Alert displayed - tape ejected during backup

[netadmin3]

I am using backuo exec 8.6. Last week the nightly backup started to fail. It ejects the tape and displays an alert to insert overwritable media. Even if I put the tape back in and tell it to continue, the backup fails. In the job log it says 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.

Thanks in advance for any ideas on this problem.

 

[Prydonian]

What it is telling you is that the tape is full. Either what you're backing up exceeds the capacity of the tape or you're not erasing it from the last time it was used. Veritas is attempting to span to another tape volume but you're inserting the tape it just filled up. Hence the error statement:

"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. "

Put in a blank (scratch) tape and it will complete. Or, if what you're backing up definitely is less than the capacity of the tape, make sure you are correctly erasing the tape or pulling it into the scratch folder and then using it with the job set to "overwrite".

Even if the job is set to overwrite, it will just append until it fills the tape if the tape retention policy prohibits overwriting.

Good Luck....

Mike, The IT Guy....

 

[netadmin3]

Mike - thanks for your suggestion. I erased a tape and ran the backup. I placed it in scratch media. The backup is set to overwrite. It still ejects the tape at 94% with the same error. I am backing up 33 gig with hardware compression enabled onto a 20/40 tape. I was able to backup 37 gig before this issue started. Do you still think it's an issue with storage space? If so, I could try a larger tape.
Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Prydonian]

Yes, I do. The capacity of the tape, 20/40 is misleading. What it means is that the native capacity of the tape is 20GB and in an ideal situation of 1:2 compression, it will hold 40GB. However, compression is a funny thing. 1:1.5 is considered really good, so if a 20GB tape holds >30Gb, you're ahead of the game. The fact that it once held 37GB and now only holds 33GB is directly related to the mix of files being backed up. Text and DOC files compress really well while EXE or other binary files don't compress much at all. As a matter of fact, if you try to compress a ZIP'd file, it usually becomes larger....

To sum it up, you will either need a second tape or a larger tape. Alternatively, you can go through the file selection and eliminate the backing up of TEMP directories, temporary internet files, internet histories, the PAGE file, etc.

If I were you, I'd go with the larger tape if one is made for your tape drive.

Let me know how it works out!

Mike

 

[stevet3]

Agree with Prydonian - the rule of thumb is half the difference - so 30gig would be great compression. But something has changed in what is being backed up. If you turn on detailed logging and insert that second tape you can find out about what point its prompting for another tape.
If you start unselecting things from backup - a few months down the road you may be back in the same boat as your company data increases

 

[SQLBill]

How old are the tapes? Depending on their usage, they could have bad blocks which would decrease the amount of data that could be backed up on them.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[netadmin3]

Prydonian - Thanks for the low down on compression with TBU's! You were absolutely right. I was able to archive about 10 GB of data off of my network yesterday and I backed up 23 GB with no problems! Talk about learning something new everyday! Thanks so much for your help.