Managing Data Protector schedules

[Oct 07, 2010] digitalformula Easy schedules for HP Data Protector

No need for messy schedule files

On a number of sites now, including 5 main current ones, I've used HP Data Protector, one of HP's enterprise-level backup software packages ... depending on who you talk to.

Anyway, because Data Protector, originally called HP OmniBack, was ported over from the UNIX platform it means that most of the configuration can be done by editing plain text files.  This includes the schedules, although the schedule text files can often get pretty messy once you've made a few changes.  Below are a few backup schedules that have had all the fat trimmed out and don't have anything you don't need in them.

Daily & weekly full at 18:30

This job runs a full backup every Monday-Friday at 18:30 excluding the first Friday of each month.  I usually choose to run a monthly backup on the first Friday of each month so this is a necessity for me.

?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

-full  -every       -day Mon Tue Wed Thu       -at 18:30   -full -day 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 -at 18:30     -full -exclude -day Sat Sun -at 18:30

Daily differential at 1830, weekly full at 1830

This job runs a differential backup (incr1 in DP) every Monday-Thursday at 1830 and a full backup every Friday at 1830, excluding the first Friday of each month.

?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

-incr 1  -every       -day Mon Tue Wed Thu       -at 18:30   -full -day 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 -at 18:30     -full -exclude -day Sat Sun -at 18:30

Monthly full on the first Friday of each month at 1830

This job runs a full backup on the first Friday of every month at 1830.  It fits in with the schedules above.

?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

-full  -every     -day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7      -at 18:30   -full  -exclude     -day Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Sat      -at 18:30

» Tags: hp, data protector, hp data protector

 

Have fun with managing Data Protector schedules - Database Forum

Hi!

Data Protector (formerly: OmniBack) uses "schedules" (configuration files with
schedule information) to automatically start backup jobs. Those files are in
/etc/opt/omni/server/schedules (for version 5.50).

The schedules contain "rules" (otherwise you'd have to list all the dates and
times manually) for backups to perform, while the GUI displays single
"events". When you modify a schedule using the GUI you'll have a configuration
problem: The GUI would have to guess the rules from the current configuration.

Now why I'm writing this: For an administrator concearned with "configuration
management" (maybe using revision control systems) this is a night mare: If
you change nothing in the GUI, but save the schedule, a lot of changes are
written. (Just one example: The list of months always starts with the month
when the configuration was saved, even if you specified all months (i.e. Jan
... Dec))

I could elaborate much more on the topic, but I think, I'll leave it to the
reader, closing with a simple exercise: This is just a "normal" backup
schedule taht "evolved" form a simply hand-written file (not specifically
constructed to demonstrate any issue); please try to find out

1) where the documentation of the configuration syntax is
2) what the semantics of the configuration is
(you might try to guess both, just assume it's some freeware product)
3) What the current scheduling rules are (when will what kind of backup be
performed)

If you manage all that,
1) either there is no need to improve the product
2) you can join OmniBack development sharing you insights.

Regards,
Ulrich

-full -protection -weeks 52
-only 2005
-day 23 -month Jan
-day 23 -month Jul
-at 22:00

-incr 5 -protection -weeks 8
-every
-day 1 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 22:00

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 22 8 2004 -every
-4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 22 8 2004 -every
-4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Nov

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 8 -month Nov

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 22 -month Nov

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 22 -month Jan

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Jan
-day 23 -month Jul

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Aug
-day 15 -month May

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 8 29 -month Jan

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 12 9 2004 -every
-3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 22 -month May

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 22 8 2004 -every
-4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 8 -month Feb
-day 8 -month Mar

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 22 -month Feb
-day 22 -month Mar

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 29 -month Nov

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Feb
-day 15 -month Mar

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 19 9 2004 -every
-3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 23 -month Jan
-day 8 29 -month May

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Sep
-day 8 -month Dec
-day 22 -month Jun

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 -month Feb
-day 1 29 -month Mar

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 8 -month Oct
-day 22 -month Apr
-day 15 -month Jul

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 22 8 2004 -every
-4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 22 -month Oct
-day 8 -month Apr
-day 1 29 -month Jul

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 22 8 2004 -every
-4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 22 -month Sep
-day 15 -month Dec
-day 1 29 -month Jun

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 15 8 2004 -every
-4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 15 -month Oct
-day 1 29 -month Apr
-day 22 -month Jul

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 8 8 2004 -every
-4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 8 -month Sep
-day 1 29 -month Dec
-day 15 -month Jun

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 29 -month Oct
-day 15 -month Apr
-day 8 -month Jul

-at 23:30

-incr -protection -days 7 -load medium
-starting 1 8 2004 -every
-4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-exclude
-day 1 29 -month Sep
-day 22 -month Dec
-day 8 -month Jun

-at 23:30

-incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium
-every
-day 22 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:00

-incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium
-every
-day 15 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:00

-incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium
-every
-day 8 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
-at 23:00

-incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium
-only 2004
-day 29 -month Aug
-day 29 -month Sep
-day 29 -month Oct
-day 29 -month Nov
-day 29 -month Dec
-at 23:00

-incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium
-only 2005
-day 29 -month Jan
-day 29 -month Mar
-day 29 -month Apr
-day 29 -month May
-day 29 -month Jun
-day 29 -month Jul
-at 23:00

 

#2   11-24-2005, 02:08 PM

Database Administrator Database Bot   Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,236,248

Re: Have fun with managing Data Protector schedules Ulrich Windl wrote: > Hi! > > Data Protector (formerly: OmniBack) uses "schedules" (configuration files with > schedule information) to automatically start backup jobs. Those files are in > /etc/opt/omni/server/schedules (for version 5.50). > > The schedules contain "rules" (otherwise you'd have to list all the dates and > times manually) for backups to perform, while the GUI displays single > "events". When you modify a schedule using the GUI you'll have a configuration > problem: The GUI would have to guess the rules from the current configuration. > > Now why I'm writing this: For an administrator concerned with "configuration > management" (maybe using revision control systems) this is a night mare: If > you change nothing in the GUI, but save the schedule, a lot of changes are > written. (Just one example: The list of months always starts with the month > when the configuration was saved, even if you specified all months (i.e. Jan > .. Dec)) > > I could elaborate much more on the topic, but I think, I'll leave it to the > reader, closing with a simple exercise: This is just a "normal" backup > schedule taht "evolved" form a simply hand-written file (not specifically > constructed to demonstrate any issue); please try to find out > > 1) where the documentation of the configuration syntax is > 2) what the semantics of the configuration is > (you might try to guess both, just assume it's some freeware product) > 3) What the current scheduling rules are (when will what kind of backup be > performed) > > If you manage all that, > 1) either there is no need to improve the product > 2) you can join OmniBack development sharing you insights. > > Regards, > Ulrich > > -full -protection -weeks 52 > -only 2005 > -day 23 -month Jan > -day 23 -month Jul > -at 22:00 > > -incr 5 -protection -weeks 8 > -every > -day 1 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 22:00 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 22 8 2004 -every > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 22 8 2004 -every > -4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Nov > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 8 -month Nov > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 22 -month Nov > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 22 -month Jan > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Jan > -day 23 -month Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Aug > -day 15 -month May > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -3day Sat -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 8 29 -month Jan > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 12 9 2004 -every > -3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 22 -month May > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 22 8 2004 -every > -4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 8 -month Feb > -day 8 -month Mar > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 22 -month Feb > -day 22 -month Mar > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -4day Mon -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 29 -month Nov > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Feb > -day 15 -month Mar > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 19 9 2004 -every > -3day Sun -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 23 -month Jan > -day 8 29 -month May > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Sep > -day 8 -month Dec > -day 22 -month Jun > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -4day Tue -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 -month Feb > -day 1 29 -month Mar > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 8 -month Oct > -day 22 -month Apr > -day 15 -month Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 22 8 2004 -every > -4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 22 -month Oct > -day 8 -month Apr > -day 1 29 -month Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 22 8 2004 -every > -4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 22 -month Sep > -day 15 -month Dec > -day 1 29 -month Jun > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 15 8 2004 -every > -4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 15 -month Oct > -day 1 29 -month Apr > -day 22 -month Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 8 8 2004 -every > -4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 8 -month Sep > -day 1 29 -month Dec > -day 15 -month Jun > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -4day Fri -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 29 -month Oct > -day 15 -month Apr > -day 8 -month Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium > -starting 1 8 2004 -every > -4day Wed -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -exclude > -day 1 29 -month Sep > -day 22 -month Dec > -day 8 -month Jun > > -at 23:30 > > -incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium > -every > -day 22 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:00 > > -incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium > -every > -day 15 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:00 > > -incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium > -every > -day 8 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > -at 23:00 > > -incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium > -only 2004 > -day 29 -month Aug > -day 29 -month Sep > -day 29 -month Oct > -day 29 -month Nov > -day 29 -month Dec > -at 23:00 > > -incr 6 -protection -weeks 2 -load medium > -only 2005 > -day 29 -month Jan > -day 29 -month Mar > -day 29 -month Apr > -day 29 -month May > -day 29 -month Jun > -day 29 -month Jul > -at 23:00 > Would it be cheating if I set that up as a test job and imported it in to my CellServer and looked at what it the schedule is "supposed" to be? This has driven me crazy also trying to determine the logic behind it, actually it looks like our weekly jobs that has been disabled/enabled a couple of times. Thats what happens when you take a good product written on HPUX and write it on Winders then port it back to HPUX. I can remember how good support used to be when the Dev was in Germany and you could actually talk to the guys that wrote it...

#3   11-25-2005, 08:47 AM

Database Administrator Database Bot   Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,236,248

Re: Have fun with managing Data Protector schedules Alan D Johnson writes: > Ulrich Windl wrote: > > Hi! > > Data Protector (formerly: OmniBack) uses "schedules" (configuration files > > with > > schedule information) to automatically start backup jobs. Those files are in > > /etc/opt/omni/server/schedules (for version 5.50). > > The schedules contain "rules" (otherwise you'd have to list all the dates and > > times manually) for backups to perform, while the GUI displays single > > "events". When you modify a schedule using the GUI you'll have a configuration > > problem: The GUI would have to guess the rules from the current configuration. > > Now why I'm writing this: For an administrator concearned with "configuration > > management" (maybe using revision control systems) this is a night mare: If > > you change nothing in the GUI, but save the schedule, a lot of changes are > > written. (Just one example: The list of months always starts with the month > > when the configuration was saved, even if you specified all months (i.e. Jan > > .. Dec)) > > I could elaborate much more on the topic, but I think, I'll leave it to the > > reader, closing with a simple exercise: This is just a "normal" backup > > schedule taht "evolved" form a simply hand-written file (not specifically > > constructed to demonstrate any issue); please try to find out > > 1) where the documentation of the configuration syntax is > > 2) what the semantics of the configuration is > > (you might try to guess both, just assume it's some freeware product) > > 3) What the current scheduling rules are (when will what kind of backup be > > performed) > > If you manage all that, > > 1) either there is no need to improve the product > > 2) you can join OmniBack development sharing you insights. > > Regards, > > Ulrich > > -full -protection -weeks 52 -only 2005 > > -day 23 -month Jan > > -day 23 -month Jul > > -at 22:00 > > -incr 5 -protection -weeks 8 -every > > -day 1 -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul -at > > 22:00 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium -starting 22 8 2004 -every > > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > > -at 23:30 > > -incr -protection -days 7 -load medium -starting 15 8 2004 -every > > -4day Thu -month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul > > -at 23:30 [...lengthy sample removed...] > Would it be cheating if I set that up as a test job and imported it in to my > CellServer and looked at what it the schedule is "supposed" to be? This has > driven me crazy also trying to determine the logic behind it, actually it > looks like our weekly jobs that has been disabled/enabled a couple of times. > Thats what happens when you take a good product written on HPUX and write it > on Winders then port it back to HPUX. I can remember how good support used to > be when the Dev was in Germany and you could actually talk to the guys that > wrote it... The question is this: cron seems to have a more powerful specification language than Data Protector has for over 30 years now. ISC's cron is even better: The time and date fields are: field allowed values ----- -------------- minute 0-59 hour 0-23 day of month 1-31 month 1-12 (or names, see below) day of week 0-7 (0 or 7 is Sun, or use names) A field may be an asterisk (*), which always stands for ``first-last''. Ranges of numbers are allowed. Ranges are two numbers separated with a hyphen. The specified range is inclusive. For example, 8-11 for an ``hours'' entry specifies execution at hours 8, 9, 10 and 11. Lists are allowed. A list is a set of numbers (or ranges) separated by commas. Examples: ``1,2,5,9'', ``0-4,8-12''. Step values can be used in conjunction with ranges. Following a range with ``/'' specifies skips of the number's value through the range. For example, ``0-23/2'' can be used in the hours field to specify command execution every other hour (the alternative in the V7 standard is ``0,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22''). Steps are also per- mitted after an asterisk, so if you want to say ``every two hours'', just use ``*/2''. Names can also be used for the ``month'' and ``day of week'' fields. Use the first three letters of the particular day or month (case doesn't matter). Ranges or lists of names are not allowed. To go back to the issue: After starting to write a schedule by hand, I stopped when realizing that I failed to specify "first Wednesday of a month". So I started to write a Perl program that will produce a schedule according to the rules I've set up. It works so far. As a next stept, the Perl program will try to avoid parallel backups when adding more schedules. After that, the program will be able to print a calendar of all scheduled backups, most likely more useful that that Data Protector can report. The other mess is the "Holidays file": It counts days within a year, and it lacks any rules for movable holidays like Easter. In 2005 I would expect that the product comes with a set of rules and algorithms that will know the holidays (For my Palm I have a program "Feiertage" that does exactly that). The scheduler can only skip backups on holidays, but not re-schedule them for the next business day. That's why the administrator's guide suggests not to enable that feature. (OK, currently my Perl program cannot do that as well, but who knows...) Regards, Ulrich

Re Data Protector 6.0 scheduling mysteries

• From: Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:08:41 +0100

"Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:87bq9v7uss.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 

Hi!

Today I realized that some of our scheduled backups were silently
ignored. Here are some details:

In the DP schedule files, you can specify "-at HH:MM" for the time when to
execute the specification. First surprise is that Data Protector reports a
"syntax error" if you specify "MM" that is different from "00", "15",
"30",
"45". That is you can only specify multiples of 15 minutes.

In our complex scenario with many hosts and devices, I wrote a backup
planner
that reads high-level specifications and the schedules DP backups
(i.e. creates the schedule files, logs, statistics, iCalendar, estimate of
media usage, data protection validation, etc.), considering which
specification uses which resorces, the number of available licenses,
holidays,
weekends, etc.

Now that some incremental backups just take 4 minutes or so, the created
schedules would be quite tight. For example:
17:00 A
17:00 B
17:10 A
17:10 B
17:30 C
17:30 D
17:40 B
17:40 D

A to D are backup specifications and the first occurrences are incremental
backups, followed by levelled backups.

As DP cannot schedule at 17:10, the backup was scheduled at 17:00 also.
The
expectation was that it would be queued until the first one is finished.
However, as it seems, DP just silently ignored the second occurrence of A,
B,
C, and D.

 

Using the standard DP interface, can you actually schedule the one
specification to run twice at the same time? I have not tried, but assume
the GUI would "merge" both of them into one.
 

 

Can anybody explain this arbitrary restriction to muliples of 15 minutes?
Cron can do a better job for 20 years now.
 

The omnitrig process is what actually schedules the sessions, and it is only
run every 15minutes (from cron). I suspect this has been hardcoded in
somewhere.
 

You can however run a session "manually" from the command line ... or from
cron. So you can just ignore DataProtector's scheduling stupidity, and
schedule them directly from cron. Not as pretty, but if you have already
written a scheduler, formatting it's output for cron (vs DP) should not be
too difficult. Look at "omnib -datalist specname -no_monitor"
 

 

The solution seems to be to specify a minimum duration of 15 minutes per
backup session, even though the backup just needs a few minutes. This will
fragment the time space a lot, being unable to fill the gaps. Also this
will
minimize device usage as there are unnecessary breaks between backups. My
scheduler could handle free time slots down to one second, but it does not
make any sense with DP.
 

Be aware that you will probably hit another quirk with DP queuing. When you
have multiple sessions queued (for a device or licence) DP does not respect
queue order. Once the device (or licence) becomes available there does not
seem to be any rational (except for Murphy's Law) as to which session will
proceed first.
 

 

BTW: How do you guys keep track when which backups are scheduled to avoid
queueing conflicts caused by scheduling and device usage?

 

Thankfully (for me) I have a small number of long (full backup) sessions, so
scheduling is not too difficult.
 

Etc

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Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March 12, 2019