BE 8.0 Backup complete - loading media 1

[truffles]

Hi All,
I have BE 8.0 on W2000 server platform that has been performing more or less perfectly for a year or so but now I have the following problem. Although the times and backup size etc are correct and everything seems to have backed up OK, the job monitor says 'loading media' or similar. I have to abort the job. On examining the log file everything seems Ok, it ends with
Media mount failed.
User aborted a physical volume library operation.
backup completed date - time etc.
I have checked the backup by performing a dummy restore and files created that day have been backed up. I do a complete backup of everything every day onto an HP DAT40 that is currently backing up about 25GB of data on a 40GB tape. This problem started as intermitant but now happens every day.
Any suggestions?
Regards to all,
Tim.

 

[truffles]

Hello Cap21
Thanks for the almost intant reply, none of us can guarantee an imediate reply unless you have nothing else to do. I presume you mean 25~27GB native = about 20GB compressed. The original files to be backed up (native) are as said largely DWG Autocad files. These from my previous experiences with Zip drives and external backup devices compress very well as they contain large amounts of similar data or white space. The current HP drive does not seem to be using any sort of compression although this has clearly been asked for in the job setup. I take you point on tape use to the point where the oxide layer starts to break up and contaminate the drive but the tapes used here are well within the 50* limit. I think I have as you suspect 2 problems. BE is not very friendly and does not show too much to the user. The software is not user friendly even to an experienced old fart like myself. It does not do what it says on the tin. Use compression - it doesn't backup 40GB (or even somewhere near it) it doesn't. The tape drive itself and accompanying software for testing it is not too good either. These things both tape drives and tapes are very expensive and most of us have better things to do with our IT time than sit around trying to sort out critical backup issues that really should be a dodle. I recently purchased a copy of Back2Zip and although this is not intended to perform my daily backup, this small program and it's human interface far surpases any offerings from the heavyweight software people. ( no advertising intended) I could zip my files prior to BE but then the recover funtion on BE would not work. I keep thinking that if I get the time I will research a better backup program for the server and ditch this lot. If only we had more time...
I would be most interested in any further info you get and thanks again for almost too quick reply.
Cheers,
Tim.
PS Truffles is the name of my cat.

 

[ChoppinBilly]

Not arguing the 50+ comments, but I don't see anywhere in this thread that someone is complaining about a single tape giving them problems. The first thing anyone with this problem would do is try a new tape or format an old one. Whether you knew that you could only overwrite 50 times or not, any user would determine on day one that the tape was the culprit if that was the case.

 

[truffles]

In my case as the whole setup was installed when the daily backup was only about 10GB this problem slowly crept up on me. Again if I had the time, possible a weekend when I could slow the server down a bit, I would take a new tape and using any data I could lay my hands on, see just how much Std and compressed data the tape can hold. The very wording COMPRESSED is a bit vague. Does it mean that if I were to get 40GB of data and compress it, it would then fit on the tape. How can anyone know (only roughly) just how much 40GB can compress to. If the files involved are already in a 'Zip' type format they are not likely to compress much at all. On the other hand, taking my 27GB ish limit on my tapes, this could mean that 27GB is the expected compressed volume from an original 40GB uncompressed data source. Why can't the makers just put the amount of room on the tape in std bytes. It could also be argued that the tape should handle 40GB in any form and this if compressed could be the equivalent of perhaps 60GB uncompressed. Please escuse me while I bang my head on the wall. If I by a 180 min VHS tape I know I can get 180 min of video on it. True, on long play I can get more but then there is a quality issue. I just want to buy a tape that will accept 40GB of data in whatever format I choose.
The second problem that I seem to have, especially if the limit for uncompressed data is about 27GB, is the BE software. Just how many times should you have to say 'use hardware compression if available if not software'? How many times should you have to tell it to use 'any media' and 'Overwrite media'. These options are always set. What I need is another button that says 'there is a tape in the drive, using whatever compression, just bl**dy get on with it'
Hey it's Friday, time to chill out, poets day and all that. Mustn't get wound up. Have a nice weekend all..
Best whatsits,
Tim.

 

[Cap21]

Hello everyone,

A few words on compression as I see there is quite a lot of misconception about it.
The point is that compresseion is a number of techniques to TRIE and diminnish the amount of data needed. A very simple exsample is for instance countig the number of spaces used in lets say a letter written by you. When you use a lot of spaces the letter can stored in a very small amount of bytes as only the number and position of the spaces are stored. As the number of spaces varies in each letter so will the compressability vary per letter. This is only one of the many techniques used in compression. Some files ware already compressed by their nature like for instance JPEG. When you try and compress a compressed file it will only get larger.
Now making a backup : All different types of files will produce just as many different compression ratios which will also vary per file. Therefor it is not possible to predict exactly how much will go on a tape with compression (hardware or software). The only hard number is the native value of 20 with a 20/40 tape for example.

Goodluck everyone.

 

[jimmyd00]

I am noticing this on a new DLT Drive VS80, I cannot manage to get a backup of more than 40Gb and am assuming that it based on the 40/80GB native/compressed state and that the compression ratios cannot work effectively becuase of the data types I am backing up, a mix of audio, image and documents.
If this is the case then I would of thought that some degree of warning would be made before purchse!!

Any thoughts!!

James

 

[Cap21]

Hello,

I have also noticed that some odd behaviour in some cases I very recently encountered (switched job = new problems/case).
I have noticed that in one case the hardware compression does not sem to work. I switched as a test to pure software compression in the job settings and was able to backup 27Gb on a 20/40 DAT. I am looking in to this as time allows.
Please try the software compression settings and report back to this forum as I strongly suspect there is an issue here.

Good luck everyone.

 

[irritec]

Hi
starting last week I'm getting same problem on my
COMPAQ 20/40GB DAT DRV 0002051649
The backup work correctly since 1st installation on BEXEC 8.6.
Inserting a 2nd cartridge let backup to complete regulary.
The amount of data to backup is 24Gb only (lotus notes/domino databases).
Changing of data cartridges (hp original) get same problem.

Now (after the answer received from support) I will go to reinstall/update the compaq driver.
The support say:compaq version(or Veritas version) instead Microsoft version.

I hope this work Sigh!
(sorry for my poor english)
Bye
Saro

 

[elmurado]

Saro, this is to do with the fact that a 20g/40g tape can actually only hold max around 23-24g of data if some of it is compressed. really, there isn't that much you can do about it except make the backup span two tapes.
This would be true no matter which backup prog you use.I would imagine some kind of compression happens in Lotus/Domino before BE compresses it as well.