# Tape backup/Arcserve 2000



## yuppicide (Jul 21, 2005)

We have Arcserve 2000 set to backup our network storage drive at 10pm every night. It's about 52 gigs of data and takes up three tapes (not compressed) or two tapes (compressed) because our drive will do 20/40gb.

Has anyone ever used Arcserve?! How do I verify stuff is actually being written to the tapes?!

We put a tape in before we leave at 5pm and then it does it's thing at night. In the morning it says "Please mount a blank media to continue the backup" and the stupid people here would always click cancel instead of inserting another blank tape. Then they would complain that the thing gives them error messages.


----------



## jimscreechy (Jan 7, 2005)

Well, there is more than one way to veryfy the backup. 

The first way and the one I recommend is to look in the backup log. You can use the Arcserve interface to do this. Simply select Activity log and it will give you a comprehensive display of the backup process and the events that occured. eg, when the job started the data transfer rate the directory being backed up, all this info is included. This information is also written to a job log txt file that is in normally in the default install folder (usually C:\program files\CA\Brightstor ARCserve\log.) This veiw also show icons (blue yellow and red ) that indicate the information/warninng/error of job conditions. There is also a job log veiw that displays a summary of session details for each job. 

The second method would be to either look at the Database This will show you media records and job records both will give you session information which when expanded will give you details of the data backed up and the size of the data. 

The third method is to select verify data in the options menu of the backup job. This will however extend the length of the backup process considerably. The job will effectively compare the the two sources to ensure the job has been succesfully completed and obviously this encompasses a second run on the media.

The forth method is simply to insert the tape with the backed up media and perform a restore. Not necessarily a full one but a partial restore, say a few files or directories. Or you could merge the tape which reads the data headers on the tape and does a catalog of the information stored on it.

It is a pain really to have to manually add media. I would suggest you add a second (or third device if you can afford it) and then add the new devices to the existing group. The job will then automatically span the additional drives. A word of warning though if you do use this method. the drives must be of the same type or Arcserve will automatically create a new group for the device, then you will not be able to use it for the same job. ie. only similar drives can be grouped for spanning.

Or you could buy a DLT type III drive 35/70 or 40/80. on ebay for about £50 -100 This will hold all your data.


----------



## newbievn (Feb 15, 2006)

Dear All,

We have Arcserve 11.1 set to backup our network storage drive at 10:45pm every night. It's about 65 gigs of data and takes up two tapes (compressed) because our cartridge is HP DLT 40/80, tape drive single slot HP DLT VS80.We choose [Overwrite the same media nam or blank media] option for the job.

We put a tape in before we leave at 5pm and then it does it's thing at night. In the morning it says "Please mount a blank media to continue the backup" and I dont know how to insert the second tape, I tried hit Eject button but the system said [Device busy]. Please help me, this is very URGENT matter. Thanks in advance


----------



## jimscreechy (Jan 7, 2005)

This is strange because the media should automatically be ejected (and the drive beep) when the tape is full. But ther are a couple of things you can check.

Firstly since you are using more than one tape you have to tell the drive what to do when it runs out. Right click on the job and click modify job. Go to the Backup media tab and make sure 'Time out after first media is checked. Then set the number of minutes very high, at least as long as you know it will be before you get there to change the tape. ie if the first media finishes at midnight and you won't be in the office till 6am then the time out should be 'at least 6hours or 360 minutes.

in the "options for addtional media" select overwrite same media or blank media. This is not a critical setting really.

Make sure verification (verification tab ) is none.

Then on the "operation" tab in the 'eject media upon completion section select eject media.

Let me know.


----------

