Veritas spits out tape before completion 6

[PalmStrike]

I have gone over this forum, and read so many threads with this same problem as i am having, i.e., one minute you are backing up fine, (in my case because somebody else configureded Back up exec) the next minute, it no longer wants to play ball.

Has anybody found out what it is yet that suddenly makes backup exec dicide it no longer wants to fit 12GB onto a 24GB DAT?

If it helps, all I did was be ill one day, so i failed to change a tape. In the past our old IT bloke would reset something and that would be fine.

 

[blindsteve]

PalmStrike: Try this article from veritas' support site:

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/199542.htm

 

[PalmStrike]

Thanks Blindsteve, this is something I have not yet come accross, I will let you know how I get on, and if it works, you can have a star.

 

[herring367]

This is a great thread. I have the same problem, although I know the day my problems started. I had a Citrix guy in helping me our Citrix Server, and I asked if he knew anything about back-up systems. My tapes were "on occasion" popping out (once every two weeks or so), something I could live with but would like to fix. He clicked on something and ever since my tapes pop out EVERY DAY!. I called him a week later and asked if he could remember what he did, but he said he didn't make any changes to my backup program.

Anyway, to make a long story short (I guess I can't do that now!), I am having the same problems as the person who started this thread. I will keep checking back in case anyone comes up with more suggestions, and of course will check out all the suggestions above. Thanks.

 

[PalmStrike]

I have some new information now in the basis of where blindsteve pointed me to.

It apears, that even though I have compression set to hardware, and in the past software, it appears that there is no compression happening at all, as looking at the job logs of a compressed one, and now an uncompressed one, they are exactly the same.

Anyone got any thoughts?

It would be great to get to the bottom of this, as it seems quite a few people have this same problem.

 

[Fuubar]

Dude, did you read Qdog's post in this thread? Two things could be causing your problem.
1. Soft Write errors are so numerous that the tape drive is fast-forwarding the tape which is decreasing the amount of usable tape available for data.

2. The firmware on your tape drive is corrupt and has stopped compressing data.

As Qdog suggested, run a Backup-to-Disk folder backup as a test using software compression. (Assuming you have Backup Exec version 8.6) If you see a big difference in size when comparing the same amount of data backed up, it indicates problems with your tape device.

-Upgrade or reapply the firmware to your tape drive. When hardware compression is enabled, Backup Exec merely sends a signal to your tape drive to compress the data, it is then up to the firmware to use the burned in algorithm to compress the data.

Good luck.

 

[blindsteve]

PalmStrike:
So there's no message in the log saying that any compression is being used? The job's properties say it's supposed to use hardware, right? if that's the case, all BE does is send the command to the tape drive to enable it. if it's not there, you won't see an error.

Try switching to software to at least see if it shows that it's being used... software compression will also indicate the compression ratio.

Hope this helps.

 

[PalmStrike]

OK,

Fistly, is 10 soft write errors a lot? as our DLT tape backup on our other server has over a thousand and is still backing up fine.

On the job log it is saying hardware compression enabled.

or disabled depending on the setting I try, yet it is writing the same amount of data. So it appears.

This is driving me mad, as even Veritas can't seem to help, yet it seems like such a common problem for so many users.

Regards

Rob

 

[blindsteve]

No. 10 is not a lot. I'm pretty sure that softwrite errors are not your problem.

Try software compression and see what compression you are getting. It should tell you - per set - how effective the compression is.

Did you try the NT or 2000 native backup to see if it's getting similar results?

 

[SteelBurner]

What tape drive are you using?
Look at the manufacturers website to see if he's got a service tool to check the drive or/and upgrade the firmware.
It will also tell you if something's probably wrong with the SCSI connection/transfer rate or if your media needs to be replaced.
Even if the drive worked well for a few months that might have changed.
If it's a Seagate drive:

http://www.seagate.com/support/tape/utils/stdiag.html

With that tool you can switch on (or off) the hardware compression.
If you have a HP drive:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50128

I could fix similar backup problems that way and they had nothing to do with BE.

SteelBurner

 

[PalmStrike]

Ok, here is a new development, backup doesn't even fit on two tapes now, when I was prompted for another tape, I thought ok, try that, and backup is still failing.

Any ideas?

Just looked at the job log, and it did seem to complete, but the tape was spat out before Verification could be doen, I am assuming that this is because I did not put the first tape back.

anyone know how to get it onto 1 tape?

When it was backing up, it would backup 12 Gb, but with this job I took compression off, and it came to 21Gb.

When it started to fail, I notice that compressed or not it would fail at the same point according to the job log.

Anyone no how I can reset it so that the information can once again be compressed?

 

[mot98]

Hi All,

I was experiencing the same problem here. My daily backup used to backup onto one tape fine, and then all of a sudden one day it started taking 2 tapes. I kept checking the total data and it had not grown by that much. Then last night it took 3 tapes to perform the same backup.

I went to the link that SteelBurner provided and downloaded the diagnostic tool. When I attempted to run a compression test on the tape drive it failed saying that hardware compression was not enabled. I double checked all my settings, and as far as I could tell it was enabled. While on the website I also noticed that there was a new firmware available for my drive. I downloaded that and installed it, and now my tape drive is saying Hardware compression is working fine.

I am going to run another backup later today. I will let you know if this solved the problem.

mot98


"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)

 

[PalmStrike]

It might earn you a star you know!!

 

[mot98]

O.K All,

I ran the backup last night, the total amount of data was 16GB and it spanned 2 tapes. So the problem is still not fixed.

My backups have ranged from 15GB to 17GB for the last year, and have always fit on one tape.

I am continuing to look for a solution.

mot98


"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)

 

[SteelBurner]

Hi mot98,

what are your settings for compression type in your BE job (software AND hardware)? Sorry, but I can't tell you the "path" to that setting as I have only german versions of BE here ;-(

What data are your 15GB to 17GB? If there are many JPEGs, ZIPs or PST files you won't get good results with either hardware or software compression. 24GB will only fit on a single DDS3 tape at a compression rate of 2:1. You'll never get that if you have some kind of compressed data on you harddisk.

To check the compression abilities of your DAT drive you might also use the HP L&TT with a new tape.

SteelBurner

 

[rnole]

What is your tape rotation method. If the tape was left in and ran out of space, and it was not allowed to overwrite the existing data on the Media, this would cause the tape to eject. I use the same tapes, one for each day Monday through Thursday, then archive Friday's tape each week. If I do not set the tapes to overwrite the exisiting data, the tape will be ejected. Look at your settings under Tools>Options and see what your overwrite settings are for the Media. Not sure if this will help. Are the tapes now ejecting on every backup?

 

[PalmStrike]

OK,

Since I last posted on this thread, I have downloaded the tape drive diagnostic software that someone pointed out to me earlier in the thread, and the drive is working fine, I have brand new tapes in there, so it cannot be the soft read and write errors.

Any other ideas, I am at my wits end with this one, and veritas wont help unless you pay them.

 

[RANKIN]

Ok Guys,
Im just gonna jump in here -
Has anyone seen this message before?
Is this a problem with BE or my network connections. From the users end access to the network is fine and I have not been able to locate a problem area!?
thanks,

Job server: BACKECLIPSE
Job name: Daily
Job started: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 at 6:30:06 PM
Job type: Backup
Job Log: BEX21.txt
======================================================================
Unable to attach to \\GEORGE\C$.

^ ^ ^ ^
Unable to attach to \\JOANB\C$.

^ ^ ^ ^
Unable to attach to \\MARIANNENEW2\C$.

^ ^ ^ ^
Unable to attach to \\RSULLIVAN\C$.

^ ^ ^ ^

 

[2ffat]

Rankin,
[tab]You're more likely to get a good answer if you start another thread but I'll try. Have you installed the client software for each machine? Are you sure the PCs are on and the client is loaded (they will not have "Press any key to reboot" on them)?

James P. Cottingham

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
[tab][tab]Albert Einstein explaining his Theory of Relativity to a group of journalists.

 

[liffeytech]

This issue might the result of the unit not doing hardware compression...I had to have Dell Replace the backup unit and everything work fine after that.

 

[jim2000]

Same thing is happening to me as PALMSTRIKE, but with 2 different systems, and started happening at the same time. I have just begun my troubleshooting with the help of this thread but it looks like the compression is failing on both. I just changed from hardware compression to software, so we will see how it goes tonight.

Jim