>From what I've read, and from what Curtis says below, you DON'T need to keep the original full backup around, once you've created at least one more synethtic full backup. You can do just one full backup, then keep creating synthetic fulls by merging the previous synthetic full with incrementals, forever. The original full backup does not need to be retained as long is there is always at least one unexpired synthetic full available.
Though keeping the orginal full around(to create other synthetics) does seem
a bit strange. Hopefully Netbackup will mature to elimnate the constraint.
> I've been testing it myself. I think you do need to keep that full
> backup around. The "synthetic" part of a synthetic backup is the
> consolidation of the full backup and the incrementals into a single
> image. This is done via duplication.
What makes it synthetic is that it is created tape to tape instead of
transferring a bunch of non-changed data from the client again. Once that
new (synthetic) full is created, there is no need for previous fulls (other
than for retention). The new full DOES NOT rely on the old full once it's
created.
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