In regard to: Re: [Networker] how to keep exactly 2*N days of backups at...:

Sounds like your bosses want the mail spool to be purged every 14
days.  In that case, why do backups at all?  Just put the storage on a
NetApp and setup N*2 nightly snapshots.  They'll get deleted
automatically and you won't have to hassle with tapes.

You have correctly guessed why they've asked for exactly X number of days.
We already have a significant SAN infrastructure and our mail spools are
distributed over multiple hosts, so I don't think adding a NetApp device
to the mix is going to be an option (no matter how perfectly it would
accomplish what they're looking for).

Now how you handle Disaster Recovery is another question
here... hopefully you won't have to rotate those N*2 tapes on and
offsite all the time.

Our backup library and all the tapes are in a separate building about
a kilometer from our main data center, so off-site rotation of tapes (for
those hosts, anyway) isn't a big concern.

Thanks to John, Dave, and Robert for their responses.  Having it confirmed
that there's no easy way to do this, short of fulls nightly, was very
helpful.

I have confirmed with management that keeping 2 weeks + the weekly full
that the oldest differential depends on will be satisfactory, so I'll
proceed with that plan.

It's too bad there are such severe limitations on Saveset Consolidation,
as that would seem to be the perfect way to accomplish what I'm trying to
do.

Thanks again!

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                              mooney AT dogbert.cc.ndsu.NoDak DOT edu
Information Technology Services         (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building              (701) 231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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