Cataloging Tapes

[Linda_Lounsbury]

I'm just curious to know, on average, how  long it should take to catalog a 781gb tape on a Tandberg Storage loader - scsi attached.  For us, it takes about 4 to 5 hours just to catalog one full tape.  Is that normal?  I have 5 more to go!  The server is doing nother else and neither is BE.  BE is set to use the storage media-based catalogs and request all media in the sequence for catalog operations.

We are running BE2010 r3 on Windows Server 2003.

Thanks, Linda

[lmosla]

that seems long but the length of time can depend on a number of things.  What type of files are these?  Makes sure all the Live updates are installed also that the latest scsi drivers\firmware are being used

[Linda_Lounsbury]

I don't know if the firmware is up-to-date.  I will check.  The job did just end with an error message "e0000900 - The requested media is not listed in the media index and could not be mounted. To add the media's catalog information to the disk-based catalogs, run an inventory operation on the media and resubmit the Catalog operation".  I am inventorying the tapes now.  The catalog job did update the catalog, so I'm not sure what is going on.  the files on the tape are just ordinary documents: FP7, MDB, doc, xls, ppt, jpg, other image files.  

What is an average amount of time to catalog an 800gb tape?

Thanks,

Linda

[Siddhant_Saini]

Hello Linda,

This could be an issue with the Backup Exec Catalogs. Since you are using Backup Exec 2010, I'd request you to first check the free space available on the drive where the Catalogs are located. You may refer to the following: 
1. From the Backup Exec console, go to Tools > Options  > Catalogs. 
2. Note the Catalog drive and path location and then check the destination for hard drive space limitations. 
3. Free up enough hard drive space to accommodate the catalogs.

If drive has enough free space, then please refer to the following article and run the 'catrebuildindex -r' command: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH44676

You may also refer to the following: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH45473

[Linda_Lounsbury]

thank you, Sidd.  I will check out you second suggestion, as I know that I have enough free space on the drive storing the catalog.  I just moved the catalog to a new drive and then lost the drive, which prompted me to have to restore the catalog from a backup.  I think your suggestion to run a reindex makes a lot of sense.  I'll report back soon.

Linda

[Linda_Lounsbury]

Well, on actually reading the tech 44676 article about rebuilding the index, I do not want to retire the current catalog because it spans multiple years and I would loose access to all of that data.  I don't want to have to recatalog tapes everytime I need to do a restore, unless BE allows me to jump between catalog files by just changing the location of the catalog within BE.  Is that supposed to be the idea?

Thanks, Linda

[pkh]

No.  You cannot change the catalog location easily within BE.  The idea of using a new catalog is to "prove" that the old catalog is bad and to get you over the hump.  If everything is o.k. with the new catalog, you can copy the catalog files over to the new catalog and use them with the new catalog.

[Linda_Lounsbury]

Ok, that makes sense.  I will try that.  Thanks very much for your response.

Linda

[Linda_Lounsbury]

I ran the catrebuildindex -r from the directory where BE is installed.  my new catalog resides on a different drive.  The results show:

The catalog database was upgraded successfully

Total catalog files found: 0

Total catalog files migrated: 0

Total catalog files skipped: 0

Does the catrebuildindex know where to find my catalog if it is not in the same path as the BE program files?   

Linda