Quantum DLT-V4 Drive with Quantum DLT-VS1 Tape

[xtremcoder]

My tape is showing up as an 80GB tape instead of 160/320. I have enabled compression on the drive so I'm assuming that since it is a DLT-V4 drive with compression enabled it should show up as 320GB?

For a screenshot you can go here.

I'm running Backup Exec 12 on Windows Server 2008 STD x64, just FYI.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Adiedler]

Hello,

I have the same issue as you.

BackupExec 12.5 SBS Edition on SBS 2008 Server and Quantum DLT-V4 Drive with Sony DLT-VS1 media for 160/320 GB. Have anybody a solution for this issue?

[Skipsargent]

I have the exact same problem as well. I did a clean install of Windows Server 2003 R2 SP 2 fully patched. Then I installed Backup Exec 12.5 and allowed it to use the Symantec drivers for my Quantum DLT-V4 drive. I insert a Quantum DLT-VS1 tape and Backup Exec says the tape has only an 80Gb capacity. Even if compression was turned off this tape/drive combination should be reporting 160Gb. I rolled back the driver and installed the latest Quantum driver for the unit and the results are the same. Any luck with a fix???

[Larry_Fine]

Backup Exec reports the native capacity of the media, which if you have a DLT-V4 160/320 would be 160 GB.  You can exceed that 160 GB if your data is compressible.  How much data are you folks able to put on the tape before BE reports that it is full? 

BE will write as much data to the tape as the drive allows, regardless of what capacity numbers it is reporting.  So, if the media and drive are capable of holding 100 GB or 200 GB or 300 GB, then that is what BE will write, even if it claims the capacity is only 80 GB.  In other words, the capacity number is what the drive reports to BE and is only there for your benefit, it doesn't affect actual operation.

[Skipsargent]

As I mentioned I am using a Quantum DLT-V4 drive with a DLT-VS1 tape. The native capacity that should be reported is 160Gb. But BE 12.5 is only reporting 80Gb. Which would be correct for that media if it were being used with a DLT-VS160 drive, but this is not thet case. BE 11d with the exact same hardware and tapes reports a Native 160Gb capacity.

[Razorback]

I had exactly the same problem after applying 12.5 SP1. Also the pre-SP1 hotfix 312844 causes the same problem. My old Quantum 1 drive was shown offline and another entry Quantum 2 was shown on-line with half the correct capacity. I deleted Quantum 1 and renamed Quantum 2 to Quantum 1.

I think I've fixed the capacity issue it though by doing the  stuff in http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/314535.htm

i.e. Force Backup Exec to use Kernel Mode Drivers (KMD). To do this, change the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Adamm\DioDrivers\ to a value of '0,. I rebooted and now I get the correct capacity shownand my backups are working.

Perhaps this will solve your problem too. If it does then it might be a good idea to report back here.

[thegoolsby]

Hello all,

We are aware of this issue and are looking to address it. There is a tech note available that you all can subscribe to for this issue that contains two possible work arounds (the one mentioned by Razorback is one of them, and should work around the issue):

Quantum DLT drives may report the incorrect capacity when UMD (User Mode Drivers) are enabled.
http://support.veritas.com/docs/321613

Like the tech note indicates, this shouldn't prevent you from using the full capacity of the tapes. Once we have a fix available, the tech doc will be updated with a link to the fix.

-Collin