I'll add a third item to Tim's list:

- to re-run a failed backup after the problem has been fixed.  We also
always initiate this from the server so that the correct pool is
selected (most of our pool selection criteria is based on group).

Thanks.
Teresa

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Tim Mooney
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 4:11 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Manual backups anyone ?

In regard to: Re: [Networker] Manual backups anyone ?, Goslin, Paul
said...:

> We rarely, if ever, do manual backups for the following reason. There
is
> no way to specify the backup-pool when using the Networker User GUI to
> initiate a manual backup, therefore, the backup can only go to the
> Default pool (which we don't use).

That pretty much echoes why we don't use client-initiated backups.

If we need to do a one-off backup, we initiate it from the server, by
running a savegrp and limiting it to just the particular client(s) we
want backed up.

As to Skip's question of when/why we use manual backups, the only
reasons
we run a (server-initiated) backup that falls outside our normal backup
window are

- to run a full backup before reinstalling, upgrading, or
decommissioning
   a system.

- to run a normal backup (a particular level backup or incremental) of
   a system with the system quiet (e.g. in single user mode or with
   services turned off) before performing some maintenance like
upgrading
   a large/core software package or applying software updates.  This is
   done so that if the maintenance goes horribly wrong, we can recover
the
   system to the point it was just before the maintenance, rather than
the
   point it was when the last normally-scheduled backup took place.

Tim
-- 
Tim Mooney
Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  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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