Tape Backup problems.. again!

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
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Okay I had a SCSI tape backup drive 40/80gig on our old server and we migrated. I have the machine running on a secondary server now, using Veritas Backup Exec.

Never had problems before like this--tapes stop at exactly 40 gigs, as if no compression is used (backups are only 42 gigs which is really pissing me off). I have compression enabled, hardware or software if hardware is not available.

Installed veritas drivers for the drive like it was on the old server. is this a hardware thing or software thing? Any help would be apprecaited. also if anymore details are required il lbe happy to post. thanks..
 

mikecel79

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2002
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What are you backing up? Is it files that are already compressed? If so then hardware compression probably can't do much. Are you getting any other errors in your logs? What version of BE are you using?
 

mrCide

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Nov 27, 1999
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BE v9 windowsXP Pro.

WAS on windows 2000 SBS. No errors.

Backup up SAME exact files we were backing up on 2000 SBS (was able to get about 53 gigs per tape). Now cannot get an ounce of compression?. Backing up exchange, sql database, and public folder.
 

mikecel79

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2002
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I thought BE 9 would only install the administration utilities on XP. I know on my Win2k Pro machine I can't install the server version on there. Maybe that's different in XP.

Anyways what does the job log say? Does it prompt you to put in a new tape?
 

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
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yeah just prompts for a new tape cause existing is full im assuming. same with every tape i have
 

mikecel79

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Jan 15, 2002
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I would try dumping the drivers for the tape drive and removing it from BackupExec. Then run the Veritas driver install but choose the box to remove old drivers. Reboot and then run the Hardware configuration Wizard and install the drivers from there. It sounds like your drive is unable to turn on it's compression ratio. What is the compression ratio in the log? You can also check the compression ratio by right clicking the media in the drive and going to properties. On the General tab it will say the compression ratio at the bottom.
 

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
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did all the driver stuff. same problem.

Used capacity 32.9GB, available 0, bytes written 37.7GB, compression ratio 1.15:1.

that sound right?
 

mikecel79

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2002
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It looks like BackupExec is not listing your drive correctly then. Under Devices go to Properties on the drive. For Product ID what is it showing? If it's a 40/80 drive it should be a DLT 8000 (assuming it's DLT). Did you check on Veritas's site to see if it's in their hardware compatibility list?
 

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
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its a DLT7000..

we've been doing backups to 54 or so gigs for over a year now but when migrated we installed xp pro on that machine that was our primary server. i don't understand why all of a sudden

EDIT: my mistake, it's 35/70 for the dlt7000 with these tapes, but still, only 5 gigs compression? emails should be able to compress better than that, so should an sql database, and public folder of lots of just documents and whatnot. something doesn't seem right.
 

mikecel79

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2002
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Do you have a maintenance agreement with Veritas? If so then get 9.1. Much more stable than buggy 9.0.

I looked through the knowledgebase on Veritas site and found a few links for you:

Backups fail to get double the amount of the native capacity recorded to a media, even when hardware compression is being utilized.
Supported Operting Systems

The last one is interesting. WinXP isn't a supported OS for running BackupExec. That could be a problem too. Especially if you want to use Veritas support in the future.