Won't take second tape

[ledzepe]

We have a Qualstar Robotic Jukebox with 28 tape slots using 8mm 260Gb tapes. We have Veritas Backup Exec 8.6 running incremental Mon-Fri backup and Sat full backup. The Mon-Fri use one tape each and Sat uses two tapes. We are backing up seven NT4.0 servers totaling up to 400GB

The problen started three Saturdays ago (running the Sat Full backup), the backup starts normally and fills up the first tape. It then takes the second tape but instead of continuing the backup, it returns the tape to the slot and pickup the first tape. It then starts the job but since its already used on the first part of the job, it rejects it and log an error that the tape is already used then stops the backup.

Any suggestions?

 

[Rols]

Are you sure that the second tape is avalible for overwrite or is scratch media?? Make sure that there is no overwrite protection left on the tape (also check the physical overwrite tab).

 

[ledzepe]

We have changed or added or deleted anything on the backup server. Its just that 3 Saturdays ago , it stops writing on the second tape and I'm doing the very same daily/weekly routine.

We uses two tapes for our Saturday full backup since we have 300 GB to backup. Below is part of the log where the drive picks up the second tape then replace it back and takes the first tape:

Drive and media information from media mount:
Robotic Library Name: QUALSTAR 1
Drive Name: SONY 1
Slot: 6
Media GUID: {92355603-7747-44D2-BB56-1D41EE8871B2}
Media Label: AAY601 >>>>>>>this second tape <<<<<<<<<<<
Overwrite Protection Time Left: < 1 Hour
Append Time Left: Infinite
Targeted Media Set Name: Media Set 1
Backup set #25 on storage media #2

Drive and media information from media mount:
Robotic Library Name: QUALSTAR 1
Drive Name: SONY 1
Slot: 7
Media GUID: {33C5ED65-0D60-4933-BECD-73217B810FA3}
Media Label: AAY602 >>>>>>>this first tape again!!<<<<<<<
Overwrite Protection Time Left: < 1 Hour
Append Time Left: Infinite
Targeted Media Set Name: Media Set 1
The media provided to continue the backup already contains data
from one or more sets created during this operation.
The operation can not be continued

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

 

[Rols]

It really sounds like there is something wrong with your overwrite protection period - again Id check to see if there is any overwrite protection period left on the second tape - just right click on the tape and select properties.

What you may find is that backups have been appending to the second tape and now the second tape is full but still has an overwite protection period.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[ledzepe]

My understanding of Overwrite Protection Time is the time from the last write to the time when the tape (or part of the tape) can be over written. If my Overwrite... is set to < 1 hour and let's say the drive wrote a new file on the tape at 3:00AM, the file can be overwritten after 3:59AM. Please clarify...

 

[Rols]

Your assumption is correct - however if you overwrite the data it will overwrite the entire backup set ie: not each individual file.

 

[ledzepe]

THANKS ALL ...

I got our Saturday Full-backup going without error. I analysed the data we are backing up and it turned out that we are backing up 60GB of compressed data. Therefore two tapes (100/260GB) won't hack it. I read somewhere in this forum that the first number in the backup tape capacity is the compressed and the last number is uncompressed, so it would mean that the 60GB of compressed data is eating up half of the first tape. Since that 60GB are disk images, I excluded them from the backup and made a separate full backup.

Anyway, thank you Rols for our inputs...