ArcServe Schedule not working 1

[muck]

Using Arcserve 6.5 over Multiple Servers
I've had to create a new media pool and schedule under FS (Fater Son) as we keep weekly tapes. The problem is that the schedule does not 'kick in' and I end up doing a manual one - would the media name have to be set or when creating the schedule do I have to point to the tape Arcserve should use ? any help greatly appreciated !

 

[cichlid]

Bit confused over your query but I'll have a stab.
I've created a quick set of jobs temporarily for some machines like this. One job, full backup everyday (includes at least one other machine in the job) with one media pool set to 5 tapes mon-fri retention time 3 days - min number 3 (just to stop overwriting). When I want to keep a tape I just don't use it again. Replace it in the set of tapes with a brand new one and Arcserve automatically uses it as it always uses a BLANK tape if it can't find one from the scratch set.
Call the pool weekly and when scheduling it you need to select weekly.
hope this helps / hope i'm not too far off

 

[muck]

Message for cichlid
I figured it out at last - seems the media pool was in the Save set as opposed to the Scratch set - no wonder it would not write to it - I also have a 6 day retention - incremental backups monday thru to thursday with a full backup on friday - many thanks for your input - it led me to realize what I was doing wrong.

 

[cichlid]

No probs - I've spent a bit of time struggling with arcserve 6.61 with no training so i've learnt the hard way.
Any more probs look out for me - I'm usually about here

 

[prudent]

I'm having a similar problem, my retension is set to 6 days but the tape does not always go to the scratch set, could you please give me some insight how and when arcserve takes the tapes from the save set to the scratch set?

 

[cichlid]

Something I have done is reduce the retention time to 2 days - this seems to be enough to stop it overwriting a tape the following day if someone forgets to change it - then on the third day it moves it to the scratch set. You'll need to set the minimum number in save set to 2 as well. There are times when you need to recreate your entire media set - this means you will have to blank each tape before the backup job (manually) remembering to clear the serial number on the tape as well as the job will check this before using the tape rather than the logical label (ie Monday).

If anyone's interested I have some notes on a basic backup scheme (mon-fri full backup) that works hassle free that I can e-mail.

cichlid000@hotmail.com

 

[prudent]

I manage some 300 servers each with it's own ADIC DLT tape library w/ 7 slots.
It is set up like this 5 daily full backups. 5 tapes are in GROUP0, the other 2 in GROUP1. the schedule points to GROUP0 for the tapes. Most of the time it will work, but sometimes it will fail saying media is not in scartch set. when I check it, it usually IS in the scratch set, sometimes I find that all the media is in the scratch set and it still doesn't work, this is all a mystery to me. The guys at arcserve have no clue.
I am really pushing my company to "scratch" arcserve and get Veritas or anything else.

 

[cichlid]

Ah, libraries are foreign to me unfortunately. Why do you have 2 tapes in Group1, what are they used for?
I would check all the serial numbers are in some sort of a sequence in your group of five - arcserve checks the tapes serial number before using it. Check the minimum number of tapes in save set as well. It wouldnt do any harm for, say a week, you manually blank the tapes (and serial) before each job. You may end up with a couple of monday tapes (or tue wed etc) but the serial numbers will be unique. I would also keep an eye on the Job Log in Arcserve Manager just to see what tape it is expecting each time it runs. This sounds like a "try it and see" one. It took me a while to sort our probs out - I even went a month manually blanking tapes (it uses a blank / no serial number tape regardless of what it is expecting).

Seán.
cichlid000@hotmail.com