Media spanning

[urdvurk]

Hello all,

While trying out ARCserve v9 I encountered a problem while trying to span a backup across several DDS3 tapes. Most likely it is my inexperience, or my being dense, but here goes:

I want to back up some 32GB of mostly uncompressible data. DDS3 tapes take around 13GB, so I'll need two or three. I create a media pool, format the tapes and add them to the scratch set, put the first tape in the drive (a single drive by the way), set up the job and start it. Then at the end of the first tape it asks for blank media, and I oblige, I think, by putting in the second tape. ARCserve doesn't agree: it keeps asking for blank media and won't continue.

Am I doing something wrong?
By the way, I've also set the overwrite option to append because I don't want ARCserve to overwrite the labels I've put on the tapes. Is there any other way to stop ARCserve from replacing my media labels when overwriting? Also, could this have something to do with the problem above? According to the help file a full backup job will always use blank media, so it shouldn't be a problem should it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lou0686]

Hi,

You actually answered your own question. You are formatting a tape and adding a label. The backup wants a blank. A labeled media is not the same as a blank.

Lou

 

[PushF1]

Also make sure you erase it with a Erase-Plus to kill the serial number if any.

Cory

 

[urdvurk]

Thanks for the speedy reply.

So let me get this straight: if I want to do a backup spanning multiple media from a media pool, the first tape can have a label, and the rest can't? Or rather, it isn't possible to do a backup set of pre-labeled tapes in a media pool? You see I like to have all my tapes labeled so I can tell them apart. Isn't there any way to keep ARCserve from replacing my label with its own?

By the way, I've just tried to run the same job, but with a specific tape as the destination. I've also set all overwrite options to the bottom ones (Same name, or Blank first, then Any media), so at least the job would complete one way or the other. Only now it asks for new media after the first tape, and it won't overwrite the labeled, empty tape I put in.

To summarize: if I want to do a backup job spanning multiple media from a media pool, how do I do this? Do I have to put empty, unlabeled media in this pool or something? Isn't there any way for me to label these tapes myself?

Thanks again.

 

[Lou0686]

Hello again,

As far as I'm aware, you need to continue with what it asks for, in this case it's blanks. If you had previously established (by ARCserve) a media set, it would ask for those tapes.

I normaly do not keep track of media by the label but rather by the serial number on the tape. The label created by ARCserve will change with every backup but the serial number will remain constant, unless you do a Quick Erase Plus.

Lou