Tape Space

[dmen]

Hi all,

I have a DLT drive with 40/80GB tapes. I have a standard tape rotation and recently my backup jobs have been asking for a second tape to complete the job. My differential jobs are set to overwrite the tapes for the jobs. Thinking that there my be extra information building up on the tapes, I re-labeled the tapes and all of a sudden the job completes with one tape. What is Backup Exec doing? Is my thinking correct? Thanks.

DMen

 

[SQLBill]

Are you SURE they are set to OVERWRITE and not APPEND?

It sounds like you are appending to the tape and not overwriting EVERY time.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[dmen]

I double-checked it and the job is set to overwrite. If the append was on, there's no way I would be able to use the tape a second time as my backup job is around 50GB.

Maybe it was a coincidence that when I relabeled the tape, the job worked. I guess what I'm not sure about is what other information is stored by Backup Exec on the tape besides the files I'm backing up.

DMen

 

[SQLBill]

I was just curious since you said it worked once you relabeled the tapes...relabeling is the same as erasing them. (The data is still there, but as far as BE is concerned the tape is blank).

The label holds information about the tape and any backups on it, such as where the backup starts and stops on the tape.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875