Overwrite and append

[Lee_aghion]

After reading posts on this subject I am still having a problem getting my backup to work again after it crashed.
I re created the settings which used to work fine as follows.

I run 2 sets of tapes for a 2 week rotation., Monday1,monday2,tuesday1, tuesday2...etc
I want the backup to overwrite the tapes.
My media set says "overwrite protection none"
"append period.. infinite-allow append."
In my backup I have "overwrite media" selected,and under tools -options I have "overwrite protection" none and overwrite scratch media before recyclable.
As the backup was screwy i decided to rename the tapes which I understand erases them so they are fresh.
I labeled my first tape monday1, after labeling the tape it shows up in scratch media as it should.
The backup ran and verified, and the tape shows up in media set 1 as overwritable and infinite-allow append.
I then relabeled my next tape tuesday1, it also went into scratch media. The backup ran, but I get the "Insert overwritable media at the end of the job when it appears to be getting ready to verify.
I look in media set 1 and the tuesday tape shows overwritable but not appendable.
This morning I labeled another tape and the same thing..it goes to scratch media,the backup runs,but I am prompted for overwritable media,and it shows up as non appendable .. Can anyone give me any ideas as to why this might be happening?

Thanks
Lee

[Ken_Putnam]

Is anything getting backed up at all on these second and third jobs?

If Backup Exec fills the tape up, it will ask for another tape and mark volume 1 "Append - None", since there is no room on the tape for more data

[Lee_aghion]

Ken

Yes, it looks like the full backup is done and it appears to me that it might be trying to load for the verify part of the backup , as the message I see in the backup window says "loading" . the tape is ejected and the "insert writable media" is in the alert window.

[Lee_aghion]

Also...
I thought of the tape is full scenario ... although I am using dds3 12/24gb tapes and the backup is 14gb...and compression is working.
Anyways, I relabeled another tape and will insert it if I am asked in the morning to see if indeed it finishes.
The strange thing is that it worked perfectly Thursday...

[Ken_Putnam]

Depending on how much has changed, you might have been just under the limit before, and just over it now

Remember that 2:1 compression is a marketing ploy, not an engineering promise. See http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/199542.htm

14 GB on 12/24 media is about 1.16:1. a little in the low side, but believable. I generally figure on about 1.3:1 as a ROM

[Lee_aghion]

I have checked the logs and the backups have been pretty consistent in size....

This morning the tape was asking for overwritable media again, so I put in the next tape I had relabeled... It then asked me for Mondays tape.. and this time the verify went ok..
The other thing I tried was dragging a tape from scratch media to my current media set, the properties went from non appendable to infinite allow append which is what the media set is set to.. Perhaps this is what I should do rather than wait for the backup to grab the scratch media and put it in the current media set.

[Ken_Putnam]

I would not do the drag to media set thing.

That resets the Append Period, alright, but that makes it Appendable, not OverWriteable. Once BackupExec fills up a tape (or thinks that it has) it will only accept a Scratch/Overwritable tape. Append only applies to the first tape volume of a job.

[Lee_aghion]

Ken

Looks like you were right, the backup is just on the edge for 1 tape, it needed a bit on the second tape to complete.
I have removed some stuff we don't need and should be OK
Thanks for all your help.

Lee