No compression (Hardware or Software) - Win, Retrospect 6.5

[m3rlin]

Hi,

 

I've downloaded the 15 day trial of Retrospect 6.5, as I'm trying to find an alternative to BackupExec (Shipping a product with an OFO which doesn't work is a pain, Veritas :\).

 

Anyway, so far I've just been testing Retrospect by creating a new backup job, then clicking preview and selecting only certain folders (Mainly archives of data that's been stored to the server by our users). I've run two jobs - One with the software compression option off, and one with it on. Both have asked me to insert a new tape at the 19.2gb of data mark - Which is an oddity in itself because the tapes are 20/40.

 

With BackupExec, although it failed jobs because the particular server I'm testing this on is our PDC (No OFO, so lots of file verification errors), it still had a compression ratio similar to 1:1.5, which makes me think that there's a setting that I haven't selected with Retrospect; Or I'm using the wrong drivers for our tape drive (which for what it's worth, is a Seagate 9SP40-000).

 

Could anybody suggest any courses of action I could take? I really want to use this software (It seems like a dream come true!), but I need to get this compression problem worked out, as I have to sell this to the powers-that-be (>$6000AU for a software license isn't easy to sell when you're having trouble using it correctly!), so you can see my predicament.

 

I'm not using encryption at all, so it won’t be turning compression off because of that...

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Just FYI, the server I'm backing up is running Windows 2000 Advanced Server (as is the one I'm backing up from).

 

Thanks once again!

[natew]

Hi

 

 

 

What backup device (make/model) are you using?

 

 

 

In order to use software compression you need to disable hardware compression when you create the backup set. This is your only opportunity to disable hardware compression. Once hardware compression is enabled, Retrospect will ignore software compression settings.

 

 

 

In other words, create a new backup set and turn off hardware compression. Then turn on software compression in the backup options.

 

 

 

What kind of data are you backing up? Files that are already compressed (dlls, jpgs, mp3s etc) will not compress any further.

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Nate

 

 

 

BTW - if you have a copy of Veritas already you may qualify for a competitive product discount.

[m3rlin]

Hi natew,

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

 

 

I'll run a new backup with hardware compression disabled and software compression enabled and see how I go - I thought that the drive I'm using supported hardware compression - but BackupExec has a "use software compression if hardware compression fails" option, which might have been kicking in without telling me.

 

 

 

I'm backing up mainly .doc/.pdf/.ppt etc files - Also, I'm getting all the program files installed on the system (In other words, the user directories, and the system state of the server, inc. the programs installed).

 

 

 

The drive is an "IBM 20/40 GB, DDS/4 4mm Internal Tape Drive" according to the manual, it gets detected in device manager as a Seagate 9SP40-000.

 

 

 

 

 

Just one more question: I only want to backup certain folders on this server - is the best way to do that with a scheduled script, to create subvolumes of the directories I want to back up?

 

 

 

Thanks again Nate

[natew]

Hi

 

If you have 10 or fewer folders then subvolumes are the way to go. If you have more than that you should probably choose the drive as the source and create a selector to choose the folders you want.

 

One word of warning, DAT drives tend to get lousy compression in my experience. The manufacturer says 40GB is possible but you will be lucky to get Native capacity +20%

 

Thanks

Nate