To make a duplicate of this protected (backed up) data, you would simply need
to run an auxiliary copy operation, which copies protected data from a source
copy to one or more secondary copies, without requiring any involvement from the
clients.
Secondary copies can be configured to use secondary storage from the Primary
Copy by specifying appropriate datapaths. Secondary copy can also be promoted as
Primary copy to run backup operation to these copies.
Auxiliary copy can copy all or selective set of data from source copy to
secondary destination copies. Source copy need not be a primary copy, it can be
any of the secondary copy.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
wish to create the storage policy copy, click All Tasks and then click
Create New Copy.
From the
General
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Enter the copy name in the Copy Name box.
Select the Combine to <n> Streams check box if you want
to combine data streams during an auxiliary copy operation on this copy.
De-select the Active check box if you want to specify that this
should be an inactive copy.
Select a disk library and MediaAgent from
the available lists (drive pool and scratch pool are not applicable for
disk libraries).
Select a standard or custom calendar from the Calendar for Selective
Copy and Extended Retention drop-down list. Note that this option is only available if a custom calendar was created.
From the
Retention
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Click the Enable data aging checkbox, to enable or disable
Data Aging on this copy.
Click the Enable Managed Disk Space for disk data, to
enable or disable Managed Disk Space.
Change the retention time and retention cycles of the Basic Retention Rules
from their default settings of infinite, if needed.
Change the
Extended Retention Rules, if necessary.
Click the
Copy Policy tab
of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Choose a date from the Backups On And After field.
This date can be on, before, or after the current CommServe date. When the
date entered is after the current CommServe date, jobs that are to be
copied, as well as partially copied jobs will be disabled for copy. If no date is entered, all backup data will be
copied from the primary copy to the secondary copy.
Click
the Specify source for Auxiliary Copy check box if you wish to copy data
from a copy other than the primary copy.
The All Backups
option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a
date from the
Backups On And After field.
If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the
storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary
copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you
would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00
A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule,
select Automatic Schedule if you would like an
Automatic Copy to
run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run
or schedule this job. Click OK.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
want to perform an auxiliary copy, click All Tasks,and then click
Run Auxiliary Copy.
Select All Copies to copy data from the source copy to all secondary
copies defined, or select a copy from the Select a
Copy list box.
Select Start new media to copy the data to a different tape or optical
media. On a disk, this option, when selected, creates a new volume
folder for the operation.
Select the number of streams to copy in parallel from the Number of Streams
to Copy in Parallel pane, or select Allow Maximum.
Select Mark media full after successful operation to mark the media
that is used for this operation full after the auxiliary copy operation has
successfully completed.
Select Select Most Recent Full Backup When Auxiliary Copy Starts
to have the most recent successful full backup for each subclient copied
when the Auxiliary Copy job is run.
From the
Job Initiation
tab on the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, select the time for this job to
run or choose to Run Immediately. You can also configure an alert for this job.
Click OK to start the auxiliary copy operation. A progress bar displays
the progress of the operation.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
wish to create the storage policy copy, click All Tasks and then click
Create New Copy.
From the
General
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Enter the copy name in the Copy Name box.
Select the Combine to <n> Streams check box if you want
to combine data streams during an auxiliary copy operation on this copy.
De-select the Active check box if you want to specify that this
should be an inactive copy.
Select the tape library, MediaAgent, drive pool and scratch pool.
Select a standard or custom calendar from the Calendar for Selective
Copy and Extended Retention drop-down list. Note that this option is only available if a custom calendar was created.
From the
Retention
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Click the Enable data aging checkbox, to enable or disable
Data Aging on this copy.
Click the Enable Managed Disk Space for disk data, to
enable or disable Managed Disk Space.
Change the retention time and retention cycles of the Basic Retention Rules
from their default settings of infinite, if needed.
Change the
Extended Retention Rules, if necessary.
Click the
Copy Policy tab
of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Choose a date from the Backups On And After field.
This date can be on, before, or after the current CommServe date. When the
date entered is after the current CommServe date, jobs that are to be
copied, as well as partially copied jobs will be disabled for copy. If no date is entered, all backup data will be
copied from the primary copy to the secondary copy.
Click
the Specify source for Auxiliary Copy check box if you wish to copy data
from a copy other than the primary copy.
The All Backups
option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a
date from the
Backups On And After field.
If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the
storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary
copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you
would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00
A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule,
select Automatic Schedule if you would like an
Automatic Copy to
run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run
or schedule this job. Click OK.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
want to perform an auxiliary copy, click All Tasks,and then click
Run Auxiliary Copy.
Select All Copies to copy data from the source copy to all secondary
copies defined, or select a copy from the Select a
Copy list box.
Select Start new media to copy the data to a different tape or optical
media. On a disk, this option, when selected, creates a new volume
folder for the operation.
Select the number of streams to copy in parallel from the Number of Streams
to Copy in Parallel pane, or select Allow Maximum.
Select Mark media full after successful operation to mark the media
that is used for this operation full after the auxiliary copy operation has
successfully completed.
Select Select Most Recent Full Backup When Auxiliary Copy Starts
to have the most recent successful full backup for each subclient copied
when the Auxiliary Copy job is run.
From the
Job Initiation
tab on the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, select the time for this job to
run or choose to Run Immediately. You can also configure an alert for this job.
Click OK to start the auxiliary copy operation. A progress bar displays
the progress of the operation.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
wish to create the storage policy copy, click All Tasks and then click
Create New Copy.
From the
General
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Enter the copy name in the Copy Name box.
Select the Combine to <n> Streams check box if you want
to combine data streams during an auxiliary copy operation on this copy.
De-select the Active check box if you want to specify that this
should be an inactive copy.
Select a disk library and MediaAgent from
the available lists (drive pool and scratch pool are not applicable for
disk libraries).
Select a standard or custom calendar from the Calendar for Selective
Copy and Extended Retention drop-down list. Note that this option is only available if a custom calendar was created.
From the
Retention
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Click the Enable data aging checkbox, to enable or disable
Data Aging on this copy.
Click the Enable Managed Disk Space for disk data, to
enable or disable Managed Disk Space.
Change the retention time and retention cycles of the Basic Retention Rules
from their default settings of infinite, if needed.
Change the
Extended Retention Rules, if necessary.
Click the
Copy Policy tab
of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Choose a date from the Backups On And After field.
This date can be on, before, or after the current CommServe date. When the
date entered is after the current CommServe date, jobs that are to be
copied, as well as partially copied jobs will be disabled for copy. If no date is entered, all backup data will be
copied from the primary copy to the secondary copy.
Click
the Specify source for Auxiliary Copy check box if you wish to copy data
from a copy other than the primary copy.
The All Backups
option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a
date from the
Backups On And After field.
If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the
storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary
copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you
would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00
A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule,
select Automatic Schedule if you would like an
Automatic Copy to
run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run
or schedule this job. Click OK.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
want to perform an auxiliary copy, click All Tasks,and then click
Run Auxiliary Copy.
Select All Copies to copy data from the source copy to all secondary
copies defined, or select a copy from the Select a
Copy list box.
Select Start new media to copy the data to a different tape or optical
media. On a disk, this option, when selected, creates a new volume
folder for the operation.
Select the number of streams to copy in parallel from the Number of Streams
to Copy in Parallel pane, or select Allow Maximum.
Select Mark media full after successful operation to mark the media
that is used for this operation full after the auxiliary copy operation has
successfully completed.
Select Select Most Recent Full Backup When Auxiliary Copy Starts
to have the most recent successful full backup for each subclient copied
when the Auxiliary Copy job is run.
From the
Job Initiation
tab on the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, select the time for this job to
run or choose to Run Immediately. You can also configure an alert for this job.
Click OK to start the auxiliary copy operation. A progress bar displays
the progress of the operation.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
wish to create the secondary copy, click All Tasks and then click
Create New Copy.
From the
General
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Enter the copy name in the Copy Name box.
Select the Combine to <n> Streams check box if you want
to combine data streams during an auxiliary copy operation on this copy.
De-select the Active check box if you want to specify that this
should be an inactive copy.
Select a disk library and MediaAgent from
the available lists (drive pool and scratch pool are not applicable for
disk libraries).
This should point to a tape library if the
data will eventually be taken offsite.
Select the Selective Copy check box. The Selective Copy
tab is enabled.
From the
Associations tab of the Copy Properties dialog box, select the client(s),
agents, backup set(s) or subclient(s) to be associated with this copy.
From the
Retention
tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Click the Enable data aging checkbox, to enable or disable
Data Aging on this copy.
Click the Enable Managed Disk Space for disk data, to
enable or disable Managed Disk Space.
Change the retention time and retention cycles of the Basic Retention Rules
from their default settings of infinite, if needed.
Change the
Extended Retention Rules, if necessary.
Click the
Copy Policy tab
of the Copy Properties dialog box:
Choose a date from the Backups On And After field.
This date can be on, before, or after the current CommServe date. When the
date entered is after the current CommServe date, jobs that are to be
copied, as well as partially copied jobs will be disabled for copy. If no date is entered, all backup data will be
copied from the primary copy to the secondary copy.
Click
the Specify source for Auxiliary Copy check box if you wish to copy data
from a copy other than the primary copy.
The All Backups
option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a
date from the
Backups On And After field.
Click the
Selective Copy
tab.
Select Automatically select Full Backups (all)
to automatically copy all full backups regardless of time.
Select Automatically select Full Backups (weekly,
monthly, quarterly,
half yearly,
or yearly) for the copy to be time-based. If the
copy is time based, you can select one of the following options:
First full backup
Last full backup (which is based on the following two options):
Select most recent job if there are no more full backup schedules
in current time period Specifies that the last full backup of the specified time period will be
copied from the source copy to this copy if there are no future full backup
schedules within the same time period.
Wait until the current time period is over before selecting
a backup for this time period Specifies that, after the end of the specified time period, the last full
backup during that time will be copied from the source copy to this copy. Note
that this option is not enabled if the source of the selective copy is a
Primary Copy that is defined with zero cycle retention or configured as a spool copy;
this is because jobs can be aged immediately after they are
copied to synchronous copies, which is before the current time
period ends.
If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the
storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary
copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you
would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00
A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule,
select Automatic Schedule if you would like an
Automatic Copy to
run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run
or schedule this job. Click OK.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you
want to perform an auxiliary copy, click All Tasks,and then click
Run Auxiliary Copy.
From the
Job Initiation
tab on the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, select Schedule, and
click OK.
From the Schedule
Details tab, select the necessary scheduling options.
To view the job summary for the auxiliary copy job that you have scheduled,
click the
Job
Summary tab.
The hierarchical data retention strategy is the most common scheme of tape rotation. This is also commonly referred to as the 'Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) Tape Rotation'. This scheme works as follows:
Three sets of backups, such as weekly, monthly and yearly are defined.
The weekly or Son backups are rotated on a weekly basis with one graduating to Father status each month.
The monthly or Father backups are rotated on a yearly basis with one graduating to Grandfather status each year.
One or more of the graduated backups is removed from the site for disaster recovery and archival purposes.
This kind of tape rotation can be accomplished using one of the following methods.
A selective copy allows you to copy data selectively from a source to a target copy. This method creates separate copies of data which may be useful for off-site storage requirements.
Use the following steps to perform tape rotation using Selective Copies.
Create a primary copy for daily backups with retention set to 30 days.
From the CommCell Browser, expand the Policies node, right-click Storage Policies and then click New Storage Policy.
Follow the prompts displayed in the Create Storage Policy Wizard. You will be prompted for the following:
Storage Policy Type: Choose the default option, which is Data protection and Archiving.
Legal Hold: Choose the default option, which is No.
Storage Policy Name: Enter a meaningful name. e.g., Tape Rotation Policy.
Primary Copy: Enter a meaningful name. e.g., Daily Copy.
Library: Pick the designated library for the Storage Policy from the drop-down list box.
MediaAgent: Pick the designated MediaAgent for the Storage Policy from the drop-down list box.
Streams and Retention Criteria: For Number of Device Streams choose the default option, which is 1. Disable the Infinite option and enter 30 Days and 4 Cycles for the iDataAgent Backup Data options.
Deduplication: Choose No.
This will create a storage policy with a primary copy.
Create a selective copy (e.g., Monthly Copy) for the monthly backups with retention set to 365 days and schedule it to run
Create another selective copy (e.g., Yearly Copy) for yearly backups with infinite retention.
You must create 2 Selective Copies - Monthly Copy and Yearly Copy - repeat the following steps twice to create the copies.
From the CommCell Browser, navigate to the Storage Policy you just created. Right-click the policy, click All Tasks and then click Create New Copy.
In the General tab, provide meaningful name for the copies. e.g., Monthly Copy, Yearly Copy.
Select the Selective Copy check box. The Selective Copy tab is enabled.
In the Default Destinations area, choose the designated Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool and Scratch Pool from the drop-down list box provided with each of these options.
Click the Selective Copy tab and select the following:
Select the Monthly Fulls option for the monthly copy.
Select the Yearly Fulls option for the yearly copy.
From the Retention tab set the Basic Retention Rules for All Backups as follows:
For the monthly copy, choose the Retain for option and enter 365 Days and 12 Cycles.
For the yearly Choose the Infinite option.
Click OK to save the changes.
In the Auxiliary Copy Schedule dialog box, choose Custom Schedule and click OK.
From the AuxCopy Options dialog box, in the Copy Selection area, click the Select A Copy option and select the copy name as follows from the list box.
Select the Monthly copy's name for the Monthly Schedule.
Select the Yearly copy's name for the Yearly Schedule
From the Job Initiation tab, select Schedule, and click Configure.
From the Schedule Details dialog box, select the scheduling options as follows:
Select the Monthly option and set the time and day for the Monthly copy.
Select the Yearly option and set the time and day for the Yearly copy.
You must create 2 schedules - Daily and Weekly Schedules - repeat the following steps twice to create the schedules.
From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers by double-clicking Client Computers | iDA File System | defaultBackupSet. The default and other subclients (if available) are displayed on the right-hand windowpane.
To back up the default subclient, right-click the subclient, and click Backup.
From the Backup Options dialog box, select the Backup Type as follows:
Select the Incremental option for the Daily Schedule.
Select the Full option for the Weekly Schedule.
Click Schedule and create the necessary schedules from the Schedule Details dialog box as follows.
Select the Daily option and set the time for the Daily Schedule.
Select the Weekly option and select an appropriate day and time for the Weekly Schedule.
Extended retention rules enables you to retain data for a much longer period of time than with Basic Retention Rules. This method carves out a graded retention from a single copy.
Use the following steps to perform tape rotation using Extended Retention Rules.
Create a primary copy with retention set to 30 days. Also define the extended retention rules in the primary copy for monthly full backups to 365 days and yearly full backups as infinite.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the Storage Policies node, and then click New Storage Policy.
Follow the prompts displayed in the Storage Policy Wizard to configure the necessary options.
This will automatically create a primary copy.
Right-click the primary copy and select Properties. This displays the Copy Properties dialog box.
From the Retention tab, choose the following Options:
In the Basic Retention Rules for All Backups and Basic Retention Rules for All Data/Compliance Archiver Data areas, choose the Retain for option and set it to 30 Days and 2 cycles.
In the Extended Retention Rules for Full Backups area set the monthly rule by selecting the For option and then setting the rules as 365 for Days Total Keep and selecting the Monthly Full option from the drop-down list. Set the yearly rule by selecting
the next For option and then selecting the Infinite option for Days Total Keep and the yearly Full option from the drop-down list.
Select an appropriate day for the For Weekly Full Rule the Week starts on and an appropriate date for the For Monthly Full rule the Month starts on options. This is the start day and month used to calculate the extended retention.
Select the Last full backup of time period in the For all rules keep the area.
Click OK to save the changes.
In the Auxiliary Copy Schedule dialog box, choose Custom Schedule and click OK.
From the AuxCopy Options dialog box, in the Copy Selection area, click the Select A Copy option and select the primary copy
From the Job Initiation tab, select Schedule, and click Configure.
From the Schedule Details dialog box, select the scheduling options as follows:
Select the Daily option and set the time for the backup.
Click OK to save the schedules.
The above examples can be customized to suit the requirements of your environment.
In reality, a combination of both these methods may be required. For example, only one selective copy may be created and extended retention established in this selective copy.