Tape Spanning problem with ADR50 and NovaNet

[Homerz]

I have been using Novanet 8.5 SP3 to back up to an Onstream ADR50.

Recently I performed a backup (using the Linux version) of my NTFS Windows XP partition. The backup was too big to fit onto one tape, and about 85% of the way through the backup I was prompted for another tape to span the backup onto. I did so, and the backup completed without error, and also verified successfully. Later that day, I then appended a *second* backup to the second tape, comprising my /home and /root directories under Linux. The second backup completed and verified successfully.

The next day, I felt brave enough to wipe the hard drives and install RedHat 9.0, Windows 98SE, and Windows XP Pro (my usuall 3-way boot setup). I figured that because I'd made a few hardware changes, and wanted to clean up my garbage filled Windows installations, that it was the best solution. Also I wanted a clean upgrade to RH9 from RH8.

Well I installed all 3 OS's successfully, then installed NovaNet under both Linux and Windows XP. I logged in to the Novanet manager and selected "Import Media". The *first* backup (spanned over two tapes) imported ok, but I was never even prompted about the second "appended" backup of my Linux stuff. I tried importing the second tape, but it just failed with an error (can't remember the error number - it was something like 204). I remember looking up the error code, and discovering that it meant something like "unexpected end of data" or something.

What bugs me is that *both* backups completed *and verified* ok.

What did I need to do to successfully import (and then restore) the second backup?

Incidentally, the *first* backup restored completely without problem.

It's too late to save the "lost" backup now, I've since overwritten the tape, but for future reference ... what did I do wrong?

[H]omer

 

[gwootton]

So, you backed up using novanet in Linux the ntfs and linux partitions. I'm not really familiar enough with Novanet to tell you why if it verified successfully it wouldn't be able to restore unless maybe the Novanet versions were not the same. Possibly it needed some sort of patch or update to match it with the version that was used for the backup? Really with this kind of thing, we'd usually pass it on to Novastor for support. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Homerz]

Yup it is a s/w problem (so not anything to do with OnStream - RIP), but NovaStor are cluless on the subject.

Their website has a knowledgebase article which suggests that basically I shouldn't append secondary backups onto spanned tapes. Doesn't say why - or even that it won't work - just that it is "not recommended". But then I didn't read the article until *after* the deed was already done. I lost a lot of data thanks to that mistake. Oh well.

I think I know how I could have made it work ... if I'd backed up the Novanet database to - say - CDR, then restored the *same* database immediately after re-installation. Then Novanet would have known about the second backup appended to the spanned tape. Maybe.

I made a fatal assumption. Simple. I assumed that the header on the second tape would include info about *all* the backups on that tape ... including position markers etc. Looks like I was wrong. Looks like the header for the appended backup appeared after the spanned section of the first backup, and Novanet (8.5 SP3) doesn't bother looking for appended backups when importing. Bummer.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Keith.