Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] Backups using all tapes in a jukebox

2006-06-07 03:05:33
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Backups using all tapes in a jukebox
From: bob944 at attglobal.net (bob944)
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 03:05:33 -0400
> I'm sure I have a setting wrong somewhere, but one of my huge backups
> has decided that it wants to take over all 4 drives in our jukebox
> when it does full backups.
> 
> I use streams but would really like to set it so the policy can use a
> maximum of 2 drives at any one time so other policies can run as well.
> [...]
> Thanks everyone.  I was worried that doing this would would be invalid
> (due to the 4 drives using a single robot) but apparently not.  As of
> this time, everything appears to be working just fine.

You received, exclusively, suggestions to set up a special STU.  That is
a hideous solution to my mind.  

You wanted KillerPolicy to use no more than two drives.  The number of
drives used is #Streams * #Clients * #Copies (potentially reduced by
multiplexing, drives in the STU and drive availability).  Configuring
multiple streams and multiple copies is completely under your control.
The throttle on how many jobs you want the class to run--how many drives
to use--simultaneously is the "Limit jobs per policy" setting.  Set it
to two and do whatever you like with the selection and client lists.

> I have noticed that while I can limit a storage unit to only 2 drives,
> I can't tell it which two.  Good in that if drives die it can still
> go on.  Bad that if drives die, it may still go on (and block other
> backups from occurring).

You may be overthinking this (what if two drives are down?  Three?).  If
it really is something you will care about, lower the class's Job
priority relative to the ones you want to run.