Backup Tape filling up?

[SteveAudus]

I'm using a SDX-500C Tape drive with SDX2-50C tapes,
and a copy of Backup Exec 8.60

The tapes are filling at 61,158,501,278 Bytes,
but they are ment to hold 130GB Compressed.

The sechduled backup has
Compression type: set at
Hardware (if available, otherwise software)

What am I doing wrong?

Any Suggestions?

Thanks.

http://www.chaucer.sheffield.sch.uk

 

[Prydonian]

Steve;

First off, never count on the compressed figure, just the native, which is around 65GB. You will never reach the theroetical compressed figure, even if you back up only text files which compress well. At best, you MIGHT get 1.5:1 or 95-100GB.

Next, what is your backup mix? Database files, graphics, apps, etc. These types of files do not compress well. If you have compressed files, like ZIP or CAB files, they will actually get LARGER when put through a secondary compression utility!

BE8.6 does have a degree of overhead it adds to the tape, but not enough to be a real issue.

Not to state the obvious, but has the tape been erased or could your job be appending to a tape already containing data? In 8.6, if you do a "label media" it will erase the tape. Or you can "pull" it into scratch media and 8.6 will overwrite whatever is on it.

After considering all of the above, try exiting from BE, manually stop all seven of the services, make sure the tape drive is fully booted and online, restart the services, restart BE and try a test run. This should re-init everything.

Let us know what happens!

Mike, The IT Guy.

Life is too short to drink warm beer....