ADSM-L

Re: Retention Policies

1998-11-23 14:21:05
Subject: Re: Retention Policies
From: Bob Gleason <Bob_Gleason AT IDG DOT COM>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 14:21:05 -0500
---------------------- Forwarded by Bob Gleason/IDGCORP/IDG on 11/23/98
02:23 PM ---------------------------
02:23 PM ---------------------------


Jeff Heather
11/23/98 02:14 PM

To:   Bob Gleason/IDGCORP/IDG@IDG
cc:

Subject:  Re: Retention Policies  (Document link not converted)

Joel,

We had almost the exact same backup strategy prior to implementing ADSM at
our site.  Because the standard 3 versions and 30-60 days if deleted
retention policy didn't work for us we went with a much more aggressive
strategy.  Versions don't mean anything to our users.  Because many of our
files change on a daily basis, our users need to be able to restore a file
from a specific date, not from a certain number of versions ago.

So, our default policy is to keep 32 versions for 32 days, and to retain
any deleted file for 60 days.  This allows us to restore any file from any
date (using ADSM's Point-in-time restore feature) as far back as a month
ago.  We use up a lot more tape (DLT 7000s) this way, but it has been
working very well for us.

We also used to send one night's backup per month offsite for 1-7 years,
depending on the system.  Now, we do a monthly "backup" of all of our
systems and send those tapes offsite (all controlled by ADSM's DRM, which
has worked wonderfully for us so far).  I say we do a monthly "backup"
because, using ADSM terms, that is precisely what we do.  We do not run
monthly ADSM "archives."  We installed a second backup client on each
system (ADSM sees each backup client as a completely separate node) and
scheduled these second clients to run backups once per month.  This saves a
tremendous amount of tape space and allows us to have a smaller disk pool
because instead of doing a FULL backup of every system every month, we are
only doing monthly INCREMENTALS.  It also cuts down tremendously on the
monthly "archive" backup window (A full ADSM backup on our larger servers
take 10-15 hours over 100MB ethernet.  By doing monthly incrementals we
have cut that widow down to 2-5 hours, obviously depending on how much data
has changed.)

Hope this helps.

Jeff Heather
System Support Specialist
International Data Group





Bob Gleason
11/23/98 01:45 PM

To:   Jeff Heather/IDGCORP/IDG@IDG, Gerry Criscenzo/IDGCORP/IDG@IDG
cc:
Subject:  Retention Policies


---------------------- Forwarded by Bob Gleason/IDGCORP/IDG on 11/23/98
01:48 PM ---------------------------
01:48 PM ---------------------------


Joel Cooper <jocooper AT DTTUS DOT COM> on 11/23/98 12:27:22 PM

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>



 To:      ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU

 cc:      (bcc: Bob Gleason/IDGCORP/IDG)



 Subject: Retention Policies







     To the ADSM list:

     Thank you for the replies I got regarding workstation backup.

     Can I bother you all again for feedback on server retention? We have
     been doing night FULL saves using Arcserve (to DLT).... saving the
     tapes for 35 days (before rotation); saving one night per month for 13
     months.

     But that doesn't lend itself well to ADSM. We are going to eventually
     move 50 NT servers over to our AIX based ADSM server using the IBM
     tape library.  It seems to me that most people are offering a few
     versions (2 or 3) and then 30 - 60 days if deleted.

     Does anyone have any retention suggestions? I have to push a proposal
     past management...

     Thanks in advance,

     Joel Cooper
     Deloitte & Touche LLP
     Hermitage, Tennessee
     jocooper AT dttus DOT com
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