Hi
First post, after lurking here for a couple of weeks trying to find a solution to my problem. Thanks for all the info that has helped me get this far, but I'm now at my wits end with Ghost 14.
Sorry it's a bit long . . .
Quick background check - I'm new in a sys admin job after a 5 year break from IT in teaching. Previously working in a "Unix only" environment, I'm now working in a mixed Windows / Unix environment.
Ghost has been deployed by my predecessor on a number of desktop systems, and it is in difficulty on one of these systems (the boss's system, of course).
Caveat - I guess that I am trying to come into Ghost in an "at the deep end" scenario . Ideally, I'd sit down and read from page 1 of the manual, install for myself, etc. That will happen but, in the meantime, I'm having to try and tap-dance my way to a solution. So, apologies if I'm missing many things - or, if my use of terms is not Ghost-accurate.
Ghost was in trouble on said machine when I first started. The system is / was running a once-per-week full backup of drives C: and D:, both encapsulated under a single-titled backup schedule. The target is a UNIX network drive, which has sufficient space to hold approx 2.75 copies of these two drives.
Ghost was failing (after having worked since time began), and the eventual fix was to have it write output files of 2GB max (so, for example, a C: backup comprises around 40 files).
Just within the last couple of weeks, I updated Ghost with the latest v14 service pack (that probably had never been done previously).
I mention this because it references a recent history of "failing", and because this new setting it may (or, may not) have a bearing on my current problem.
I believe, from having followed the user guide and notes on this forum, that I have set the schedule to do the following:
- Run every Sunday at 10pm
- Using the one schedule, backup (in turn) C: and D: to network drive
- To keep a maximum of 2 copies of the backup files
- To automatically optimise target storage space
- Set an optimise threshold of 420GB (It could probably get to about 520GB before running out of target disc space).
My understanding of this is that these settings should note when Ghost has consumed more than 420GB of disc space, and trim down accordingly. By way of example:
- Week one, backup one
- Week two, backup two
- Week 3, start backup 3:
- At the outset (or during?) realise that it has exceeded 420GB and purge "backup 1" files
- Complete backup 3
- Two backups now exist (2, 3)
- Week 4, remove backup 2 (3 and 4 now "current")
I'm not seeing this in action. Ghost will start the "third" backup (I am trying it every day, on demand, after having tweaked a range of settings), and run until there is no target disc space available. It then deletes "most" (not quite all) of the third set of backup files and reports an error.
The only way around this is to manually delete the oldest backup, and then manually start / await the scheduled start of the next backup. Not ideal in the long-run at all.
Am I expecting the wrong thing? That is, can Ghost actually do what I want it to, or not? Is there likely to be a setting I'm missing? Is the optimisation scheduled, rather than on-the-fly?
Help please!
Something that I do notice . . .
When reviewing the settings for the overarching schedule, it warns me that C: (and, in turn, D:) won't fit on the target drive as there is insufficient space.
Correct! But, I was rather hoping that Ghost would then do something about that when it performs a backup!
Please feel free to ask for specific details of my settings, environment, etc. Being new to Ghost, I'm not entirely sure what you would need to know so probably best to await your prompting.
Kind regards, and thanks in advance . . .
Dave :)