Tape drive not compressing

[NIBS]

All,

I'm running Backup Exec Small Business Edition on an HP DL380 G6. The tape drive is an HP Ultrium 460, an LTO 2 unit with hardware compression. It is on the Backup Exec 2012 HCL. I am using the Symantec driver and hardware compression is enabled. However, the properties of the tape drive report 1:1 compression and only get 176 gigabytes on a tape.

This is a new installation of BE 2012, so it has never worked.

Thanks in advance for any assistance

[SuperBrain]

This technote may help you identify whats happening with hardware compression or how to go about.. 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH50766 - How Backup Exec for Windows Servers controls hardware compression on tape devices.

[Colin_Weaver]

1) We have a defect currently under investigation where the admin console displays 1:1 (or 1.0) but the drive does actually compress, best way to test this is do an overwrite job of a known data szie to a tape and the look at home much space has been used.

2) We have another defect where is you set the compression to "Hardware (if available, otherise software)" you don't get any compression so make sure you set it to "Hardware (if available, otherwise none)" which should then do hardware compression

Both defects are beibg looked into and you can also use the TECH article provided by Bhavik above as part of confirming compression.

BTW if after reviewing all the above (inlcuding the info in the TECH article) you are still not getting compression it will either be the data you are backing up is already compressed (mp3, video files zip files etc) or you actually have a tape drive fault (this of course is only true if the TECH information comes back with details showing that compression is being set.)

[Justin2_0]

If you're facing one of these issues, subscribe to the articles and Symantec will keep you updated on these issues:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH189476 - Compression to tape is disabled when the option 'Hardware (if available, otherwise software)' is selected in the backup job's Compression settings in Backup Exec 2012

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH189307 - Backup Exec 2012 incorrectly reports a compression ratio of 1:1 (or 1.0) in the GUI when compression is working correctly.

To subscribe click on the 'Subscribe via email' link on the top right corner of the article.