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From: DavidKruse.ES@XEROX.COM.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: Backup didn't get ALL my files
Message-ID: <870225-112101-1398@Xerox>
Date: Wed, 25-Feb-87 14:20:54 EST
Article-I.D.: Xerox.870225-112101-1398
Posted: Wed Feb 25 14:20:54 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Feb-87 23:08:19 EST
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I noticed something the other day which upset my confidence
in my backup system.  Maybe someone can suggest a better way.

First some background:

We have a single disk (RA81) 11/750.  I do image backups about every 6
months. Every day I do a daily backup with the input qualifier
"/SINCE=BACKUP", except on Friday, I do a weekly backup with the input
qualifier "/SINCE=20-FEB-1987:18:00" - of course using the exact date
and time of last Friday's backup.  I rotate the daily tapes every
couple of weeks.  So I should be able to restore my disk from the
Image tapes + the Weekly tapes + the Daily's since last Friday. Right?

Well a couple of weeks ago I noticed something.  I had restored a file
to my account from a private backup saveset.  It was picked up by the
daily backup, but was *NOT* written to the Weekly backup.  I can
explain the reason why, but that is of little comfort if my backup
tapes can't be used to restore the disk to its present state.

The file I restored from my private saveset had a create and modified
date well in the past, lets say sometime in 1986.  The daily backup
picked it up because the backup date field was empty.  But the weekly
backup compared the /SINCE=date with the modified date, and of course,
decided it didn't need to be backed up.  My first thought was to add
the input qualifier /BACKUP with my Weeklys (/SINCE=exactdate/BACKUP),
but that means that files created on Friday, (where the backup date
field is empty) will not be backed-up. This appears to be the
documented behaviour, as the documentation for /BACKUP says it
"selects files based on the time recorded in the backup date field"
and I guess that a null time can't be since last week.


Am I doing something wrong?  And even though /BACKUP works as
documented, I think it would be better behaviour for
"/SINCE=date/BACKUP" to recognize empty backup dates as valid
selections, rather than NOT valid selections, such as "/SINCE=BACKUP"
does.

Dave Kruse                  DavidKruse.ES@Xerox.COM