Compression not working correctly.

[Chris_Kassell]

Hi all

I have am running Backupexec vers 12 on windows 2003 server and i am j'm not able to get any compression on my backup jobs.

I am using an LTO2 superloader 3.

My backup job is 800 gb a day and i'd like to cut the number of tapes used.

I have tried software compression, hardware compression and both on a job yet it still only gets compression 1:1.

I have checked the settings on the drive itself and they are set to use compression.

Would anybody be able to assist me on this ?

Thanks in advance.

Chris Kassell

[Greg_Meister]

Hi Chris,

Backup Exec does not perform hardware compression, the application simply sends the command to the tape hardware to enable or disable compression. In rare cases, this may be caused by drivers or firmware, so make sure those are up to date for the tape hardware and the SCSI controller. If your hardware vendor has tested the tape drive and confirmed that the compression is functional, you may need to investigate the SCSI controller, as it may be causing the problem. If you can, you may wish to open a support case with us to debug the process, as this may provide further data to pass to your hardware vendor.

[Ken_Putnam]

The hardware you are using should have absolutely no effect on software compression

Back when v11 first came out, LTO-2 seemed to have problems with hardware compression, and as I recall, the "fix" was to use the mfg utility to initialize the new tapes rather than BackupExec.  After that they would use HW compression with no problems

[Chris_Kassell]

Yes please, i have checked my hardware and compression is on so i'm sure that the problem resides with the application.

Please advise on how to proceed