Andy Raibeck wrote:
> If the product's vendor is making a recommendation about how to back up (or
> how not to back up) their product, it's probably a good idea to heed that
> recommendation. You do not want to be in a position where you need to
> restore, and the vendor can not help because you did not follow their
> recommended backup procedure.

I had to laugh with this (not *at* it) because it reminds of one of my
vendors.

We obtained this customer when they gave up their old TSM vendor. When I
started to try unravelling how their system was set up, I noticed that
they did backups, backed up the primary storage pools to copy groups,
*and* ran backupsets (for some clients, nightly).

It turned out that the customer came from the DEC world. (DEC systems
used to do backups by the use of what was called 'backupsets'.) When the
previous TSM vendor asked how the customer wanted to run backups, the
customer insisted that backupsets be used. The TSM vendor, submitting to
the request, added backupsets to the normal mix of backup strategies
they used, despite the fact that it gave unneeded redundancy and used up
18 DLT tapes a week. (I won't mention that the backupsets have no
expiration; they have boxes and boxes of them down in their basement
vault.)

The lesson: give the customer what they want, not necessarily what they
ask for.

--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)