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Backup Exec 11d and a Dell RD1000 (80/160GB) Drive - Help Needed Configuring Correctly

usmsolutions
Level 3
Good afternoon, all.  Hopefully someone can guide me in the right direction.
 
I am in the midst of setting up a small network for a client.  We went with Small Business Server, Backup Exec 11d, and a Dell RD1000 (80/160GB) drive.  This will likely be the last time I buy one of these devices because it is not what I expected, especially since I am failing at making it work with Backup Exec.
 
Here are the details:
 
Since it is a USB device it cannot be added as a “Stand-alone Drive”.  Therefore, my only option is “Removable Backup-to-Disk Folders”.

However, I am unable to complete a “Test Run” successfully.  Here's why:
 
The “Media Capacity Check” returns a status of failed.  All capacities are equal to “0.000 MB”.
The “Online Media Check” error message is: “Insufficient online or nearline media is available to start job.”
The “Overwrite Media Check” error message is:  “There is no media online or nearline that can be overwritten or the job has been marked append/terminate.”
 
I have configured “Media Protection” to overwrite and the disks are not write protected.  The “Total Byte Count” is also showing up correct.  The "Media Type" is set to "FLDR".
 
Does anyone have any idea?  Thank you.
 
//matt
19 REPLIES 19

Lou_Buffetta
Level 5
Employee
Hi
 
I think the problem is with creating a “Removable Backup-to-Disk Folder.” Make sure the USB drive has a fixed drive letter, create a folder on the drive (don't point the files to the root drive letter), then create a standard "Backup-to-Disk" folder in BE. Point to that folder on the USB drive. Windows and Backup Exec will treat it as a normally attaced disk drive.

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
Lou -
 
When did this change?
 
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/275624.htm lists "removable hard disk" under Removable B2D folders

or are USB hard drives not considered "removable" and if not, what would be considered a removable hard disk?

 


usmsolutions
Level 3
That did not work.  I receive the same error message.
 
The RD1000 drive is drive R.  I created a folder on the disk named "Backup Disk". 
 
I know others have gotten this device to work correctly, but I've been through the help, the settings, etc.  I've never had this much difficulty configuring Backup Exec and a device before.  This is likely the last time I purchase the RD1000 for use on a job.
 
Any other ideas?
 
Thank you.

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
Try creating the B2D (Removable) at the root of R:  rather than one level down
 
(or did I misunderstand you?)
 
So it should look like
 
 
"R:\B2D "  not   "R:\Backup Disk\B2D Folder"

usmsolutions
Level 3
I created it using the root "R:" and a directory "R:\Backup Disk".  The first created a directory called "VERITAS" and a directory within it called "B2D".  There were also two files: "Changer.cfg" and "Folder.cfg".
 
The second created "B2D" within "Backup Disk" with the same files.

Message Edited by usmsolutions on 07-25-200705:10 PM

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
and neither of them work?

usmsolutions
Level 3
I wish something would work.  I've been digging all day and nothing has shed any light on why I am having issues.  As I said, I read that someone got it to work; I tried what he did and had no luck.
 
Thank you.

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
I've used B2D (removable) with External USB drives successfully, but never actually used a "removeable hard drive" system like the RD1000
 
I've already suggested everything I can think of, sorry

usmsolutions
Level 3
I think what I am going to do until someone might know what is causing my issues and/or someone has a better idea is perform B2D to my data partition then use a post cmd script to copy it off to the RD1000.  A little more work for the server, but I think it'll work nicely.
 
Ken, thank you for attempting to help me.

Shurafa
Level 2
Same problem. I have a RD1000 and cannot do a backup allowing the resore of individueal Exhange and AD objects.

Why are these drives treated any differently than a tape. There should be no need to creat backup to disk folders you should be able to do the backup directly to the media.

Shurafa
Level 2
The job failed with the following error: This operation requires a backup-to-disk folder on a local NTFS volume on the media server. Check the job log for details.

CTRX
Level 2
I have the internal SATA version of the RD1000 and I get the same "must be backed up to a local NTFS partition" message.  The best I can get out of Symantec is uncheck the [enable restore of individual mail messages and folders from Information Store backups.]  Since we need to backup/restore individual emails/folders from the Exchange database this isn't a working solution. 

This is intolerable:
-Because it worked fine with our tape backup unit we replaced with the RD1000 solution from Dell
-Dell released this device last year, Symantec has had over 9 months to figure out that this device isn't compatible and/or create a patch to make it work
-Dell is selling this device as the premier backup solution for small business server clients

There has got to be a better solution than creating the backup to the C: drive on the server and then copying the data to the RD1000 device.  I've taken apart one of my RD1000 cassettes and its an ordinary Hitatchi notebook (2.5 form factor) SATA hard drive.  It seems I'd have better luck just plugging in these drives in internally on my server; which defeats the entire point of having a swapable drive unit. 


Message Edited by CTRX on 08-30-2007 01:21 PM

Message Edited by CTRX on 08-30-2007 01:26 PM

JBA479
Level 3
I too am using a a Dell RD1000 (removable SATA) drive.  Although I have been disappointed with the poor performance (speed) and difficulty in configuring backups to work  (11d is the REAL and MAJOR disappointment here), I have been able to backup to these drives (we have 3) repeatedly.
 
First I had to format the drives as NTFS.  As I recall this was required for my (failed) attempts to backup Exchange Server directly to the RD1000.  Although forced to abandon that idea, I have been able to backup all other files (just not the Info Store) to the RD1000.
 
My B2D Path is simply E:\ (so the .BKF and .CFG files are created at the root).
 
I hope this helps and will be watching for your reported solution.
 
Neither my customers nor I are happy with BE 11d or it's performance with the RD1000.  I have other posts related to the issues encountered.  Hopefully some will provide answers.

rpowell
Level 4
I think the problem is with the Dell device. We are getting inceredible speeds on B2D and D2T

CTRX
Level 2
I can make full backups on my RD1000 including the Exchange database as long as I uncheck the [enable restore of individual mail messages and folders from Information Store backups.] function in the job settings.  I still need to be able to restore individual mail/folders without having to restore the entire database, so I made a second job backing up the database locally to the hard drive and now I just copy the files over to the RD1000 device nightly.  Still not happy with this solution. 

GDreelin
Level 2
Partner
I liked your solution to this problem about separating the Information Store and normal backup.  Can you help me by letting me know how you set this up?  How did you create the store on the local drive to save the information store too?

Thanks


Message Edited by GDreelin on 10-09-2007 10:25 AM

CTRX
Level 2
I setup 2 devices:
A backup to disk folder called Exchangebkup
A removable backup to disk device (the RD1000)

Setup 2 jobs:
One job is a full system backup with the check box under Exchange 'enable the restore of individual mail messages...' unchecked.  - this is in case I have to rebuild the entire server.

Job two only has the Microsoft Information Store as the selection, and under Microsoft Exchange - check the check-box for the 'enable the restore of individual...etc'  Then run a script under pre/post commands that looks something like this:

cls
c:\
cd\exchangebackup
xcopy c:\exchangebackup\*.* d:\exchangebackup\*.* /e /f /r /y
exit

**note please add a line that will delete the IMG* folders from the exchangebkup folder after a successful copy.  I didn't include this line because I haven't figured out how to do it correctly.  I'm thinking on running a pre-script that deletes the IMG** folders from both the RD1000 drive and the exchangebkup folder on the C: drive.  Only problem is the IMG folders' names keep changing with each backup job.  Perhaps a wildcard would work with the rmdir cmd?

edit: kept trying to figure out how to remove the IMG**** folders from my test folder using a script.  Everytime I try, it deletes the entire test folder directory, instead of the folders inside it. 

Anyway, save your scripts (each to their own file) to a text file and rename it a .BAT file type.  Place these file(s) in a safe folder and point your pre and post commands from within Backupexec to the correct file. 



Message Edited by CTRX on 10-30-2007 12:34 PM

Jack_Dorsey
Level 5
Thanks everyone for this thread. 

You just helped me NOT to purchase a Dell RD1000 for my BEX 11d routines.  I will buy 1TB hard drives and some custom hot-swap enclosures and not only save myself time, money, and headaches, but I'll also get better performance than a notebook hard drive (can't believe I actually read that) and twice the current available capacity from the largest RD1000 drive.

Dell is nuts for thinking this was a good idea.

Paldrion
Level 3
Even though I have a 1 TB NTFS (newly slow formatted) USB drive, the error message I get on a test run is that I cannot get more 73 GB overwritable on the drive:

"Media Capacity Check
Device : Backup-to-Disk Folder 1
Online append capacity : 0.000 MB
Online overwrite capacity: 0.000 MB
Total append capacity : 0.000 MB
Total overwrite capacity : 73,728 MB
Capacity check status : Failed
Miscellaneous :"