Backup Exec 2010 R2 Compression problem?

[UltriumMan]

Hello,

We started using Backup Exec 2010, and here is little problem. Backup Exec can backup only 300 – 370GB to HP LTO3 tape, then it says “Loading Media”. Tape Drive is HP Ultrium 960 LTO3.

Hardware compression type: Hardware (if available, otherwise none)

We already tested:
Without compression, then results was same max. 350GB.
HP Ultrium 960 Drivers: HP 1.0.6.3 and Symantec  5.1.37.0
Cleaning tape.

We tested also using other Server and NTBackup with HP Ultrium 960: same data: 380GB it goes in in to HP LTO3 tape successfully.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[UltriumMan]

Dell PE T610 + MD1200
Windows 2008 R2 x64
Backup Exec 2010 R2
LSI Logic SCSI Card + 2 x HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960
 

[ZeRoC00L]

Did you test the tapedrive with the HP Library & Tape Tools ?
This tool can also be used to update the firmware.
Otherwise it can also be usefull to use another brand of tapes if you have some available.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

The native capacity of a LTO3 tape is 400GB so 380GB of data onto the tape sounds about right.  You got to check the compression ratio to see the size of the data that is sent to the tape and the actual size of the data that is written onto the tape.

There could be nothing wrong with your hardware compression and it is just that your data cannot be compressed.  For example, zipped, movie and sound files compressed badly.

To check whether your hardware is compression data as it should.  Note the compression ratio when hardware compression is used and then use software compression on the same set of data and compare the two compression ratio.

[UltriumMan]

Thank you for your comments,

I tested quickly tape drive using HP Library & Tape Tool, everything was ok, firmware is newest also.
We mostly backup pictures, so it can compress very little. We earlier used NTBackup and it's can backup more than Backup Exec. Yesterday when i test Backup Exec, it backed up only 310GB, so it’s too much less than NTBackup?

NTBackup write this same data (407 196 135 514 bytes) same time, backup gone successfully.
We use HP LTO3 C7973A Tapes.

I try to find older HP Driver, same version what we use in Win 2003 Server (NTBackup). is it any sence? :)

[pkh]

If you are backing up pictures, then you should turn off compression because pictures are already compressed and compressing compressed files can result in a file which is actually bigger than the original.   See my article.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/compression-short-explanation