Sessions Missing - can't restore any tapes 4

[Yooper46]

ArcServIT 6.61 - nightly backup and DB pruning was setup by our corporate office when I first got this machine. I have been faithfully checking each day before I remove the tape to make sure it said backup successful. I put a tape away at the end of 2000 and 2001 and have monthly tapes throughout 2001 and 2002. I cannot see any sessions anymore. I tried a DB Recover from some of the tapes within the last week and it says successful but still there are no sessions showing up in restore. None of the tapes can be read at this time. Help!!

 

[yvfwc]

What is the OS, NetWare or NT? Have you tried to scan a tape?

Cheers,

Mark ;-)

 

[Yooper46]

Sorry about that - this is NT. I did a scan and it says 4 sessions on the tape but it does not read them.

 

[wjense]

Have you tried to setup another box, and merge the tape into the database on it? Try that.

 

[ARCserveGuru]

Hang on, have you tried to merge the tape into this database? Then bounce the database engine.

g

 

[Yooper46]

Thanks, yes I have tried to merge. It fails. I tried a DB recover and it says successful but still nothing. I have a local NT guru coming over from one of our other offices this morning so maybe... After all this I started having problems with the server too so maybe it is not ArcServ problem. I will respond if I come up with a solution.

 

[Yooper46]

Thanks for all your suggestions. We did not find out what was wrong. We re-installed and now I am starting a new backup set. Hopefully nobody remembers a file they deleted a year ago.

 

[monkeylizard]

Yooper, write it off to: "ArcServe is as reliable as a 1987 Chevy Chevette with 240,000 miles on it."

Unfortunately, when you visit the local car lot, you can only find the Chevette (ArcServe) and a '68 Dodge Dart (Veritas). Neither of which is what you want to depend on. Monkeylizard
-Isaiah 35-

 

[tremblyj]

Hello Youper46,

We're currently experiencing this same problem and working with CA tech support out of Illandia, NY.

DO NOT ERASE THOSE OLD BACK TAPES !!!!

The catalog files which are stored after each session on those tapes are damaged. You must perform an incremental merge by adding a registry key and setting it to a value of 1. This will force Arcserve to read the file headers on the tape and ignore the damaged catalog files. You can then later set that new key to 0 to start catalog merging after you've merged an old tape into the database.

You can also force the merge after a backup by first looking in the Arcserve temp directory and seeing if there are ANY merge files in there and then by running the MERGECAT.EXE program in the Arcserve directory.
All of the merge files will be deleted as they are processed and when Arcserve is idle and all sessions are merged properly, there shouldn't be any files in that temp directory. (After an incremental merge there will be 3 .tmp files but these can be safely deleted.)

At this point, you have probably reinstalled by now the problem is solved. We're planning a reinstall but it's a live document storage system and we have to schedule it for down time.

-John

 

[Yooper46]

Wow! Sure glad you read my post. Thanks alot. I will go down to my computer room and try now.

 

[Yooper46]

Hello Tremblyj - How do you perform an incremental merge? Where do you set these registry keys? The regular merge option never worked. I have nothing in the temp directory now. Thanks.

 

[ARCserveGuru]

http://support.cai.com/techbases/asnt/16126.html

Using the following registry key : DonotUseCatalogMerge

there ya go

g

 

[Keebler]

Hi all,

We are experincing the same problems, however, with novell 5 servers. I have read the information concerning the catolog files, and the incremental merge by editing the registry, but how do we do this with novell.

thanks
Chris