Compression Issue

[Gace]

Im having the same issues, im running BE 2010 R3 with HP LTO Ultrium 4. When i backup testfile.txt compression works. When i backup Word files compression fails.

I have check hardware compression is on, and set hardware compression only on BE.

I have updated my firmware on my HP drive, called HP Support. Got them to replace my drive. Still no go.

Called Symantec, been trying to troubleshoot the issues for weeks.

Need HELP 

[pkh]

I have branched this off as another discussion since BE 2010 is not affected by the compression problem described in the discussion which this was originally posted.

As long as you can use hardware compression to compress a text file, your hardware compression is working.

Not all file will compress to the same compresssion ratio.  If the Word file that you use to test your compression has a lot of embeded images, then the compression ratio will be bad.  See my article below

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

Check you job log and make sure that the job is using hardware compression.

You can test the compressibility of your files by using software compression.  The compression ratio for software and hardware compression is about the same.

[AshwinApte]

Hi,

How much compression is done by the hardware compression option is completely dependant on the hardware itself (i.e. the tape device).

If hardware compression is selected to be used during a backup job, then Backup Exec issues a SCSI mode select command to enable hardware compression on the tape device to be used when the backup job begins. When the backup job is finished, another SCSI mode select command is sent to the tape device to disable hardware compression.

NOTE: If the backup job is configured to auto-verify then the SCSI mode select command to disable hardware compression is sent at the end of the backup and before the verify starts.

You can check whether BE is properly sending the commands or not from the SGMON utility; (How to use SGMON, http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO11932)

After running the SGMON log, look through the log looking for a time stamp that corresponds to the beginning of the backup.  The job history log will display the time when the backup started. When the backup start time is found look for the following line:

"HARDWARE COMPRESSION ===> Compression is configurable"

This indicates that the tape device is capable of having the hardware compression turned on or off with SCSI commands. A few lines below this entry there will be another entry indicating that hardware compression is being enabled, that entry is shown below:

"HARDWARE COMPRESSION ===> Setting compression on"

If this is happening then BE is working as expected.

Thanks