Here's what I have:
1. Standard Pentium 4 Server with Microsoft 2003 Server Standard Edition
2. Symantec Backup Exec v10d.
3. A pair of external USB Hard Drives (120GB each).
Here's what I'd like to do: Backup a data folder that contains
approximately 25GB of data. Currently we are backing up straight to
the external hard drive. This is causing (2) major problems: First, we
get a lot of read/write errors; and second, the way it's setup, it
overwrites the data on the external hard drive.
This is what I'd like to do: setup a backup task that will backup my
data files to a location on the server's hard drive. Then, seperately,
after the backup is complete, run a batch file that will copy the
backup files to the external hard drive -- into a seperate folder, one
for each day of the week. Then, weekly, we will swap out the external
hard drive and put in the other one so we can keep a fresh one off
site. Make sense.
I'm okay with setting up a batch file using xcopy and I can schedule
it okay as well. This is what I need help with:
1. Is there any problem backup data (temporarily) to the same hard
drive aside from the obvious condition that the backup would be toast
if the drive died? If necessary I can add another hard drive to the
server to be used a temporary swap location but would prefer to do so
only if necessary.
2. How do I configure Backup Exec 10d to perform a backup to a folder
on the same drive (or on another local drive if we go that route). I
would like it to overwrite what is there. Be specific -- including how
to define the media set and the backup itself. Let's assume I want to
do a full backup.
3. Assuming I copy the backup files from the VERITIS folder
successfully to a folder on the external hard drive, and that I have
several folders with various backup sets on the external hard drive,
what would be my procedure for restoring? Would I need to copy the
files back to the original server hard drive location in order to
restore -- or can I restore directly from the external hard drive.
Either way, how do I do that?
4. If my objective is to make a full daily backup and get it to my
rotating external hard drives, is there a better way to do it than I'm
suggesting -- BUT with the tools I have now? Assume that writing
directly to the external hard drives is problematic (as we're
experiencing).
Remember, when complete, the solution must be fully automated. I'm
willing to monitor it for a week or two but ultimately it needs to run
on its own with no user intervention -- except someone who will
manually swap the drives on a weekly basis.