Re: Western Star Blood Bank System.

> We have a Western Star Blood Bank System installed on a Novell
> NetWare server and we need to back it up on ADSM/6000 server.
> Western Star is recommending twelve tapes rotation backup which
> includes 6 Dailies, 3 Weeklies, and 3 Quarterleys. The daily backup
> is intended for data only and tapes rotate in every seveth day. The
> weekly is intended for full system backup and tapes rotate in every
> fourth week. The quarterly for full backup and the tapes rotate
> in every twelfth week.
> the ADSM/6000 has a diskpool and a tapepool with one tape drive.
> Any idea
> help and recommendation is appreciated.
> Thanks.
> Hejji...

First, I'll feed back my interpretation of what this solution will
provide:

1) The daily backups will give you a restore granularity of 1 day, for
   up to 6 days. (7 days combined with the last weekly).

2) The weekly backups will give you a restore granularity of 1 week for
   up to 3 weeks (or is it 4?).

3) The quarterly backups will give you a restore granularity of 3 months
   for up to 9 months. My guess is that quarterly backups are meant for
   situations such as if the IRS needs some information; you probably
   wouldn't use them for day-to-day restore operations. I recommend using
   the ARCHIVE function of ADSM rather than backup.

Next are some ideas that might be useful:

1) For the daily backups, use ADSM incremental backup. Specify a
   management class that will provide the daily retention you need (keep
   files for 7 days, allow at least 7 versions).

2) You might want to consider implementing option 1 with a management
   class that allows at least 28 versions to be kept for 28 days. This
   will eliminate the need to perform the full weekly. Alternatively,
   stick with option 1 and perform a weekly archive using a management
   class that keeps the versions for 4 weeks (28 days).

3) Once a quarter perform an archive using a management class that keeps
   the versions for 9 months (or whatever you need). If you do the weekly
   archive, use the week that falls on the quarterly archive and change
   the archive management class to the quarterly one. For example, if your
   1st quarterly archive is on the first Sunday in April, that archive
   will serve as that week's archive as well as for the quarter.

The point of all this is that ADSM isn't really designed for rotation
schemes. Most rotation schemes are built around the weekly full backup
with daily incrementals. ADSM isn't designed that way (I think that is
a benefit), so "traditional" backup schemes don't apply.

Andy Raibeck
Connecticut Mutual
203-987-3521