We are in the same situation.,
Our solution (not tested, only theory) run regular Weekly full backups and then
use bpexpdate to change the retention on the images.




|--------+------------------------->
|        |          "Dennis Dwyer" |
|        |          <dfdwyer@tecoen|
|        |          ergy.com>      |
|        |                         |
|        |          04/19/01 04:03 |
|        |          PM             |
|        |                         |
|--------+------------------------->
  >----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  |                                                                            |
  |     To:     charles.somogyi AT bms DOT com                                  
      |
  |       veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu                              
      |
  |     cc:     (bcc: Khris K. Adams/CA-Canada/3M/US)                          |
  |     Subject:     Re: [Veritas-bu] Monthly Backup on NT Client              |
  >----------------------------------------------------------------------------|





You don't say whether your NBU servers are NT or UNIX but let me tell you what I
did. I'm running NetBackup 3.2 on a Sun E450 and I too needed a way to backup a
server with a 6 month retention period on the first Saturday of the month and a
5 week retention period every other time. Here's what I did:

I built a script on the NetBackup server that extracts the current date. If it's
less than or equal to 7, I make the assumption that it's the first Saturday and
I execute a backup command that uses a 6 month schedule. Otherwise I use a 5
week schedule. Then every Saturday morning at 0830, I set up an entry in crontab
to execute my script. Here's the script:

#!/bin/ksh

# nt_cold_bkup
#
# Created By:  Dennis Dwyer
# Create Date: 02/07/2001
#
# Platform: NetBackup Master Server
#
# This script is executed via crontab every Saturday to determine if
# it's the first Saturday of the month in order to submit the appropriate
# backup schedule for COLD server. The requirements are that one
# set of backups per month need to be retained for 6 months. All remaining
# backups for the month can be retained for the customary 5 weeks.
#

# variable definitions

let day=`date +%d`  # Get current day of month (DOM)

# script

if [ $day -le 7 ]   # If current DOM is less/equal to 7 - 6 mo retention
   then
      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbackup -i -c nt_cold -s weekly_full_6mo -S <nbu
server name>
   else
      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbackup -i -c nt_cold -s weekly_full_5wk -S <nbu
server name>
fi

I probably don't need the name of the NBU server because I'm executing this on
the server that will do the backup. I just did it to avoid confusion on anyone's
part who may have to follow me. It's a whole nother can of worm if you want to
do the last Friday of the month.

Hope this was helpful.

Regards,
Dennis

Quote: "Time is not a test of the truth"
Translation: Just because you've always done it that way, doesn't make it right

Dennis F. Dwyer
Enterprise Storage Manager
Tampa Electric Company

(813) 225-5181  - Voice
(813) 275-3599  - FAX

Visit our corporate website at www.tecoenergy.com

>>> Charles R Somogyi <charles.somogyi AT bms DOT com> 04/19/01 02:54PM >>>
All:

We have an NT administrator that is asking to make the first
Saturday's FULL the monthly backup (with a 13 month retention as
opposed to the weekly retention of 1 month). The admin does not
want to run user directed backups (does not want to administer
the AT Scheduler or install 3rd party product). Does anybody have
any idea how to automate the process of making the first
Saturday's backup the monthly (or the one with the monthly
retention)? There will be 300 NT machines that need this process
in place so it cannot be a manual process to change the retention
on the tapes used on the first Saturday. This would be so much
easier if the scheduler in NetBackup could be used as a scheduler
(some type of calendar).

Thanks all.

Charlie Somogyi
BMS
Princeton, NJ


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