Handling of pre-used tapes needs improvment

[GarryG]

Hi,

after switching from Acronis to Veeam on a customer backup server, we tried to use the old tapes on Veeam, but couldn't add them to the media sets as Veeam as it reported CRC errors. After going through the problem with Tech Support, it turns out that Veeam can currently (at least in V8) only seem to add empty or Veeam tapes to the media sets, contrary to the docs, which state that unrecognized tapes ought to show up as "unknown".
I could get around the problem by using tape drive tools to erase the old tapes, after which the Inventory option moved the erased tapes to the empty media pool, allowing me to use them.

Veeam really ought to allow unrecognized or "crc error" tapes to be added as empty ... the "erase tape" solution costs me ~2 hours per tape, as I can't stop the function of the tape drive ...

[veremin]

So, when you insert a new medium inside a library, backup server doesn't place it into unregonized media pool, but rather reports CRC error? Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Hello Garry,
Have you installed patch 1? We have several block size issues fixed, so it worth checking.

[Hanson]

I'm having the same issue moving from Arcserve, apart from using Arcserve to wipe the tapes is there another solution ?

[GarryG]

Hello Garry,
Have you installed patch 1? We have several block size issues fixed, so it worth checking.

Yes, I have the most current patch installed ...

[GarryG]

So, when you insert a new medium inside a library, backup server doesn't place it into unregonized media pool, but rather reports CRC error? Thanks.

Correct ...

[veremin]

Just to clarify - you're using standalone drive, not a library? If so, the typical workaround is to erase a medium using native vendor utility.

Nevertheless, we'd appreciate if you open a ticket with our support team, as we haven't seen CRC errors on tapes before and would like to see the corresponding logs.

Thanks.