Definition: Grandfather-father-son - Storage Technology Magazine

Definition: Grandfather-father-son

A tape-media rotation scheme that creates three sets of backup tapes: daily incremental sets or "sons," weekly fulls or "fathers," and end-of-month tapes or "grandfathers." For example, if you want to take incremental backups Monday through Thursday, do a full on the weekend, and keep a monthly full for one year, you would need four sets for incrementals and three sets for weeklies (the fourth week of the month is used to create the monthly backup). And because there are 13 four-week cycles in a year, you would need 13 sets of monthly tapes.

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

This was first published in September 2005