3.3

5 Backing Up the iNEWS System
60
Tape Operations
When making backup tapes, pay particular attention to the write-protect tab on the tape. If
you have trouble writing to the tape, check the tab and try moving it in the opposite
direction.
When loading a tape, ensure the tape has finished loading before issuing tape commands.
Trying to access the tape before it is ready may result in a “hung” process that waits forever
for the tape to be ready. The only solution is a reboot. For DAT tapes, wait at least a minute
after all tape activity lights cease blinking to be sure the tape is properly loaded.
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Always clearly label tapes with the type of backup tape it is, date it was produced, and
command used to produce it. Ensure that your tapes can be found quickly, in case of
emergency.
Since the database is mirrored on all servers in your system, it does not matter on which
server you produce the database backup tape. You might want to rotate which server does the
database tape dump so the tape drives wear evenly and you extend the life of the drives.
Alternatively, you might want to always run the backup on one server’s drive so you have
another, relatively unused drive standing by in case the heavily-used drive develops
problems. However, for software and site file backups, Avid recommends separate backups
be made on each iNEWS Server.
Later in this chapter, various procedures are provided for checking data on tapes, searching
for specific data on tapes, and restoring data from tapes. For more information, see “Listing
Tape Contents and Backup Dates” on page 73 and “Searching a Tape” on page 76.
Establishing Policies for Backup Procedures
Since your software and system files change infrequently, you do not need to back them up
very often. Your database, however, changes hundreds or even thousands of times every day,
so they need more frequent backups
Avid recommends your station establish and follow a local backup policy for each type of
data in your iNEWS system.
The following list has some general backup guidelines:
• Since the database is mirrored across multiple servers you have built-in hardware
redundancy. Backups also provide some protection against the rare cases of database
corruption.
• One approach is weekly backups rotating through 5 tapes, one for each week of the
month. If you need to keep old data for a period of time you may supplement the five
tape rotation with 12 more tapes labeled with the months in the year.