Backup Exec 2012 Multiple Server to 1 Tape issue

[discorobbo]

Hi all,

Just put a new SBS 2011 live for a client and installed BE2012. Yep, I hate the changes, but I'm determined to get it to work :)

Found the below article about doing Multiple Server backups to 1 tape, and got it running fine for 2 weeks.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH189306

I have a tape cycle that uses Mon-Fri separate day tapes that is then repeated and copied over each week. Backups all worked fine for 2 weeks, but when its now come round to appending the tapes that are now Full from having 2 full backup appends to them, even though its set to "append, overwrite if full" the job is failing saying the media is full and can't be appended to. Overwrite protection is turned OFF. I'm now having to remember to erase the media in the daytime whilst I'm at work otherwise it just fails.

I've literally now spent hours testing and playing with this and all the settings, to no avail.

I've taken off all the tape protection, and the only reason I can see the software not overwriting when the tape is full is because I have the Append period set to "infinite". Would this mean it therefore refuses to ever overwrite, as it thinks it ALWAYS has to append, even though there's the overwrite protection is turned off?

Any help appreciated. Using Backup Exec 2012 sp1a.

Thanks,

Dave

[be-nugget]

Hi Dave, possible to post pics of your media pools, showing overwrite and append periods, also an example job setting pic showing overwrite method.

[Kiran_Bandi]

are the full tapes listed as Overwritable in All medias section?

[discorobbo]

Current Tape when wiped (works fine)

Tape that has been appended to twice and is now full

Media Set:

BE Overwrite settings:

[discorobbo]

Oh, and 2 separate server backups, both with "Append, Overwrite if can't append" selected.

[be-nugget · Accepted solution]

Re. your 2nd screenshot, drop the append period to something like 18hrs on your media set and try again.

[Kiran_Bandi]

Are you retaining any backup sets from these overwriteable tapes manually? 

[discorobbo]

Be-Nugget - will dropping the append to 18 hrs basically mean that each week, when the tapes are re-inserted a week since last append, they'll just overwrite instead? Hope so, and I'll try it. That might be the issue and is why I mentioned it.

Kiran - sorry, not exactly sure what you mean there? The tapes removed and replaced daily and put into a firesafe. The backup tape set that we operate is a bit more complex that mon to fri like I mentioned, but I didn't want to over complicate my post.

Manual tape insertion routine:

Mon-Thurs - 1 tape for each day

Friday  - Have 5 tapes, each for the numbered friday in that month.

Monthly - full monthly backup tape.

[be-nugget]

Yep - drop it and run a test job on tonights media.

[Biker_Dude]

For a tape to become full, a backup would have to run to end of media and span to another tape.  Is the second full backup spanning to another tape?

Just trying to get a better understanding on how the media is becoming full...

[discorobbo]

It was the "infinite append" on the media set that was the issue, as this prevented the tape from ever then being overwritten when it was too full to append (even though all overwrite permissions were set to allow).

Thanks Be-Nugget

I can now use BE 2012 instead of downgrading to BE 2010.

[Kiran_Bandi]

Infinite Append alone can't stop BE from overwriting a FULL overwritable tape, when all the protection settings are turned off. I doubt the backup job tried appending to tape according to the setting (infinite append and start the job to append) and succeded doing it for a little amount data. Then media became full with that and as some data of this occurance of the job is written that media, BE was not overwriting it. (Just an assumption.)

The above can be proved wrong, if you can assure that the media is marked as FULL (not appendable) and overitable before the backup job starts. 

[discorobbo]

Kiran - looks like what happened is sort of how you've described. Looks like the backup job was starting to run on the tape with about 200GB spare (backs up about 280GB nightly) even though their wasn't enough room to fit the whole append. When the tape then reached its limit and filled, the job failed and the media changed to 'Full (not appendable)'. Without then erasing the tape the next time, the job would just fail again the next time the tape was used as it was full and not appendable.

So - for me, setting the append to 18 hours is perfect. The tape won't be back in til a week later, and it will just simply overwrite it now, which is what I wanted it to do all along but the changes to BE2012 prevented me from doing it how I have done for 10 years on previous versions (1 job, multiple servers, 1 tape).

Thanks again for everyones help.