. On the initial run the tape job copies the .vbk and all corresponding .vib files from the linked backup job to disk, which is expected. However, due to the nature of tape, this initial media set will not expire for 30 (or 45) days. At which point the data is actually twice as old (potentially) as what our retention specifies. Is there a way to make this more closely match what our disk retention is? What would happen if I set the media pools to only protect the data for 7 or 14 days in the case we decide it is okay to have a shorter retention on tape?

[Dima P.]

Hello Sean

Is there a way to make this more closely match what our disk retention is?

You can use create media set per backup session option in the media pool properties. In this case tapes will contain only the backup files for the single tape job run and retention will match. However, with such approach media set will be closed and wont be used by the next tape job run, so you might loose some remaining free space on the tape media.

What would happen if I set the media pools to only protect the data for 7 or 14 days in the case we decide it is okay to have a shorter retention on tape?

Tape will be expired on the 7th or 14th day despite the retention of your restore point written to tape. Cheers!

[sconley]

You can use create media set per backup session option in the media pool properties. In this case tapes will contain only the backup files for the single tape job run and retention will match. However, with such approach media set will be closed and wont be used by the next tape job run, so you might loose some remaining free space on the tape media.

If I am understanding this correctly this would essentially re-copy everything on each run. At this point could I set the retention to one day? This doesn't seem like the ideal approach.

Tape will be expired on the 7th or 14th day despite the retention of your restore point written to tape. Cheers!

Since we have the virtual full backups weekly, as long as we have this plus any relevant incremental backups would we be able to restore to any point in time in that 7 or 14 day period, or at least since that virtual full backup?

[Dima P.]

Hi Sean,

If I am understanding this correctly this would essentially re-copy everything on each run. At this point could I set the retention to one day?

If the retention of your tape media is larger that retention of your disk backups, then data wont be copied twice.

Since we have the virtual full backups weekly, as long as we have this plus any relevant incremental backups would we be able to restore to any point in time in that 7 or 14 day period, or at least since that virtual full backup?

Sounds right. Incremental backups will rely on the virtual full backup, and will be operational unless such virtual full backup remains on tape. Cheers!