Posted by John Bell on 09/15/05 20:26

Hi

If you don't back up the database(s) then the last good backup may fall off
the tape cycle. If you chose to do this then restoring the database(s) will
you having to search more tapes for the relevant backups.

If the backups don't fit onto a single tape then you may wish to use an
autochanger (if you aren't already!). It might be possible that you could
use a server that can stage the backups on disc before putting to tape at a
different time. You may also want to consider separating database backups
from other types of backups to speed up the time needed to recover.

You may want to remove the sample databases like northwind and pubs from
your live systems, they are re-creatable from the scripts which are
downloadable if necessary.

If databases are not updated or not updated in an ad-hoc way, then you may
wish to make them read-only and use a different backup cycle for them.

John


"rcamarda" <rcamarda@cablespeed.com> wrote in message
news:1126799621.306011.34090@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>I use SQLsafe to backup and compress my data, which in turn is saved to
> my backup server. My tape is HP's Surestore 6/6000 library. I have
> 5540GB tapes in the library.
> Monday through Saturday I perform a differential backup and a full
> backup on Sunday. My plan is to keep a 1 month worth of data on the
> shared disk (890GB currently, upgrading to 10 300GB raid5 next year).
> Once the full backup is a month old, I move it to the library and
> delete the files from the disk once the backup is successful. I wont
> backup the diffs to tape and will delete the prior weeks diff backups
> once the full backup is complete.
> This is my current plan, it will change as I get useful input and see
> how it works in practice.
> My full backup of some tables are not currently large; the largest
> 5.3GB after compression. However, I tend to look forward, and forsee
> more demand on the backup server, so why backup data that hasnt
> changed? The library will be backing up 3 Linux servers, 16 windows
> servers, 5 SQL and 3 Sun machines with more to come. So, I wish to
> maximize the storage on the Library by keeping unnecessary data off the
> library.
> Again, there may not be a practical solution to my question, but often
> I find I learn something unrelated that may help me with a future
> problem.
>

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