BackupEDGE 3.x Release Notes

Multiple Backups Per Tape Notes

BackupEDGE 3.x supports performing multiple backups onto tape media. By default, writing to a tape that has one or more unexpired backups will now result in BackupEDGE appending the new backup after the unexpired ones.

Note that BackupEDGE aggressively reclaims backups made on tape media, since a tape still must be written from front to back. This means that once a backup’s Time To Live has expired it can be reclaimed if it is the last backup on the tape or if the backups that were made after it also has an expired Time To Live which must include the last backup on the tape.

Currently tapes create a cache file on the system per tape. This file is located in /usr/lib/edge/system/cache/mtape. These files are not accessible during a disaster recovery and will be rebuilt. This will cause a server performance hit when first trying to read a tape. It is worth noting this difference in behavior. These files can be removed and will be rebuilt by the system.

OBDR is not supported while using multiple tape backups.

Disaster recovery will now prompt you to select which backup you want to restore from if there is more than a single backup on the media.