Damaged Session?

[jeff275]

Hi, I am new to ArcServe, so please bear with me. I have a tape that I can't merge a session on. It keeps asking for sequence 2, but when I put in the second tape it just keeps asking for sequence 2. It's almost like there is a tape missing. Is there a way I can rebuild the whole catalog? Excuse me if I'm not using the right language, I'm still used to Retrospect (which so far I like a lot more than ArcServe).

-Jeff

 

[vschumpy]

You can try the recommendation in this FAQ:

http://supportconnect.ca.com/sc/redir.jsp?reqPage=search&searchID=FAQ253461

 

[jeff275]

That didn't work. Unless I did something wrong in creating the key (should it have existed already?). Is there a way to just rebuild the catalog for a tape set?

 

[vschumpy]

Generally, no it doesn't exist. Are you sure the tapes have the same name AND RID? - could you give the details for the two tapes and the exact error message received?

You are using a standalone tape drive right ? Can we have some more details on this, how it is connected, and the version of ARCserve you are using?

The reg hack posted does a manual scan of the tape contents instead of just zooming to the end of the session and restoring the catalog file.

 

[davidmichel]

Well that might not have worked because that might not be your problem.

It sounds like it is not finding the session on tape.

Run a Scan on the tape and then see what it finds.

 

[jeff275]

The program can find other sessions on the tape just fine, it just seems to be the one session that is a problem. Yes I am using a standalone tape drive. I'm sorry, I thought I gave the details already, I guess I forgot. I am using version 11.0, the drive is connected via SCSI. I can't tell you the exact message, but it is just the standard dialog box asking to insert sequence 2. When I did the hack it gave me the exact same message. When I did a scan, the exact same thing happened. Does a scan rebuild the catalog? If not what is supposed to rebuild the catalog?

 

[vschumpy]

Patch up to r11.1 and the latest patches :

http://supportconnect.ca.com/sc/redir.jsp?reqPage=search&searchID=TEC378659

I think this might have been a problem in earlier r11.0 builds, but as far as I know has been fixed for some time now.

 

[jeff275]

I just noticed something else weird about this tape. Is says it only has about 31 gigs on it and it should be a 40 gig tape.

 

[vschumpy]

40 gig native or compressed:

http://supportconnect.ca.com/sc/redir.jsp?reqPage=search&searchID=TEC380973

What make/model of tape drive are you using?

 

[jeff275]

Yeah I've seen that document. All that does is tell me that there is really something wrong of the tape should have gotten a minimum of 10 more gigs on it. Every other tape that spans to another tape has at least 45 gig on the first one.

 

[jeff275]

So there's no way to rebuild a tape catalog if you happen to have lost the thing or something like that? I'd like to know because I'm sure it will happen sooner or later.

 

[vschumpy]

Jeff, as I've stated previously - the reg hack provided manually scans the every item on the tape and builds a new catalog file from this and merges it in the ARCserve DB.

I presumed from your previous response that you'd put it down to a bad tape.

 

[davidmichel]

We are going round and round here.

Tape Catalog is something from another program and so no ARCserve can not build a tape catalog. ARCserve uses cat files. This file contains all the database info for that session and is the last file in that session.

The registry hack given forces the Merge job to use the older sequential method were it will read through the whole session to obtain the database info for that session.

In this case it does not matter since that session is corrupt. How do we know it is corrupt? We know because the Scan job failed to find that session on tape. If it can not find that session on tape then as far as ARCserve knows it does not exist on that tape so it must be on the next tape and hense it keeps asking for the seq. # 2 tape.

so if this data is really valuable and you really need it back time to call a data recovery service.

 

[jeff275]

I said I didn't know if I was using the right terminology. I don't think it's off-base to cal a "cat" a catalog. Unless it means something else. I guess if ArcServe can't rebuild a tape that's a pretty bad shortcoming and pretty much seals the deal for me to use a different program. Thanks for your help.

 

[vschumpy]

I give up, I can only say the same thing different ways, so many times!

 

[davidmichel]

jeff275
the TAPE IS BAD, no program can catalog what it can not read. but yes perhaps you should use a different program.

 

[jeff275]

If the tape is bad, any program worth its salt should give me some sort of usable error.