I recently got asked to create "infinity" backups / archives. I always chuckle
to myself when people ask for infinity. Do they really realize how long
forever is or is it just pure CYA? What I've found is that an anyone who asks
for an "infinity" retention actually means - "Just long enough that its on tape
somewhere until I retire. After that, the whole place can burn to the ground
for all I care." =)
"Infinity" for me right now is 30 years. We've got some old reel-to-reel in
"infinity" retention at our data warehouse facility and I haven't the foggiest
what's on it or how to restore it. If the chuckle-head who made the data can't
figure out how long the data is going to be viable then what chance do I have
25+ years later?!?
Infinity retention is for religious artifacts and national treasures. We build
museums for these. Anything else should be quite happy with less than 100
years.
-Jonathan
________________________________
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu on behalf of WEAVER,
Simon (external)
Sent: Fri 10/19/2007 2:03 AM
To: 'Curtis Preston'; Ellis, Jason; Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] I guess infinity isn't forever...
either way, dont expect me to be around support it ..... 64 bit..... 128-but
more likely :-)
Regards
Simon Weaver
3rd Line Technical Support
Windows Domain Administrator
EADS Astrium Limited, B23AA IM (DCS)
Anchorage Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5PU
Email: Simon.Weaver AT Astrium.eads DOT net <mailto:Simon.Weaver AT
Astrium.eads DOT net>
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis Preston [mailto:cpreston AT glasshouse DOT com]
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:52 PM
To: WEAVER, Simon (external); Ellis, Jason; Veritas-bu AT
mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] I guess infinity isn't forever...
It's not just a Unix thing. It's anyone who measures time the way Unix
measures time, which is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970. A 32-bit
number can only count to 2038.
NBU counts that way, which is why all the dates are in this weird
number format (09838938733) unless you specify -U. Those are the number of
seconds since January 1, 1970. And if you count using a 32-bit number, you can
only count to 2038.
By the time we get to 2038, we will have all switched to 64-bit stuff,
and NBU will have reverse engineered how to reset the dates to whatever date
you can count to with a 64-bit number. ;)
It's Y2K part 2, but much easier to solve, I believe.
---
W. Curtis Preston
Backup Blog @ www.backupcentral.com <http://www.backupcentral.com/>
VP Data Protection, GlassHouse Technologies
________________________________
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of WEAVER,
Simon (external)
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 9:50 AM
To: 'Ellis, Jason'; Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] I guess infinity isn't forever...
Jason
Well the date is identical to what I see on the windows master Server -
19-01-2038 :-)
Veritas configured date perhaps? Life cycle of OS time perhaps?
either way, I wont wanna touch this product at that time of my life :-)
Regards
Simon Weaver
3rd Line Technical Support
Windows Domain Administrator
EADS Astrium Limited, B23AA IM (DCS)
Anchorage Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5PU
Email: Simon.Weaver AT Astrium.eads DOT net <mailto:Simon.Weaver AT
Astrium.eads DOT net>
-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Ellis,
Jason
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 5:08 PM
To: Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: [Veritas-bu] I guess infinity isn't forever...
So I need to change the expiration date on a bunch of images to
infinity (for legal reasons). I plan to write a script to parse a text file
taken from a catalog search for the backupids of the needed images. I tested
out changing the expiration date of an image to infinity manually first. When I
ran a bpimagelist and converted the ctime for the expiration date I got back an
expiration of "Mon Jan 18 19:14:07 2038."
My question is: Is this is just some random date that NetBackup
assigns to images that are never supposed to expire?
Below is the bpexpdate command I ran:
bpexpdate -backupid pasnas01a_1191283460 -d infinity -force
Jason Ellis
This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or
privileged information or information otherwise protected from disclosure.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately, do not copy this message or any attachments and do not use it
for any purpose or disclose its content to any person, but delete this
message and any attachments from your system. Astrium disclaims any and all
liability if this email transmission was virus corrupted, altered or
falsified.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Astrium Limited, Registered in England and Wales No. 2449259
REGISTERED OFFICE:-
Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2AS, England
This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or
privileged information or information otherwise protected from disclosure.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately, do not copy this message or any attachments and do not use it
for any purpose or disclose its content to any person, but delete this
message and any attachments from your system. Astrium disclaims any and all
liability if this email transmission was virus corrupted, altered or
falsified.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Astrium Limited, Registered in England and Wales No. 2449259
REGISTERED OFFICE:-
Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2AS, England
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
|