Help with tape backup

[bplancic]

Hi, I have peculiar problem with tape backup and after trying all combinations don't know what more to do.

I have standalone LTO5 drive, and have created tape pool with this settings:
1) Continue using current media set
2) Do not protect data

Tape job runs after VM backup job and contains job (or locations, result is the same).

After copying files from one backup job to tape jop pauses with "Waiting tape" altgough it says it has more than enough free space.

I tried erasing tapes, marking them as free, setting "Create new media set" on tape pool, but the result is always the same. Job copies 300 GB to tape and pauses.

I just want for tape job to copy full backups everyday, no matter what tape is in drive.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards

[foggy]

Do you have Veeam B&R v7 R2 update installed?

[bplancic]

Yes, current version is installed 7.0.0.764

[Dima P.]

Hello,
Any chance that you used auto export or auto eject as a tape job option?

[bplancic]

No, auto export or auto eject are disabled I don't want that because it's standalone library and I want tape backups over weekends or holidays.

[Dima P.]

Got it. It seems we need the troubleshooting logs and deeper investigation of your issue -could you, please, open the support case? Also, please update this thread with the case number so we could look into this. Thank you.

[bplancic]

Case opened, ID: 00483244

Tape drive in question is Dell PowerVault 114x. Veeam B&R is installed on Windows Server 2012 on Dell PowerEdge R710

[cpfleger]

Same her - strange behaviour / problem (bug?) with tape which I came out when I changed to v7.0 R2:

I am doing an Backup 2 Disk job with several backing up some disk backup jobs.
My tape drive is a SCSI attached single drive Tandberg LTO4.

I am using a certain Media Pool (for full backups only, process incremental backup files option not set).
Setting is to create new Media set for every backup session.
I used to have a data retention policy for this media pool for one week.

Besides of tape speed (with Veeam speed is around 30MB/s while with Win 2003 NT Backup it was around 70MB/s on the very same hardware, any suggestions here?) B2T was running fine as long as I was running v7.0 R1

Since I upgraded to R2 I now experience that the tape job starts (inserting tape first, erasing it and move it to the media pool for that job)
but then after the first 2disk job was backed up

statistic window show after focusing on the next 2disk job to backup the message
"Tape currently in drive cannot be used for backup"
"Insert a valid tape into the library [...]"

And the job status itself shows
"Waiting Tape"


Huh? Tape isn't full yet, properties show plenty of space for the B2T job.
So I tried to change Media Pool setting to no retention but with the same outcome.
Job definition without media automation, but Hardware Compression option enabled.

Any ideas?
And no, I haven't contacted support on that yet.

Regards!

[bplancic]

Veeam support says this is apparently known bug and are working on a solution. There is a workaround - don't use backup job to tape but use files to tape, then this problem (waiting for tape) doesn't appear.

[cpfleger]

Yep, that workaround is truly working. Let's wait for the hot fix.

Thx for your reply & Regards!

[ChristophB]

Same Problem here, files to tape isn't possible. Waiting for hot fix!

[cpfleger]

Please check out this one which works for me (now already working on the third vm in my backup 2 tape job): http://www.veeam.com/KB1831

Regards!

[ChristophB]

Same Problem with the R2 Update...

[bplancic]

Please check out this one which works for me (now already working on the third vm in my backup 2 tape job): http://www.veeam.com/KB1831

Regards!

As far as I can see this works for me as well (ver. 7.0.0.771)

Regards

[Dima P.]

Thank you for confirming!

Christoph, have you installed R2a update? It was released, I believe, at the beginning of this week.

[ChristophB]

No didn't recognized this R2a Update... I'll give it a try. Thank you.

A "Check for Updates" function in veeam would be really nice...

[B.I.T.]

We have the same problem with one of our customer.

Backup to Tape Job runs after Backup to Qnap. Status: WaitingTape
Update R2A is installed. Veeam Version 7.0.0.771

Best ragards

B.I.T. Datentechnik

[ChristophB]

Update R2a doesn't fix the problem. Support Case is open.

The problem exists on our Test Environment and on one of our customers server.

[Dima P.]

Felix,
Could you, please, open support case? P.S. don’t forget to attach logs to the case and post case ID to this thread.

Chris,
Thank you for the update. I noticed, that you have not updated the support case with the ‘fresh’ portion of logs since you last update to R2A - would you be so kind to do that as without logs we could investigate why R2A did not resolve your issue.

Cheers!

[B.I.T.]

Case opened under ID: 00488054

The Workaround runs really good.

[B.I.T.]

FYI

Hello everybody,

we habve a Answer from Veeam Support Engineer:

German: Leider muss ich Ihnen mitteilen das die Eject Funktion für Standalone-Drives erst in Veeam B&R 7.5 geplant ist. Allerdings können wir den Case gerne mit einem Feature Request schließen, damit dieser an das Product Management weitergeleitet wird, um die Wichtigkeit des Problems noch einmal zu unterstreichen.

English: Unfortunately, I must inform you that the eject function for Standalone Drives only in Veeam B & R is planned 7.5. However, we can conclude with a feature request to Case happy, so this is forwarded to the Product Management, to underline the importance of the problem again.

We will wait....!

[cpfleger]

Well Felix, ejecting the tape right after a write session does is not always a good idea right away.

There are some users having an outside location writing eg. incrementals on the tape in the standalone drive. If the tape was ejected automatically right after a write session there would be the need to insert it than again manually before the next session can happen. So...

Regards!

[Dima P.]

Felix,
Thank you for the heads up. I believe, the issue with the eject option for Standalone Drives was addressed in Patch 1 (in VBR v7 without patch it was simply grayed out) and since that time was working perfectly so I wonder what is wrong with you tape drive ejection behavior?