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Catalog very slow

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
Despite the fact that BE V9.1 B4691 is told in the options to use storage-based catalogs, the catalogging of a LTO1 tape takes anywhere between 2 to 6 hours because it'll scan the tape file-by-file.

As far as I understand the "use storage media based catalogs" option this shouldn't be happening. Am I missing something obvious here ?

thanks,
Peter
40 REPLIES 40

azz_isa
Level 3
I am trying to recover about 10 Gig of data which is on a seven-spanned tape. Now if after two days, it is still cataloguing tape number 4, and if what I hear is true to the core, then, what hope do I have to recover the data today? Because I anticipate by 6 pm tomorrow I would have catalog them all, and then at the rate things are going, how long will it take to restore?
HELP!!!

joe_cap
Not applicable
The only solution to this problem has been to not use Veritas. I have tried many different backup solutions, and Veritas is one of the worst. my suggestion is armstrongsolutions.backupmybusiness.com

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
Hello Symantec Support, does this reply-within-2-days rule that you so faithfully stick under every reply only apply to your customers ?

NOTE : If we do not receive a reply within two business days, this software will be marked crappy and will be moved to the bin.

Steve_Quirke
Level 3
Hi

Thought I would just add my two pennies worth as well. We have had the same problem as you people. Basically it takes days to catalog the tapes. We have backed up and restored using different settings just to verify if catalogs are actually written to tape. IF they are, then BE is totally unable to read them, hence it has taken two days to catalog 3 tapes, at which point I cancelled a job because the folder I was after appeared in the restore job window. So in theory, if I was unlucky, and the folder was on tape 6, It would take 4 days to recover a single file from the backup!!!!!!

This will be my last post here, but I will check back at some stage to see if the "Support Crew" come up with a solution, but very much doubt it. Good luck!!

azz_isa
Level 3
I am completely exasperated! And totally fedup with this backup system. So I am now going to recover data using arcserve instead and so here goes....

azz_isa
Level 3
HI, OK, sorry for the delay. Where are the support team gone to now? It seems when they cant resolve a customer's problems, they disappeared into thin air, or went ot resolve other problems, without a note!. What a service!

Now Symantec/ veritas has got to get their acts together coz the above problem were unresolved and they were peddling something which doesn't really work well. And this is one of the things that were very crucial when the decision making process were made to use this software.

Back to the problem, I installed my previous Arcserve, put the first of the 8-spanned tapes, and hit recover database, and within 1 minute, Lo, and Behold, it's asking for the next tape, and so on. Within 2 hours or so, I've got back my 10 gig data. Now that's what I call a trusted and reliable program.

So what are Symantec going to do about this? To those who have purchased Bacup exec, myself included, seems like, tough luck is going to be the answer. But I hope Symantec is going to fix the problem.

I suspect a few other things as well, but I need to test them out first before actually putting a comment.

Deepali_Badave
Level 6
Hello,

Run the sgmon before running the catalog job.

How to create SGMON.LOG
<<>>


NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

Aze_AZE
Not applicable
Hi people, sorry for not confirming what i had suspected. I had used the arcserve and presto, it works. So guys, if you want to use veritas to recover arcserve backed data, you better off recovering all data using arcserve first, and then back it with veritas, if you are inclined to do that way, else forget veritas until they got this fixed.

Gauri_Ketkar
Level 6
Hi Peter,

Could you please update us on the issue..

Revert for any further Query
Hope this will help you


Thank you
Gauri

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
Sure, no solution to this problem has been provided by Symantec yet, all we get is references to articles that do not fix the problem. We're still desperately waiting for some answers & solutions.....

You're welcome,
Peter

Amruta_Bhide
Level 6
Hello Peter,

To answer your Question of why do you have to run the first catalog job to be able to see the use of the Option storage Media based catalogs:
The Media Based Catalogs are created only with the First Catalog Job. The Backup job does not do it. So to be able to see the effect of the Option of Storage Media Based catalogs, you will have to run atleast one Catalog Job on the tape to be able to create the Media based catalogs.


These Catalogs are however sometimes not created. Hence it takes the normal time to catalog the tape even if the Option for the 'use Storage Media Based catalogs' Is selected.

The Reasons for this could be various. Right from Hardware, Tape problems or Drive Problems to Software.


The only Workaround for this, which is available for now, unfortunately is to recreate the Catalog folder and run the catalogs again and then check if the Storage Media Based catalogs are created.


Hope that gives answeres to atleast some of your Questions.

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Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ?assumed answered? and would be moved to ?answered questions? pool.


Thanks.Message was edited by:
Amruta Bhide

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
Thank you for confirming after 1 year what we already know.

It does not work.

I would consider it pretty important in case of disasters that you're able to restore your data ASAP. This nonsense implementation of catalogs does not help and isn't documented in the manual either ?!?!?

A_van_der_Boom
Level 6
I am confused. So media based catalogs are put onto a media only by a catalog job ? (strange thing is that when restoring files I make the tape write protect so I wonder how BE get the catalog on the tape) Not only that, only the first catalog job will do this, how does the catalog then get updated ?

Regards
A van der Boom

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
I can't help but think that support actually hasn't got a clue what's behind the catalogs, how they work (or actually don't work), let alone to solve issues with it.

Asking secondary questions related to their answers usually leads to a long silence.....

Deepali_Badave
Level 6
Hello,

We suggest you to install the BE v9.1 SP4a.

Please refer the following link:

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/280008.htm

Note:Please note that it is required to update the remote agents on all the remote servers after installing SP4a.

Thank you & regards,

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that of course, as a system admin I make a good habit of making sure the installations are up to date to avoid these kind of answers from support departments.

I've got news for Symantec, this installation has been on SP4a since the problem has been registered in the forum and guess what.....it does NOT fix the problem.

Since apparently someone is "on the case again", could you enlighten the readers of this thread with the answer to the question of A. van der Boom following the answer of your collegue Amruta Bhide that catalogs are only written to tape during a catalog job ? His answer scares the hell out of me.......

P.

A_van_der_Boom
Level 6
> I've got news for Symantec, this installation has
> been on SP4a since the problem has been registered in
> the forum and guess what.....it does NOT fix the
> problem.

For the record, I am using BE9.1 SP2 on W2k3 (no SP) with some hotfixes installed. Didnt had the guts to install SP4 :) I do first make a B2D and than a dup to tape. Using storage based catalogs it only took 29 minutes to catalog a 375GByte backup, divided between two tapes.

Regards
A van der Boom

Peter_van_Leeuw
Level 4
A., can you please elaborate a bit. You make a backup to disk (catalogs on disk) then a duplicate job to tape (catalogs supposedly on tape when the storage based catalogs switch is on) and then the catalog of the tape takes 30 minutes or the backup that's on disk ?

If it's the tape that's taking 30 minutes I'm even more confused....

thanks,
Peter

A_van_der_Boom
Level 6
My backups are first made to disk and afterwards copied to tape via a duplicate job that runs directly after the backup job.

I tested the catalog function by emtpying my catalog directory. (of course I first saved them somewere else) I then took a tape from two weeks back and perform a catalog on it. (By emptying the catalog directory BE does no longer have any clue about existing catalogs. As far as I understand BE that is)
The backup I cataloged is actually a set made up off two tapes which contains about 360GByte of data. Cataloging this set took about 30 minutes or so.

I performed this test when I read the problems some off you were experiencing with respect to cataloging. When performing a disaster recovery you don't want to spend several hours/days cataloging your backup before being able to restore the data. My 'users' would shoot me ;)

Regards
A van der Boom

Jason_Mullikin
Level 2
Renaming the Catalog folder worked for me.
1) Stop Backup Exec services
2) Rename Catalog to Catalog.OLD
3) Start Backup Exec services
4) Verify the Restore information was empty
5) Catalog 76GB, one LTO1 tape, in 36 minutes. Previously, I cancelled the job
after 3+ hours.

Jason