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Backup Tape/Cartridge Cycle

 

Tape cycles as follows,  1  ,  2  ,  3  ,  4  ,  5 .

 

All the tapes will be recycled except the Monthly, which will stay off-site permanently.

 

 

Every Wednesday, Recall all tapes for the following week, which is going to be the oldest off-site.
 

For Example:

When using Cycle 1 cartridges, recall tape for Cycle 2 which is going to be used for the following week.

When using Cycle 2 cartridges, recall tape for Cycle 3 which is going to be used for the following week.

When using Cycle 3 cartridges, recall tape for Cycle 4 that is going to be used for the following week.

When using Cycle 4 cartridges, recall tape for Cycle 5 that is going to be used for the following week.

When using Cycle 5 cartridges, recall tape for Cycle 1 which is going to be used for the following week.
 

At any one time there should be two cycle on-site and three off-site.

 

This will enable us to have 1 months "daily tapes” to restore from, if need be. The purpose of this is that if the file is required from beginning of the week because it became corrupt later on that week, the only way to recover the file is from the daily backup. Files will only be backed up on a daily basis, if the file has been changed.

 

 

NAMING STANDARDS

 

DAILY LABELLING
88T 1 MON fs1 1

 

 

 

MONTHLY LABELLING

88T 06  JAN fs 1 1

 

 

The last Friday of each month will use this naming standard.

 

MONTHLY cartridges should NEVER be kept on site and ONLY recalled in an emergency/restoring use only but should be returned to Offsite Storage after use.
 

DAILY cartridge MUST be send off-site every day.

 

 

BACKUP METHOD / TYPE

 

 

It is not advisable to do Incremental backup because recovering files can be time-consuming and difficult due to data being stored on several disks or tapes.

 

 

Types of backup

The Backup utility supports five methods of backing up data on your computer or

network.

 

1. Copy backup

A copy backup copies all selected files but does not mark each file as having been backed

up (in other words, the archive attribute is not cleared). Copying is useful if you want to

back up files between normal and incremental backups because copying does not affect

these other backup operations.

 

2. Daily backup

A daily backup copies all selected files that have been modified the day the daily backup

is performed. The backed-up files are not marked as having been backed up (in other

words, the archive attribute is not cleared).

 

3. Differential backup

A differential backup copies files created or changed since the last normal or incremental

backup. It does not mark files as having been backed up (in other words, the archive

attribute is not cleared). If you are performing a combination of normal and differential

backups, restoring files and folders requires that you have the last normal as well as the

last differential backup.

 

4. Incremental backup

An incremental backup backs up only those files created or changed since the last normal

or incremental backup. It marks files as having been backed up (in other words, the

archive attribute is cleared). If you use a combination of normal and incremental backups,

you will need to have the last normal backup set as well as all incremental backup sets in

order to restore your data.

 

5. Normal backup

A normal backup copies all selected files and marks each file as having been backed up

(in other words, the archive attribute is cleared). With normal backups, you need only the

most recent copy of the backup file or tape to restore all of the files. You usually perform

a normal backup the first time you create a backup set.

 

Which Backup Set?

Backing up your data using a combination of normal backups and incremental backups

requires the least amount of storage space and is the quickest backup method. However,

recovering files can be time-consuming and difficult because the backup set can be stored

on several disks or tapes.

 

Backing up your data using a combination of normal backups and differential backups is

more time-consuming, especially if your data changes frequently, but it is easier to

restore the data because the backup set is usually stored on only a few disks or tapes.