Hindle, Greg wrote:

> Hello,
> I am in the process of re-evaluating our companies backup retention 
> policies. I wanted to get feedback from others who use Netbackup as to 
> what they use in their own environments. What I need to know is how 
> frequently you backup certain files and how long do you keep them 
> before expiring those backups?  We have mixture of applications and 
> platforms here so any insight to what your setup is would be great. In 
> particular SQL, ORACLE, EXCHANGE, Financial Applications, user data, 
> Peoplesoft applications, Windows servers, Unix servers etc.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Greg
>
>
>
>
> >>> The information contained in this e-mail transmission is 
> privileged and/or confidential intended solely for the exclusive use 
> of the individual addressee. If you are not the intended addressee you 
> are hereby notified that any retention, disclosure or other use is 
> strictly prohibited. If you have received this notification in error, 
> please immediately contact the sender and delete the material.

I have various customers and sometimes the requirements differ but i try 
and keep a best practice. I mostly deal with solaris so will explain 
what i do

I have a policy for OS files, one for application and one for databases 
which each contain the same schedule information but different file and 
client lists for the application and database policies.

I keep cumulative incremental backups for 1 week and normally leave 
those tapes in the jukebox unless they get full ( monitored via a script )
Weekly full backups are removed and stored in a fireproof safe and 
retained for 4 weeks in netbackup
Monthly full backups run every 4 weeks and expire in 3 months. Again 
removed after running
Quarterly backups are run every 3 months and kept for 1 year. Again 
removed after running
Yearly backups are run every year and retained for 5 years. Again 
removed after running.

This may be excessive but seems to work quite well.

In addition to above i do the following

Have a log_archive policy which is a user_archive and i run a cron job 
on each machine to find log locations of type file only and issue a 
bparchive withe the list. These i keep for 7 years or infinity depending 
on setup. The logs are archived and so removed after use.

I also have a DR ( disaster recovery ) policy which various from 
customer to customer. The latest one i have done is an InlineTapeCopy of 
the each schedule. I have this taken offsite daily as its written to a 
different tape pool. I retain these for 2 weeks before they return to 
site and into the scratch pool.

hope this helps
Thanks