Re: [pbs-devel] [PATCH proxmox-backup v2 2/2] docs: add tape schedule examples

[Thomas Lamprecht <t.lamprecht@proxmox.com>]

On 28.02.22 12:20, Dominik Csapak wrote:
> just a few examples how one could configure tape pools and jobs.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Dominik Csapak <d.csapak@proxmox.com>
> ---
> changes from v1:
> * clarified how to manually trigger a new media-set in the simplest case
> * reworded last example by removing 'rotation' (if a tape is rotated
>   depends on how many tapes there are in the pool)
> 

some wording/typo/grammar comments inline

>  docs/tape-backup.rst | 74 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 74 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/docs/tape-backup.rst b/docs/tape-backup.rst
> index ae597d3d..5d4ce444 100644
> --- a/docs/tape-backup.rst
> +++ b/docs/tape-backup.rst
> @@ -979,3 +979,77 @@ This command does the following:
>  - run drive cleaning operation
>  
>  - unload the cleaning tape (to slot 3)
> +
> +Example Setups
> +--------------
> +
> +Here are a few example setups for how to manage media pools and schedules.
> +This is not an exhaustive list, and there are many more possible combinations
> +of useful settings.
> +
> +Simple Setup
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +

Not that hard feelings, but "simple setup" is not really telling.

"Continuously Incremental Keep" isn't that nice either but at least a bit
less ominous, maybe you got a better idea:

> +The most simple setup, always continue the media-set and never expire.

Either s/,/:/ or

The most simple setup is to always continue the media-set and never let it expire.

> +All backups are stored on a single media set and never deleted.

IMO first part superfluous and the never being deleted is a bit weird in context
of tapes which cannot be deleted anyway, I'd just drop that sentence and add a bit
more context below.

> +
> +Allocation policy:
> +  continue
> +
> +Retention policy:
> +  keep
> +
> +Such a simple setup has the advantage that it uses not much space, and

maybe:

That setup had the advantage of being easy to manage and re-using the benefits
from deduplication as much as possible. But, it's also prone to a failure of
any single tape, which would render all backups referring to chunks from that
tape unusable.


> +since there is only one media-set, it is easy to manage. On the other hand,
> +it is prone to errors. If a single tape fails, all backups that uses chunks
> +from that tape will not be restorable. If you want to start a new media-set
> +manually, you can set the currently writable media of the set either to
> +'full', or set the location to an offsite vault. In that case, a new
> +media-set will be created.

Feels a bit redundant, the sentence before that already starts with "If you want
to start a new media-set"

> +
> +Weekday Scheme
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +A slightly more complex scheme, where the goal is to have a tape for each

maybe add "independent", like: "... to have an independent tape ..."

> +weekday, e.g. from Monday to Friday. This can be solved by having a seperate

separate

Our technical writing style guide recommends to avoid "e.g.":
https://intranet.proxmox.com/index.php/Technical_Writing_Style_Guide#e.g..2Fi.e.

> +media pool for each day, so 'Monday', 'Tuesday', etc.
> +
> +Allocation policy:
> +  should be 'mon' for the 'Monday' pool, 'tue' for the Tuesday pool and so on.
> +
> +Retention policy:
> +  overwrite
> +
> +There should be a (or more) tape-backup jobs for each pool on the correspondig

corresponding

> +weekday. This scheme is still easily managable with one media set per weekday,

manageable

> +which can even be taken off site easily.

easily twice in the same sentence sounds a bit off.

> +
> +Staggered Pools
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

staggered sounds a bit hard to understand for a user

> +
> +Alternatively, more complex setups are possible with multiple media pools and
> +different allocation and retention policies.
> +
> +An example would be to have a media pool with weekly allocation:

I'd start off with mentioning both pools so that the user has it already
in mind when reading, for example the whole section could be roughly:

An example would be to have two media pools, one with weekly allocation:

 Allocation Policy:
 ...

And another one with yearly allocation that does not expire:

 ...

In combination with suited, ...

> +
> +Allocation policy:
> +  mon
> +
> +Retention policy:
> +  3 weeks
> +
> +This creates a new media set each week, and expires them after the 4th
> +media set.
> +
> +Then in addition, there could be a yearly pool that only gets allocated
> +once a year, but will not be expired (e.g. for long-term archival purposes):
> +
> +Allocation policy:
> +  yearly
> +
> +Retention policy:
> +  keep
> +
> +In combination with suited prune settings and tape backup schedules, this
> +achieves long-term storage of some backups, while keeping the current
> +backups on smaller media sets that get expired every 4 weeks.