/etc/sarab/rotation.schedule

The rotation.schedule file is used to describe how your virtual-tapes will be named and rotated.

The rotation.schedule is very powerful because you can quickly design a custom rotation strategy, or use one of the suggested templates. Multiple rotation templates are provided (located in /etc/sarab/examples/) to demonstrate how this file can used. These include Towers of Hanoi, Grandfather-Father-Son, and several other rotation strategies..

To use an example rotation schedule, copy the file into "/etc/sarab/" and rename it to "rotation.schedule". This will overwrite the previous rotation.schedule, so make sure you backup the existing rotation.schedule file first, if you want to save it.

RULES:

1. This file is a circular list. Once the backup and rotation have completed successfully, the first line of this file will be moved to the last line. The second line then becomes the first line, and will be used the next time SaraB is run.

2. Each line will have either one or two words. If two words, they will be seperated by a space.

3. If there is only one word on a line, SaraB will create a full-backup. That word will become the name of the virtual-tape.

4. If there are two words seperated by a space, SaraB will create an incremental/differential backup. The first word will become the name of the virtual-tape. The second word is the name of the virtual-tape that will used as a reference point for the backup. (If a virtual-tape with this name doesn't already exist, then SaraB will instead create a full-backup. The virtual-tape will still be named by the first word.)

5. Each unique word represents a virtual-tape. If a word is listed on multiple lines, then the previous virtual-tape with
the same name will be overwritten when SaraB processes that line. This also happens when the entire rotation.schedule is rotated back to the beginning, the previous virtual-tape with the same name will be overwritten.

6. Creating comments with "#" is supported, but remember that this file is a circular list. The lines will be rotating, and your
comments may get split at the top and bottom of the file. The best idea is to add comments inline, after the archive
names.

See below for examples.

Ex. 1) Normal (full) backups.

weekly-full-1             # Weekly full-backups
weekly-full-2             # Full-backups require the most space, but are the easiest to restore from

Ex. 2) Differential backups. Note: "full-backup" is a normal (full) backup

full-backup               # Normal full-backup
diff-backup1 full-backup  # Differential backup, in reference to "full-backup"
diff-backup2 full-backup  # Differential backups only record changes since the previous full-backup
diff-backup3 full-backup  # Differentials save a lot of space and are fairly simple to restore from

Ex. 3) Incremental backups. Note: "full-backup" is a normal (full) backup

full-backup               # Normal full-backup
incr-backup1 full-backup  # First incremental, based on the full-backup
incr-backup2 incr-backup1 # Another incremental, based on the previous incremental
incr-backup3 incr-backup2 # Incremental backups only record changes since the previous incremental 
incr-backup4 incr-backup3 # Incrementals save the most space, but require more steps to restore from