Hi Matthew,

I'm interested in what anyone else has to say regarding this as well.

We have a similar problem with our Compaq SSL2020 tape library. We have to perform a scan and then erase all tapes going into the library every day or else the job will stop part way through asking for an empty tape to be imported. At that stage if we do a scan and then clear the alert the job will usually restart and continue on.

There seems to be a lot of room for improvement in Veritas' handling of media etc. For the life of me I cannot understand why I cannot do a quick erase on a number of tapes (BENW v9.1) without being prompted, get the tapes erased AND the catalogue updated. If I have erased the tape then what use is a catalogue entry that refers to a non-existent tape. There are a number of other meida issues that also get in the way - BENW says media is in the library when it is not, media that BENW says has not been written to in the Media Stats but the job log says it has x MB written to it etc etc.

Terry Broad


>>> Matthew Swenson 05/Dec/2003 07:15:26 >>>
I'm having some problems understanding how Backupexec 9.1 for Netware chooses the tapes it uses for backups. I currently run incremental backups on five Netware 6 servers during the week and a full backup of them on the weekends. I am running the jobs using scheduled jobs and policies. I have an HP SureStore DAT 40x6 robot with 5 slots dedicated to tapes and 1 dedicated to the cleaning cartridge. I use Maxell HS-4\150s DDS4 tapes which have a 20 GB capacity. The tape drive has hardware compression turned on which, according to HP's manual, usually results in a 2:1 compression.

Lately when I arrive Monday mornings I get an error from the BE Administration Console asking for blank or overwritable media to do the last full backup job. I cancel that job and check the tapes to see their capacity and get results such as this:

Slot 1
Bytes written: 92.4 MB
Bytes read: 69.0 GB

Slot 2
Bytes written: 19.6
Bytes read: 100.7

Slot 3
Bytes written: 1.6 GB
Bytes read: 121.3 GB

Slot 4
Bytes written: 0
Bytes read: 73.5 GB

Slot 5
Bytes written: 18.6 GB
Bytes read: 68.1 GB

As you can see there's plenty of space available, not to mention one tape that hasn't even been touched. There seems to consitently be one slot that is not written to for full backups. Usually it is slot 3 but this time it was slot 4. I checked HP's documentation and it seems like they start numbering slots with #1 and not #0, as is printed on the magazine and the LCD display on the robot. In addition I put the tape for the daily incrementals in slot #1, so if it actually started numbering with #0 the dailies would probably produce errors.

Every time I put in a set of tapes for backup I first Inventory them and then perform a quick erase on them. From what I read recently that should put the tapes in the Scratch System Media category, and thereby fair game for use. What am I doing wrong or missing?

Matthew

"Matthew Swenson" wrote in message
news:3fcf879e@ROSASTDMZ05....
> I'm having some problems understanding how Backupexec 9.1 for Netware
chooses the tapes it uses for backups. I currently run incremental backups
on five Netware 6 servers during the week and a full backup of them on the
weekends. I am running the jobs using scheduled jobs and policies. I have
an HP SureStore DAT 40x6 robot with 5 slots dedicated to tapes and 1
dedicated to the cleaning cartridge. I use Maxell HS-4\150s DDS4 tapes
which have a 20 GB capacity. The tape drive has hardware compression turned
on which, according to HP's manual, usually results in a 2:1 compression.
>
> Lately when I arrive Monday mornings I get an error from the BE
Administration Console asking for blank or overwritable media to do the last
full backup job. I cancel that job and check the tapes to see their
capacity and get results such as this:
>
> Slot 1
> Bytes written: 92.4 MB
> Bytes read: 69.0 GB
>
> Slot 2
> Bytes written: 19.6
> Bytes read: 100.7
>
> Slot 3
> Bytes written: 1.6 GB
> Bytes read: 121.3 GB
>
> Slot 4
> Bytes written: 0
> Bytes read: 73.5 GB
>
> Slot 5
> Bytes written: 18.6 GB
> Bytes read: 68.1 GB
>
> As you can see there's plenty of space available, not to mention one tape
that hasn't even been touched. There seems to consitently be one slot that
is not written to for full backups. Usually it is slot 3 but this time it
was slot 4. I checked HP's documentation and it seems like they start
numbering slots with #1 and not #0, as is printed on the magazine and the
LCD display on the robot. In addition I put the tape for the daily
incrementals in slot #1, so if it actually started numbering with #0 the
dailies would probably produce errors.
>
> Every time I put in a set of tapes for backup I first Inventory them and
then perform a quick erase on them. From what I read recently that should
put the tapes in the Scratch System Media category, and thereby fair game
for use. What am I doing wrong or missing?
>
> Matthew

You need to check to make sure that:

a) You use "Overwrite" rather than "Append" since append may result in
addition too much for the tape to handle.

b) If you are using media rotation, is it possible that the media has a
protection date (i.e. it has not expired so overwriting is prohibited).

I find myself using partition rather than media pool method. This way I can
dedicate certain slots for certain day so I never have a question as to what
tape is in my slot X.

By the way, don't believe the 2:1 compression. That is the ideal (i.e. 50%
of the original size). But if your files consist of many executables, dlls,
digital music, you can forget that compression rate since those files are
already compressed. You'd be lucky if you can get 1.2 : 1..

Thanks for the tip. I'll do some reading on the changing that setting from
"append" to "overwrite."

We are using a media rotation. The tapes have a media protection date of 3
weeks after last written to. But shouldn't that date or restriction be
removed when I erase the tapes?

Matthew

"Raoul Watson" wrote in message
news:3fd01a8e@ROSASTDMZ05....W
>
> "Matthew Swenson" wrote in message
> news:3fcf879e@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > I'm having some problems understanding how Backupexec 9.1 for Netware
> chooses the tapes it uses for backups. I currently run incremental
backups
> on five Netware 6 servers during the week and a full backup of them on the
> weekends. I am running the jobs using scheduled jobs and policies. I
have
> an HP SureStore DAT 40x6 robot with 5 slots dedicated to tapes and 1
> dedicated to the cleaning cartridge. I use Maxell HS-4\150s DDS4 tapes
> which have a 20 GB capacity. The tape drive has hardware compression
turned
> on which, according to HP's manual, usually results in a 2:1 compression.
> >
> > Lately when I arrive Monday mornings I get an error from the BE
> Administration Console asking for blank or overwritable media to do the
last
> full backup job. I cancel that job and check the tapes to see their
> capacity and get results such as this:
> >
> > Slot 1
> > Bytes written: 92.4 MB
> > Bytes read: 69.0 GB
> >
> > Slot 2
> > Bytes written: 19.6
> > Bytes read: 100.7
> >
> > Slot 3
> > Bytes written: 1.6 GB
> > Bytes read: 121.3 GB
> >
> > Slot 4
> > Bytes written: 0
> > Bytes read: 73.5 GB
> >
> > Slot 5
> > Bytes written: 18.6 GB
> > Bytes read: 68.1 GB
> >
> > As you can see there's plenty of space available, not to mention one
tape
> that hasn't even been touched. There seems to consitently be one slot
that
> is not written to for full backups. Usually it is slot 3 but this time it
> was slot 4. I checked HP's documentation and it seems like they start
> numbering slots with #1 and not #0, as is printed on the magazine and the
> LCD display on the robot. In addition I put the tape for the daily
> incrementals in slot #1, so if it actually started numbering with #0 the
> dailies would probably produce errors.
> >
> > Every time I put in a set of tapes for backup I first Inventory them and
> then perform a quick erase on them. From what I read recently that should
> put the tapes in the Scratch System Media category, and thereby fair game
> for use. What am I doing wrong or missing?
> >
> > Matthew
>
> You need to check to make sure that:
>
> a) You use "Overwrite" rather than "Append" since append may result in
> addition too much for the tape to handle.
>
> b) If you are using media rotation, is it possible that the media has a
> protection date (i.e. it has not expired so overwriting is prohibited).
>
> I find myself using partition rather than media pool method. This way I
can
> dedicate certain slots for certain day so I never have a question as to
what
> tape is in my slot X.
>
> By the way, don't believe the 2:1 compression. That is the ideal (i.e. 50%
> of the original size). But if your files consist of many executables,
dlls,
> digital music, you can forget that compression rate since those files are
> already compressed. You'd be lucky if you can get 1.2 : 1..
>
>