BackupExec asking for 2nd tape reporting 1st tape full when Job is only half of capacity of tapes

[AlexMe]

Any suggestions?

I applied HotFix 336718 last week (on Backup Exec 12) that did not fix the problem. I upgraded to 12.5 (applied SP3) and the problem remains the same.
Backup Job is set to overwrite, Job Defaults is set for NO overwrite protection under Media Management.

I must be missing something very simple, I hope.

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[Pidge3]

Overwrite protection tab physically on the tape?

[AlexMe]

Hi Pidge3,

It is not the protection tab. The first Tape was erased yesterday before I ran the job and now has data about 124 GBs (but it claims to be full now with 195 GBs) the second tape used 10 GBs of data and the job completed successfully.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

[Charlosa]

Hi AlexMe,

What type of device and what capacity tapes are you using? Ultrium? Dat? SDLT?

[AlexMe]

Hi Charlosa,

The device is a HP ULTRIUM 2-SCSI with Tapes 200/400 GBs capacity.

The Main question is why the 1st tape is ejecting asking for a 2nd tape if the job is about 125-130 GBs.

Thanks,

 

[David_Perrin]

When I have seen this problem, it has had to do with BE losing its connection with the remote agent on the machine it is backing up, which causes the end-of-tape marker not to be set correctly.  Is that what is going on?  If the end-of-tape marker is not set on the tape, it cannot be appended to.

[AlexMe]

Hi David,

This is the only Server getting backup up (no networkd issues since there is only one Server in question)  What is the end of tape Marker? I read document ID 274858 but the Backup Exec Job Engine (bengine.exe) is not stopping during the backup.

I am going to erase the Date on today's tape again and see what is going to happen.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

[David_Perrin]

How is your media set defined?  Is there sufficient overwite/append time on the media set to allow the job to append to the tape?

[AlexMe]

Hi David,

The Media Set is configured with 0 hours for:
 
Overwrite protection period
and
Append period

The job actually writes to both tapes, but it should only use one tape since it is only 125 GBs.

Thanks,

[CTate-G360]

Hardware compression enabled? 

[AlexMe]

Hi CTate,

Hardware Compression was enable but if I changed yesterday to "None" and the backup did the same thing, Byte count is at 90 GBS and it ejected the Wednesday tape requesting the 2nd tape. More likely when we insert Thursday tape the backup will finish.
I will confirm when the backup completes since it is still running

Any other suggestions?
 

[AlexMe]

Hi All,

Confirmed that Compression was set to NONE and still the same thing.

Any other suggestions?

[Ken_Putnam]

Are you using the latest Symantec drivers?

Have you tried manufacturer drivers?

[vinanteg]

Hi Alex,
    I had this problem in several backup servers... Unfortunately there was no workaround... The only thing that fixed this problem was changing the drive.
   Nevertheless, before buying a new one, please use the HP LTT (Library and tape tools) in order to check the health of the drive and if there were some problems (internal logs of the drive).

Looking forward for your answer,
Regards,

[Charlosa]

I've got to ask Alex - have you tried a brand new, out of the shrink wrapped box, tape as yet and if so I presume you got exactly the same issue?

[David_Perrin]

Don't you want to set the append period so you can write more than 1 backupset to the file?  I know I have more than 1 nightly job that needs to go to the same tape, so I have the append period set to 2 days.

[AlexMe]

Hi Vintaneg and Charlosa,

We replaced this Tape Drive in 08/09 and new tapes were implemented then. I have not tried with new tapes yet.
When using HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tools no errors were found. We are using the lastest firmware, drivers and no errors on health tests. I can not  believe we have to replace this drive again, but it is possible. Right now we are backing up to disk but I will keep trying to find the solution for this problem.

Thanks,
Alex

[Jon_R]

Another thing to check would be the System Event logs at the time of the tape reporting full. Sometimes errors will be reported there that do not appear in the tape tools. It is entirely possible that it is not the tape drive that needs replacing, but the SCSI adapter.

[David_Perrin]

Hey Alex,

I posted this on a different thread but I don't know if you say it --

Don't you want to set the append period so you can write more than 1 backupset to the file?  I know I have more than 1 nightly job that needs to go to the same tape, so I have the append period set to 2 days.

[Michael_McKenne]

I installed BE 2010.   My tape job is 282GB on a LTO-3.   It can do 400GB.   For some strange reason, it shows the tape filled.   I called into support.    It is not your SCSI adapter or the drivers.    It is overhead being added by BE 2010.   I tried Symantec and HP drivers.   If the SCSI card was the issue, it would be showing other errors or backing up very slowly.  I have three tape drives on it.   I have not checked the other backups to see if they have the same issue.   I will check tonight.   It is not the tape drive because 12.5 did not do it.   Only upgrading to 2010 caused the issue.   It is in the software.