tape jobs configuration best practice

[antran]

Hello
We want to build the below tape strategy
Daily- We copy the latests backup from disk to tape at 12AM every day except Saturday (use normal tape job) --> Keep for 28 days
Weekly- We copy the backup from disk to tape at 12AM every Saturday (use GFS tape job) --> Keep for 4 weeks
Monthly- We copy the backup from disk to tape at 12AM last Saturday of month (use GFS tape job) --> Keep for 12 months
Yearly- We copy the backup from disk to tape at 12AM last Saturday of year (use GFS tape job) --> Keep for 10 years


The problem is if we use GFS we can not use tape parallel so the tape jobs takes too long time with 28 hours to complete. We must complete the tape job within 24 hours
If we use the normal tape jobs for weekly, monthly, yearly, how can we setup the above strategy?
And if we use the normal tape jobs with one weekly job, one monthly job, one yearly job, It will cause the overlapping issue in the future for weekly, monthly, and yearly jobs at they run at the same time, right?

Do you have any best practice and good advices for us?

[Shestakov]

Hello,
Indeed parallel processing for GFS Media pools os not supported yet. However, you can get GFS-like retention with simple Media pools.
I've counted your post as a feature request prallel processing for GFS tapes.
Thanks.

[antran]

@Shestakov:
For simple media pools, we have some issues if we use them.
For example:
1) Create a media pool called “Daily” with retention period equal to 7 days.
2) Create a backup to tape job called “Daily” and point to the “Daily” media pool and schedule it to run every day except Saturday
3) Create a media pool called “Weekly” with retention period equal to 4 weeks.
4) Create a backup to tape job called “Weekly” and point to the “Weekly” media pool and schedule it to run on Saturday
5) Create a media pool called “Monthly” with retention period equal to 12 months.
6) Create a backup to tape job called “Monthly” and point to the “Monthly” media pool and schedule it to run on the last Saturday of month

The issue now is at the last Saturday, it will be overlapped between the Weekly and the Monthly job.
If we change the schedule of monthly to another day, it will be overlapped between the Daily and the Monthly job too.
Please advise me

[Shestakov]

Well, yes, that's the downside of the workaround.
Good thing is that tape GFS paralleling processing feature is underway.