GFS Rotation Jobs without Append Media Enabled

If you submit GFS Rotation jobs without the Append Media feature enabled, you can maximize media usage by submitting multiple jobs using the same media pool.

For example, if you submit three GFS Rotation jobs all using the same Media Pool and 5- day Rotation Scheme, all three jobs share the same set of tapes. On each day of the Rotation Scheme, all three jobs append to the same tape.

• Monday = 1 tape that includes Full backup data from Job 1 (day 1), Job 2 (day 1), and Job 3 (day 1).
• Tuesday = 1 tape that includes Incremental backup data from Job1 (day 2), Job 2 (day 2), and Job 3 (day 2).
• Wednesday = 1 tape that includes Incremental backup data from Job 1 (day 3), Job 2 (day 3), and Job 3 (day 3).
• Thursday = 1 tape that includes Incremental backup data from Job 1 (day 4), Job 2 (day 4), and Job 3 (day 4).
• Friday = 1 tape that includes Weekly backup data from Job 1 (day 5), Job 2 (day 5), and Job 3 (day 5).

This leaves you with five tapes for the week.

Without Media Maximization, each job would require its own tape:

• Monday = 3 Full backup tapes. One tape for Job 1 (day 1), one tape for Job 2 (day 1), and one tape for Job 3 (day 1)
• Tuesday = 3 Incremental backup tapes. One tape for Job 1 (day 2), one tape for Job 2 (day 2), and one tape for Job 3 (day 2).
• Wednesday = 3 Incremental backup tapes. One tape for Job 1 (day 3), one tape for Job 2 (day 3), and one tape for Job 3 (day 3).
• Thursday = 3 Incremental backup tapes. One tape for Job 1 (day 4), one tape for Job 2 (day 4), and one tape for Job 3 (day 4).
• Friday = 3 Weekly backup tapes. One tape for Job 1 (day 5), one tape for Job 2 (day 5), and one tape for Job 3 (day 5).

Without Media Maximization, you need 15 tapes for the week.

Note: When submitting multiple GFS Rotation Jobs with the same media pool without Append Media enabled, tapes can be shared only if the same Backup Method is used. For example, a tape that has data from a full backup job can be shared only with data from another full backup job. It cannot be shared with data from incremental, differential, weekly, or monthly backup jobs.

More information:

GFS Rotation Jobs with Append Media Enabled