Preston,

Thanks for the info about the fix, I will request the patch from EMC.  

I want recap what I have learned from this experience and clear up any 
misunderstandings on my part:

1.)  Every saveset has an SSID and Clone-ID, which uniquely identifies an 
instance of the saveset.  There could be only one instance, this will hold 
true.  

2.) A saveset will not expire unless all dependent savesets expire.  A 
dependency chain is created and can extend longer than expected if a full 
backup is missed.  In a scenario where you have full backups on Sunday & 
incremental all other days of the week, your expiration could be extended more 
than 1 week if the full is missed that terminates the dependency chain.  

3.) NetWorker 7.4.3 does not accurately represent volume expiration.  The 
volume expiration given is equal to the longest ssretent, rather than the 
longest clretrent.  However, volume expiration is based on clretent, as proved 
by Preston de Guise's experiment.  This appears to be a flaw in the most recent 
version.  

I still having a hard time grasping the following concepts: 

You mentioned clone-id is close to nsavetime in value.  So each successive 
backup will a different clone-id equivalent to the amount of time that has 
passed (roughly).  NetWorker selects the save set with the lowest clone-id 
because of the clone process, the lowest clone-id would be the first save set 
instance (the 2nd instance is likely a clone stored offsite, which has a more 
recent clone-id).  This logic falls apart a little here for me: 

Backup to Disk - Disk has lowest clone-id
Clone to Tape - Tape has higher clone-id
Stage to Tape - Tape has higher clone-id

The SSID stays the same throughout this process.  The end result will be 2 
instances of the save-set on tape.  Correct?  Which has the lowest clone-id at 
this point?  You said the clone tape has the lowest... but I am not sure why 
this is the case.  Does the clone-id on the original backup to disk change when 
its staged to tape?  Does the SSID stay the same when its removed from disk in 
the staging process?  Sorry, not clear on this process.  


Unrelated, what is the purpose of the offsite flag.  There is a quick mention 
within the Networker documentation, but no explanation.  If NetWorker looks for 
the save set with the lowest clone-id... why would the clone have the lowest?  
Its created after the first instance of the save set, clone-id is based on 
nsavetime... so it should be a higher number.  You mentioned the offsite flag 
sets a volume "less" eligible?  Can you elaborate.  Should I mark volumes as 
offsite in addition to marking as full (prevent more writes) and changing the 
location attribute?  

I thank you for all your assistance.

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