Windows 2003 Backup - Fails When tape fills up

  • Thread starter Thread starter JB
  • Start date Start date
J

JB

I'm having a seriousissue using the win2003 Server Backup Utility.
It was once working perfectly, but as our organization has grown so
has the data we accumulate.
The full backup now spans 2 tapes - which is where the issue lies.

When the tape fills up, NTBackup does not ask for a second tape to be
inserted, instead it just cancels the backup.
The log shows 'The requested media failed to mount. The operation was
aborted'

--------
The operation did not complete succesfully
--------

Once or twice it has asked for a new tape to be inserted, but this is
quite rare. (And on these occasions it normally will not continue, I
get the message to 'Insert Media Labeled xxxx', which i do, but the
message never goes away.)


I did once find a Microsoft KB article (i cant seem to find it again)
which described the problem and they said a hotfix was available,
however when i try to install the hotfix it says it was implemented in
a service pack we already have installed, so wont continue.

Does anyone have a solution for me?
Not being able to back-up our all data is no good for us.
 
JB <jamesb457@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm having a seriousissue using the win2003 Server Backup Utility.
> It was once working perfectly, but as our organization has grown so
> has the data we accumulate.
> The full backup now spans 2 tapes - which is where the issue lies.
>
> When the tape fills up, NTBackup does not ask for a second tape to be
> inserted, instead it just cancels the backup.
> The log shows 'The requested media failed to mount. The operation was
> aborted'
>
> --------
> The operation did not complete succesfully
> --------
>
> Once or twice it has asked for a new tape to be inserted, but this is
> quite rare. (And on these occasions it normally will not continue, I
> get the message to 'Insert Media Labeled xxxx', which i do, but the
> message never goes away.)
>
>
> I did once find a Microsoft KB article (i cant seem to find it again)
> which described the problem and they said a hotfix was available,
> however when i try to install the hotfix it says it was implemented in
> a service pack we already have installed, so wont continue.
>
> Does anyone have a solution for me?
> Not being able to back-up our all data is no good for us.

NTBackup isn't going to work for you if you can't fit all your data on one
tape - it can't handle autoloaders, and that's what you need. If you're
going to use NTBackup, you'll need to either reconfigure your backups so
that it doesn't take more than one tape per job - or you'll want to get a
larger capacity tape drive. If you want an autoloader/library, you'll also
want something like BackupExec.
 
On 2 Aug, 18:52, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatyahoo.com> wrote:
> JB <jamesb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm having a seriousissue using the win2003 Server Backup Utility.
> > It was once working perfectly, but as our organization has grown so
> > has the data we accumulate.
> > The full backup now spans 2 tapes - which is where the issue lies.
>
> > When the tape fills up, NTBackup does not ask for a second tape to be
> > inserted, instead it just cancels the backup.
> > The log shows 'The requested media failed to mount. The operation was
> > aborted'
>
> > --------
> > The operation did not complete succesfully
> > --------
>
> > Once or twice it has asked for a new tape to be inserted, but this is
> > quite rare. (And on these occasions it normally will not continue, I
> > get the message to 'Insert Media Labeled xxxx', which i do, but the
> > message never goes away.)
>
> > I did once find a Microsoft KB article (i cant seem to find it again)
> > which described the problem and they said a hotfix was available,
> > however when i try to install the hotfix it says it was implemented in
> > a service pack we already have installed, so wont continue.
>
> > Does anyone have a solution for me?
> > Not being able to back-up our all data is no good for us.
>
> NTBackup isn't going to work for you if you can't fit all your data on one
> tape - it can't handle autoloaders, and that's what you need. If you're
> going to use NTBackup, you'll need to either reconfigure your backups so
> that it doesn't take more than one tape per job - or you'll want to get a
> larger capacity tape drive. If you want an autoloader/library, you'll also
> want something like BackupExec.

Cheers for the reply.
Is there any other way around it? I dont especially need an auto
loader, the plan was just to manually change tapes.
It does, on rare occasions, ask for a new tape to be inserted when the
first one fills up, but there to doesn't seem to be a pattern as to
when it will do it - sometimes it will, most times it wont.......
 
JB <jamesb457@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2 Aug, 18:52, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
> <lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatyahoo.com> wrote:
>> JB <jamesb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm having a seriousissue using the win2003 Server Backup Utility.
>>> It was once working perfectly, but as our organization has grown so
>>> has the data we accumulate.
>>> The full backup now spans 2 tapes - which is where the issue lies.
>>
>>> When the tape fills up, NTBackup does not ask for a second tape to
>>> be inserted, instead it just cancels the backup.
>>> The log shows 'The requested media failed to mount. The operation
>>> was aborted'
>>
>>> --------
>>> The operation did not complete succesfully
>>> --------
>>
>>> Once or twice it has asked for a new tape to be inserted, but this
>>> is quite rare. (And on these occasions it normally will not
>>> continue, I get the message to 'Insert Media Labeled xxxx', which i
>>> do, but the message never goes away.)
>>
>>> I did once find a Microsoft KB article (i cant seem to find it
>>> again) which described the problem and they said a hotfix was
>>> available, however when i try to install the hotfix it says it was
>>> implemented in a service pack we already have installed, so wont
>>> continue.
>>
>>> Does anyone have a solution for me?
>>> Not being able to back-up our all data is no good for us.
>>
>> NTBackup isn't going to work for you if you can't fit all your data
>> on one tape - it can't handle autoloaders, and that's what you need.
>> If you're going to use NTBackup, you'll need to either reconfigure
>> your backups so that it doesn't take more than one tape per job - or
>> you'll want to get a larger capacity tape drive. If you want an
>> autoloader/library, you'll also want something like BackupExec.
>
> Cheers for the reply.
> Is there any other way around it? I dont especially need an auto
> loader, the plan was just to manually change tapes.
> It does, on rare occasions, ask for a new tape to be inserted when the
> first one fills up, but there to doesn't seem to be a pattern as to
> when it will do it - sometimes it will, most times it wont.......

Are you running the exact same backup of the exact same data every night?

Other than replacing the tape drive with a higher capacity one, or changing
what you back up to it, you're sorta out of luck, I think.
 
On 4 Aug, 13:34, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatyahoo.com> wrote:
> JB <jamesb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 2 Aug, 18:52, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
> > <lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatyahoo.com> wrote:
> >> JB <jamesb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> I'm having a seriousissue using the win2003 Server Backup Utility.
> >>> It was once working perfectly, but as our organization has grown so
> >>> has the data we accumulate.
> >>> The full backup now spans 2 tapes - which is where the issue lies.
>
> >>> When the tape fills up, NTBackup does not ask for a second tape to
> >>> be inserted, instead it just cancels the backup.
> >>> The log shows 'The requested media failed to mount. The operation
> >>> was aborted'
>
> >>> --------
> >>> The operation did not complete succesfully
> >>> --------
>
> >>> Once or twice it has asked for a new tape to be inserted, but this
> >>> is quite rare. (And on these occasions it normally will not
> >>> continue, I get the message to 'Insert Media Labeled xxxx', which i
> >>> do, but the message never goes away.)
>
> >>> I did once find a Microsoft KB article (i cant seem to find it
> >>> again) which described the problem and they said a hotfix was
> >>> available, however when i try to install the hotfix it says it was
> >>> implemented in a service pack we already have installed, so wont
> >>> continue.
>
> >>> Does anyone have a solution for me?
> >>> Not being able to back-up our all data is no good for us.
>
> >> NTBackup isn't going to work for you if you can't fit all your data
> >> on one tape - it can't handle autoloaders, and that's what you need.
> >> If you're going to use NTBackup, you'll need to either reconfigure
> >> your backups so that it doesn't take more than one tape per job - or
> >> you'll want to get a larger capacity tape drive. If you want an
> >> autoloader/library, you'll also want something like BackupExec.
>
> > Cheers for the reply.
> > Is there any other way around it? I dont especially need an auto
> > loader, the plan was just to manually change tapes.
> > It does, on rare occasions, ask for a new tape to be inserted when the
> > first one fills up, but there to doesn't seem to be a pattern as to
> > when it will do it - sometimes it will, most times it wont.......
>
> Are you running the exact same backup of the exact same data every night?
>
> Other than replacing the tape drive with a higher capacity one, or changing
> what you back up to it, you're sorta out of luck, I think.

Cheers for the info.
Time for the noob question of the day:
Can i compress the tape? I hear LTO-2 has a 200/400 capacity. I dont
know how to enable compression though,
 
JB <jamesb457@gmail.com> wrote:

<snipped for length>>

>>> Cheers for the reply.
>>> Is there any other way around it? I dont especially need an auto
>>> loader, the plan was just to manually change tapes.
>>> It does, on rare occasions, ask for a new tape to be inserted when
>>> the first one fills up, but there to doesn't seem to be a pattern
>>> as to when it will do it - sometimes it will, most times it
>>> wont.......
>>
>> Are you running the exact same backup of the exact same data every
>> night?
>>
>> Other than replacing the tape drive with a higher capacity one, or
>> changing what you back up to it, you're sorta out of luck, I think.
>
> Cheers for the info.
> Time for the noob question of the day:
> Can i compress the tape? I hear LTO-2 has a 200/400 capacity. I dont
> know how to enable compression though,

Hardware compression will be enabled automatically if you're running
NTBackup without explicitly disabling it (as in a batch file) ....and 2:1
compression is an urban myth. Depending on what kind of files you're
backing up, expect maybe 300-ish GB.
 
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