Two Nightly Backups > copy both to tape

[Clum2]

I've experimented with a few options for this scenario but none of them seems quite right. I have 9 Hyper-V VMs that I backup to disk each evening. Because of a lack of space, I have to split this into two backup jobs with each storing on a different disk. Job 02 runs after Job01 is complete. After these (incremental) jobs are both complete I want a full backup of all VMs to be written to tape.

My first instinct was to run a full backup of all VMs, copy it to tape and then delete the original (lack of disk space) but it doesn't seem to be as easy as that.

My latest attempt involves setting the Secondary Target for each of the incrementals to be Job03 (tape) and set each of them - in Advanced Settings - to Incremental with the option to "Create synthetic full backups periodically" for each week night that they run.

Will this achieve what I want it to? It seems a long way round to achieving what seems to be a simple need, though I accept my original backups being split complicates things a bit. I've read various posts here and this is my interpretation of what other people are advised to do - is that correct?

thanks

Clum2

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

There are several ways to get a full backup to tape every day. The easiest is probably the "virtual synthetic full" which requires a backup job in "forever forward incremental" mode. In the tape job, set the schedule in the media pool "specify virtual full" to every day.

Another option would be to have a backup job that creates a synthetic full every day. That is "for free" (from a disk space perspective), as long as you use XFS / REFS (block cloning)

The last option that comes into my mind is using reverse incremental backup mode (not recommended).

Best regards,
Hannes

[Clum2]

Hi Hannes,
Thanks for getting back to me. I think your first option ("virtual synthetic full") is what I managed to get to yesterday from various other posts I've seen here. Unfortunately my tape drive threw an error last night and nothing was written to tape

I've run a cleaner tape through it and hopefully all will be better tonight - I'll let you know how it goes.

[Clum2]

This all seems to be working for me now - thanks for your help!

Calum