Backup Exec 11 requesting blank media near completion of job

[MGREEN_2]

Hi All,

I am having a few issues with Backup Exec 11, running LTO2 on Windows 2003 Sever.

Just recently it has been requesting a new media near the completion of the nightly backup job - when It comes time to backup the "System State".

It's not that the tape is full as I have cleared up quite a bit of data on the server and is well under the limit that we normally backup.

If I try to put the same tape back in from that night which has the majority of data already backed up - it will tell me its write protected. If I put a tape in from another night it will continue with the backup.


"Please insert over writable media into the drive."
Over writable media includes scratch, blank, and recyclable media. etc etc etc"

Nothing on the system has changed to my knowledge, although I have been getting the following error;

I also don't have any fancy setup, just 10 tapes on a 2 week cycle, should be set to over write each time. Overwrite protection level is set to none.

Any suggestions? hopfully have added enough info please let me know if I have missed anything (I know very little about backup's etc) :)

[CraigV]

HOw much space are you backing up each night? THe tape that's used first will be write-protected if it's hit it's space limit, which is most likely why you're being requested to put a new tape in.

[Ken_Putnam]

Overwrite protection level is set to none

If you mean the Global Option (Tools\Options\Media Management), I have see some really strange things with this selected

I'd change the Global to PARTIAL and set the media set OPP to 13 days and see what happens before doing any more trouble shooting

[MGREEN_2]

(Tools\Options\Media Management), is set to None.

(Tools\Options\Backup), is set to Overwrite Media. 

I am backing up a touch under 270Gb. but have backed up quite a bit more with this same config, it has been backing up 270Gb-280Gb for the past year.

On Thursday I did an Inventory before the backup and the backup actually worked error free that night.

On Friday I did not do an Inventory before the backup and it again prompted for a tape at the end.

so will do an Inventory again today and see what happens.

Ken - I will try your sugestion.

[cam_owen]

I am typically able to fit 250 - 300GB data on an LTO2 with compression, coming from a "typical" file server. It does not suprise me that you might have removed files and are still running to end of tape.

You can see how much physical space your compressed backup has taken. In backup exec, on the Devices tab, find the tape listed after the last job has run. Statistics are listed for the tape. Scroll to the right to find "used capacity", Data and Compression ratio. You may find that the used capacity of the tape truly is the full 200GB, and there is some minor variability in compression ratio.

[nia]

 Hi MGREEN2,

You said on your post that:
"Just recently it has been requesting a new media near the completion of the nightly backup job - when It comes time to backup the "System State"."

Can you try to backup only the System State of this server? After completing this, what is the size of the System State or the message error if it fails?

Is this error constant or it appears only specific days on specific tapes?

Regards,

[MGREEN_2]

Nia - I have actually discovered its not related to the system state, it will stop on random files.

Checked the stats;

Data: 264GB
Used Capacity: 186GB
Available: 0 Bytes
Comprresion: 1.42:1

Looks like this is our problem, even that there is quite a bit less data it must not be compressing as good.