wackoj123 Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 We are evaluating Retrospect (7.5.508, driver update and hotfix 7.5.14.102) as our new back-up solution, and are having problems appending to tapes. Here are the details of our current test environment: - Dell PowerEdge 2800 server, running Windows 2003 Server SP2 - Adaptec 39320A SCSI Controller - HP Ultrium 960 external tape drive - HP LTO3 Ultrium RW data cartridges (max 800Gb) Here's what we have tried: - We have created a Backup Set for each working day of the week. We selected Tape as the back-up media, disabled hardware data compression, set no security, and Retrospect creates a catalog file. - We have taken new tapes, one for each day of the week, and added these tapes to the daily Backup Sets. At that point the tapes get erased, and labeled by Retrospect. - We then created a script for every day of the week, set up the Sources, and set the Destination to the Backup Set for the given day. - Options: Media verification On, Eject Media at end of script On, Backup open files. - Finally, we set the schedule for the script to run on the given day. Now, this is what is happening: - We put the correct tape in the Ultrium tape drive. - When the script is started according to its schedule, Retrospect does not recognize the tape that is ready to be used, and prompts for a new tape. The Status dialog presented properly shows the correct tape, although at this point the 'M' to indicate that this tape is part of the backup set is grey. - We then select the tape and press Proceed, upon which Retrospect again erases the tape and then starts the backup. - With every new run on the given day, Retrospect prompts for a new tape when the correct tape for the given day is inserted in the tape drive, does not append to this tape, and erased it. How can we stop Retrospect from erasing tapes, and accept the given day tapes as members of that day's Backup Set? My guess would be that the tapes do not get properly initialized and added to the Backup Sets... Any suggestions are very much appreciated, for our continued evaluation of Retrospect. Regards, Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Can you give us a screenshot of the problem you are seeing? I have seen Retrospect get stuck when writing to a tape pre-added to the backup set. I just erase my tapes before the very first use, and never pre-add them to the set. Once the tape is written to for the very first time, it will always use that tape when it gets requested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 I just erase my tapes before the very first use, and never pre-add them to the set. Once the tape is written to for the very first time, it will always use that tape when it gets requested. This might be true for the Windows version but is not true for the Macintosh version because of a long-standing bug that causes erased tapes in an autoloader to be used in random fashion regardless of whether a barcoded pre-erased tape of the requested name already exists in the autoloader. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Russ, Wacko appears to be using the Windows version, which is why I made my suggestion. Retrospect X will handle libraries the same way the 7.5 version does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wackoj123 Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Hi Robin, See the attached images: - Image1.jpg: the prompt we are seeing when the correct tape for the day is loaded in the drive and the script for that day is started. - Image2.jpg: when we click Proceed, this dialog is shown to erase the tape. Even if the tapes are pre-added to a back-up set, this should not happen, right? Awaiting your reply, Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRIS Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 What happens if you change the preferences as indicated in the error message? Configure --> Preferences --> Media --> Erasure --> Automatically reuse named media <--- tick this I'd also advise to re-enable hardware compression... I noticed that your THURSDAY script backs up "(My Network Places)". Does that even work? So you're just backing up ALL shared folders you've previously visited? How about deploying the retrospect agent and using client group folders instead? What about the system state etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wackoj123 Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Tried that - then Retrospect will erase the tape without confirmation. However, that's not what we want: we need to *append* to the tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRIS Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Can you confirm that you are doing NORMAL backups rather than RECYCLE backups? Can you please show me the backup script details? See attached example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 The screenshots you provided indicate that Retrospect is either using a backup set that is new/empty or you have scheduled Retrospect to do a Recycle backup instead of Normal. To append to the tape, you MUST use a normal backup as MRIS said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wackoj123 Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Robin, Yes, I am using Normal backup, see the attached image. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wackoj123 Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Robin, > The screenshots you provided indicate that > Retrospect is either using a backup set that is > new/empty Yes and no... That is probably the whole problem: when I add tapes to a Backup Set, Retrospect does not recognize them as being part of the needed Backup Set, when a script is started that uses that Backup Set (and should use that tape)... One other thing I have noticed: if I manually start a backup, set the sources as in the script, and for example set the Thursday Backup Set as the destination, with the Thursday tape in the drive, then Retrospect does *not* prompt to erase the tape, and immediately starts the backup to tape. So is this problem related to the script or to the scheduler? J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 When you add a tape to a backup set, that tape gets erased. This then resets the backup set the tape may have been previously linked to. The schedule/script may not be the problem. It could be how you are managing the media. Once you add a tape to the backup set, you should not try to add it again, unless you are erasing the entire backup and starting over or moving the tape to a different set. The very first time you write to the tape, it MIGHT ask for the tape. But for every normal or recycle backup in the future, it should automatically us that tape. The screenshot shows the tape was not a member of a current backup set, which could also mean you have 2 identically named tapes, also causing confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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