Restore by session - files not listed after merge 2

[jimwaring]

I am attempting to restore a folder from a 2 year old backup tape (Its actually 2 tapes in a hopper).
I have run a 'restore by session', have selected the ID of the tapes in the drive, and could see 4 sessions listed. I clicked on Session2 (which contains the data I need) and was then prompted with 'Do you want to merge now'?. I selected 'Yes' and watched the merge complete with no errors (520,000 files and 82Gb).
However, when i go to the 'restore by session' screen i still cannot open the session to view the folders (click on the +, but it does not expand - no error messages).
I have tried exitting from the restore screen and going back in (to refresh it) and exitting from Arcserve and going back in but get the same error.
I am also getting the same error with the previous months tapes.
I have also tried merging all 4 sessions together and have got the same error on each session.
Anyone got any idea's ?

 

[FeedMeAccess]

I am having this same exact problem -- has anyone ever seen this before???? I can see that the data has been backed up -- i.e. "x" MB written to file. But when I click on the "+" to expand the session, I get nothing. Does anyone have any thoughts??

Thanks,

Bryant

bryantjones@hillintl.com

 

[ReddLefty]

Depending on the size of the backup and the speed of the computer, it may take a while before the database finishes the sorting of the files to list them, even if the job is completed.

It usually starts showing bits and pieces eventually which prove to you that the database is still sorting out all the data you just merged.




"In space, nobody can hear you click..."

 

[ajtmcse]

How long after the merge are you going in and trying to do the restore?

It is VERY important to remember with merges that the database pruning job runs daily and will purge ALL records older then the pruning retention setting.

 

[mohamdr]

Hi
You can try Merge without using the Catalog files
you will need to make a change in the Windows NT registry. This should only be necessary in the unusual case of a corrupt Catalog file. To do this, run REGEDT32.EXE and go to this location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software
Computer Associates
ARCserveIT
Base
Task
Add key = Merge (leave class empty.)
Add Value = DonotUseCatalogMerge
Dword
Value = Hex 1.


regards,
Mohamdr

 

[jimwaring]

thanks for the advice....
Before i try hacking the registry...
I kicked off the merge at 11:10 (UK time) this morning and this completed at 11:25. Reported that the merge was successful and that 82Gb of data had been merged from the tape. I have now waited 2 hours before doing the restore and still click on the + but it does not expand.
Have tried refreshing the restore window, but to no avail.
How long should i need to wait?
The server is a Compaq Proliant with twin 450mhz processors, 1Gb memory running Windows 2000 Adv. server and Arcserve 2000.

 

[DSMCBackup]

Make sure you CLOSE THE RESTORE window down and reopen it otherwise the selections will not update.

 

[mohamdr]

Hi
Youu have big amount of data on that tape which you trying
to merge.
You may have a database corruption which cause the merge to
not get executed successfully.

1-There is a folder in Arcserve path called temp check if there any files there if there are any this indicate the cataloge files not being mreged to database.

2-How big is your Arcserve database folder

3-Try to run a dbcheck.exe to check if you have a database corruption or not this link exaplain how to do it please have a look

http://support.ca.com/techbases/as2000/as2k-1521.html

regards
mohamdr

 

[jimwaring]

Hi Mohamdr,
Thanks for the help.
1 - The 'Temp' folder is empty.
2 - The arcserve database folder is 1.15Gb
Dont know if it helps, but the largest files are
astpsdat.000, 001 & 002, these 3 files total just over 1Gb.
3 - I have run dbcheck on all the databases, and it has come back with no errors.
We have just built a test server with same type of DLT drive and arcserve installed and are going to try restoring to this other server. Should give some sort of idea where the fault may lie....

regards
jim.

 

[dudenjersey]

Just wondering, if you know the file name, have you tried doing a restore by query. I've had a similiar problem and restoring by query helped.

 

[jimwaring]

Hi Simboy1919,
I'm afraid we dont know the names of the files we are looking for. We know its in one of 3 folder names (even these we dont know the exact names of !!) So we're a bit in the dark.
It's one of these 'The work was done by a team of 3 people who left the company about 2 years ago, so can we search through all the work in their personal data area's'....
- We are currently still building another server and try to run a restore by media (all 88Gb of it!) and then trawl through that!!!

 

[DebiJo]

Do you know what version of Arcserve you used for the initial backup 2 years ago? I had similar trouble getting a restore using Arcserve 2000 from a tape created by 6.61. So, I reinstalled 6.61 and all worked fine.

Good luck,
Debi

 

[xenotec]

I would like to expand on the registry entry that has been provided previous. ARCserve creates a catalog file in the ARCserve\Temp directory during backup. Once a session is finished backing up this file is copied to the end of the session. The purpose of this file is for future restores. When you merge a tape it FF to the end of the session and extracts the catalog file and then runs a process to update the database.
The registry update is an alternative in which it tell ARCserve to read each file on tape and rebuild the catalog file on disk to then be updated into the database. The merge process is slower but ensures that the tape is read and each file header is corrected for restore.
If the details are not showing in the database correctly you may have some corruption.
The ASTPSDAT.??? files in the ARCserve\Database directory house the file and directory level information. If you re-install ARCserve to an alternate server as a trial copy you can copy the database across and see if a fresh database helps. You will need to stop the ARCserve engines for this to be successful.

As an alternative to see if everything is in check try the following:
1. Stop the ARCserve engines
2. Rename "Mergecat.exe" in the ARCserve directory to .old
3. Run a merge on one of the sessions of the tape
4. Check the ARCserve\Temp directory for a *.CAT file (this file should have all the info for that session (Copy this out to an alternate location)
5. Stop the database engine
6. Rename the .old file back to mergecat.exe
7. From the command prompt in \ARCserve run mergecat.exe (This will merge the file into the database and the *.CAT file should be deleted from the ARCserve\Temp directory after the merge is complete)

Hope this helps