Symantec exec 2015 media tape compatabilty

[Gemsley]

Hello

I have an open case with Symantec support 9004592 but I am not getting the answer i need. I recently baught a brand new HP server running 2012 r2. With a HP tape Library Hewlett Packard LTO Ultrium-5 MSL G3 2014. My supplier also sent LTO 6 C7978A media tapes.

After getting errors regarding barcode compatabilty and not being able to inventory or write to the media, Symantec tech support discovered our media tapes are not compatible with Symantec 2015. 

What I need to know is what media tapes are compatible with Symantec 2015 and my HP tape library

We have called them twice and sent several emails unanswered, can anyone help.

Thanks

Gemsley

[CraigV]

An LTO5 tape drive will not read LTO6 tapes, irrespective of the labels put on there. LTO is not forwards compatible. You need either an LTO6 drive, or LTO5 tapes.

Thanks!

[Gemsley]

Hi Craig

Thanks for your quick responce, does that mean I can order any brand of LTO5.

Kind regards

Gemsley

[VJware]

Pretty much yes, though best to confirm with the tape drive vendor itself.

[Gemsley]

Thanks for all your help

Kind regards

Gemsley

[CraigV]

the tape drive vendor will prompt you to buy their own brand, but LTO is LTO.

[Gemsley]

 I have ordered some LTO5's from our supplier and will test them tomorrow hopefully.

Can't believe I bought the whole solution from a third party supplier (Expert supplier) and they sent the wrong tapes.

Thanks All, :) 

[Colin_Weaver]

Make sure you get LTO5 barcodes that are compatible with the library to go with the LTO5 tapes as otherwise you may still get an error

[Gemsley]

Hi Colin

I'm thinking of turning off the barcode rules and just labling them. The last tapes I bought didn't come with bar codes so I assume you need to specifically ask for them ?

Kind regards

gemsley

[Larry_Fine]

Bar code RULES are a completely separate subject.  Basically, you don't need bar code rules on a tape loader with only one type or generation of tape drive.  Bar code rules are disabled by default.

I would suggest that you use bar code labels as they offer MANY advantages for easier media management in a tape library.  Bar code readers are generally enabled in the library by default and BE will automatically use them if the library provides them.

Colin is correct to make sure you get the correct labels, although I think (and hope) that the old libraries that were very specific about their bar code label formatting are mostly dead and gone by now.  But since your vendor mistakely sold you incompatible media, I would not assume anything. :)

[Colin_Weaver]

Barcode rules (inside of Backup Exec) are actualy only used wher you have tiow different tape technologie sinside one library. As an eample

1 LTO3 drive

1 LTO5 drive

a mixture of LTO3 and LTO5 tapes

The rules are then used to make sure that only the correct tape type is used in the correct drive (because you put LTO3 barccodes on the LTO3 taopes and LTO5 barcodes on teh LTO5 tapes.

As you are not trying to do this you would not be using Barocde rules inside of Backup Exec anyway.

However a barcode enabled library is outside of Backup Exec's direct control and to turn of Barcode handling itself you would therefore have to consult the documentation from the hardware vendor. I am not 100% sure what happens if you have a barcode enabled library and insert tapes without barcodes into it.

I know BE will provide labels for tapes that don't have barcodes, however that does not mean the library will use a tape withouth a barcode if the library itself has barcodes enabled.

[Gemsley]

Thank you Colin and Larry

As you probably guessed by now I'm new to tape libraries and thanks for pointing out the differences with barcode stickers and barcode rules. We will only be using 1 generation of tape LTO5. I have contacted by (expert) supplier and asked them to ensure they provide barcode labels with the media.

Incidentally while I have your expert attention, how long would it take to backup 2tb of files. The tape library and the BE server isn't doing anything else and is attached via SCSI cable, the server I’m backing up is a files server over a gig layer 3 switch.

[Larry_Fine]

I hate to make performance predictions as environments are the key to it all.  As a simple guess, 2,000 GB at 5 GB/min will take 6.6 hours.

FYI, I hope you are not using a SCSI cable.  I suspect you are using a SAS cable.  SAS is much easier to work with.  Please make sure you are using a non-RAID SAS HBA, unless it is one of the few RAID HBAs supported.  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH70907

[CraigV]

...you need to exclude the BE services from any AV scan as this can slow the process down, as well as look at tuning your tape drive.

pkh has an excellent article in the Articles section explaining how to wring a couple more MB/s out of your drive.

Thanks!

[Gemsley]

Thank you both

Yes your correct it is a SAS cable, As I’m waiting for the correct Tapes for my drive I did a full backup over the network to another server and 2TB took 7 days. So anything like 6hrs would be a massive relief.

If you could post a link to the pkh article that would be much appreciated

Kind regards

gemsley

[CraigV]

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/tuning-my-lto4-tape-drive

[Gemsley]

Thanks Craig

And I appreciate everyone who has contributed, this has been a great help to a newb.

Kind regards

Gemsley