GFS Tape Backup Rotation Schedule
Posted by Eric Bornfriend on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 @ 12:03 PM
GFS is short for Grandfather-Father-Son. This is the most commonly used tape media rotation schedule. GFS has a hierarchical structure. This schedule uses daily (Son), weekly (Father), and monthly (Grandfather) backup sets for your tape library and drives.
Son – Daily Backup: Four backup media are labeled for each day of the week - Monday through Thursday, for example. The “Son” media is reused each week on the day matching its label.
Father - Weekly Backup: A set of up to five weekly backup media is labeled Week1, Week2, Week3, Week4, and Week5. Full backups are recorded weekly, on the day that a "Son" media is not used (Friday for example). The "Father" media is reused monthly.
Grandfather – Monthly Backup: The final set of three media is labeled Month1, Month2, and Month3, according to which month of the quarter they will be used. This "Grandfather" media records full backups on the last business day of each month and is reused quarterly.
Each of these media may be a single medium or a set of mediums, depending on the amount of data to back up. A total of 12 media sets are required for this basic rotation scheme, allowing for a history of two to three months.
This method can be used for any tape library or tape drives like: SDLT, DLT, 9840, 9940, LTO1, LTO2, LTO3, LTO4, LTO5 or T10000. Do you have questions about how to implement the GFS Tape Backup Rotation Schedule? Just ask - we're here to help!