MEDIA ISSUES W/ 9.0

[smeek]

I have a client I could not convince to move to Backup Exec. We tried to upgrade to BrightStor 9.0 from AS2000 SP4. After migration, we had quite a few issues. We emailed support (what a joke). So, we uninstalled the software.

After a fresh install of BS (ha-ha) 9.0, our backup reports errors of

Error 3705- 3705 Unable to format media (MEDIA=media_name, EC=media_error_code)

AND

Error 6096 - 6096 media error

Of course, searching through CAs support base regurgitates the errors back to me.

I am open to any advice offered. Thanks.

IMHO, maybe I am biased because I have worked with BENT a bit longer, but CA has turned ArcServe into a piece of cr**. The interface seems more complex and less intuitive, there are no knowledge bases to help you help yourself, the Admin guide that shipped with it is 1/10th of what comes with BENT and the vendor does its best to provide no support.

 

[goldman]

Can't help ya, but I agree 100% w/ your comments about BS 9 and CA in general.

 

[xjlkx]

Smeek -

I don't have a specific answer to your problem, but what I can tell you is that all of our problems started AFTER applying SP4.

You may want to try uninstalling, including fishing EVERYTHING out of the registry, and reinstalling without SP4.

The problem that alot of people are running into is that they need SP4 to fix a specific problem, but as soon as they patch it, more problems arise. No doubt, this program is a dog with many, many fleas.

The only "relative" satisfaction I have seen people get from CA only comes after they email CA error logs, dr watson logs, first born children, and underwear size.

CA will then custom program your patch for the next 6-8 MONTHS and maybe you'll have a solution by the time you're ready to retire.

What am I trying to say? I feel your pain, because this software is absolutely awful.

 

[smeek]

OK. Think I finally got it corrected.

But to be fair, I think my issues were a combination of Brightstor and my tape drive.

I noticed that any time I had a tape in the drive the system would kind of lock. After speaking to Compaq support, they sent me a replacement drive. They also told me to go into device manager and disable the tape drive, something they said Arcserve suggests. While I scoffed, it seemed to help.

The last thing I noticed was that there were two Groups under devices in Arcserve. Perhaps we created somehow by either SP4 or the final reinstall process. So I got rid of the group that my previously formatted tapes did not show up in. Verified that the job also pointed to that group as destination and it seemed to work.

It is safe to say that I will never use Brightstor if I can help it.

 

[GetseKlets]

If tapedevice is hotswap.

The suggestion is to edit the registry, however, editing the registry is at your responsibility. Please stop the tape engine. Edit the registry: HKLM\Software\ComputerAssociates\ArcserveIT\Base\TapeEngine
Create a new key Config
Add value: EnableSharedDevices DWord:1
Restart the tape engine