Symantec Backup Exec & LTO2.

BoomAM · 5 Dec 2007 at 15:43

Hi.
Can anyone tell me why exactely our tapes hold 200/400Gb, the total space to backup daily is 197Gb, the total monthly backup is 323Gb, yet on the daily backups, its having to do the last 10-20% of the backup on ANOTHER tape?

Im trying to work out if we need to buy new tapes or not?

Plus, im asuming that BackupExec will allow me to format/rename tapes? Essentially starting from scratch with them?

Thanks in advance all.

.

m4cc45 · 5 Dec 2007 at 17:59

Yes backup exec will do that.

The native space is 200gb which means that at the very least you will get 200gb of storage. After that is, essentially, a bonus. The compression algorithms kick in and it tries to compress your data from the start if your data is already compressed (i.e. a zip file with maximum compression) then it will use up that space (i.e. if its 10mb then it will use 10mb on the tape). It will never give you the full 400GB however it should be better than what you are seeing dependant up on the data.

M.

Deathwish · 5 Dec 2007 at 19:36

Yep, sounds like the data you are backing up can't be compressed any more so it is requesting a new tape.

You should be able to clear down a tape OK, never done it in BE just NBU.

BoomAM · 5 Dec 2007 at 22:55

Right, so will i need to buy new tapes, or can i just format the old ones and rename then?
If its the latter, how do i do that? (symantec guide prehaps, cant find nout myself.)

Thanks.

.

Burnsy2023 · 6 Dec 2007 at 00:07

Just a quick question, is BackupExec doing hardware or software compression?

Burnsy

BoomAM · 6 Dec 2007 at 08:36

Not entirely sure tbh.

How do i find out?

m4cc45 · 6 Dec 2007 at 09:38

It will tell you if you do the properties of the drive.

You can format your old tapes and reuse them - if you go to the devices menu then right click on your tape drive there should be an erase tape. I used to setup a job to erase the tape drive or library depending on what tapes are in (when erasing the tape click schedule to set this up) and then do the backup job.

That way you replace the tapes manually and everything else is pretty much automated.

M.

oddjob62 · 6 Dec 2007 at 13:31

Try formatting the tape
Try forcing Hardware only backups.
Try software only backups.
Check for any patches for the BackupExec software you have.
Try flashing the firmware of the backup device.
Try with another backup device.

Last time i saw this problem it was a hardware issue with the backup device. Worked fine after swapping it under warranty