New guy. Testing. Tape not supported?

[martymidwest]

Hi,

I;m new to Veeam. Testing before buying.

My tape drive isn't showing up in Veeam like the documentation *said* it would.

I can see here in the forums that only some are supported and mine doesn't seem to be on the list.

It shows up in Windows Device Manager as a "IBM ULTRIUM-TD4 SCSI Sequential Device", but it says "Dell" on the actual drive.

Any ideas why it would not be supported? Any chance it someday would? Any potential workarounds to get it going?

Thanks in advance for your time in responding.

--MartyMidwest

[foggy]

It shows up in Windows Device Manager as a "IBM ULTRIUM-TD4 SCSI Sequential Device", but it says "Dell" on the actual drive.

What kind of drivers do you use?

Any ideas why it would not be supported? Any chance it someday would? Any potential workarounds to get it going?

Just because we do not have a chance to test against all the devices available on the market. Our compatibility list contains those devices that were tested as a part of the beta program, as well as those later reported by customers to be working fine with Veeam B&R (according to their own testing). If you test the device and report back to us that it does perform well in conjunction with Veeam B&R, we will add it to the list.

[veremin]

Just to 100% sure - the given device is directly connected to physical v7 VB&R server? Thanks.

[martymidwest]

Just because we do not have a chance to test against all the devices available on the market. Our compatibility list contains those devices that were tested as a part of the beta program, as well as those later reported by customers to be working fine with Veeam B&R (according to their own testing). If you test the device and report back to us that it does perform well in conjunction with Veeam B&R, we will add it to the list.

Note: it is actually a “Dell™ PowerVault™ LTO4-120”

It is using the default Microsoft drivers provided by Windows Server 2008 R2.

I can say that is works perfectly in Symantec BackupExec 2010 on the server without any other intervention.

It is connected directly to the system running Veeam B&R via an "Adaptec ASC-1045/1405 SAS/SATA Controller" PCI Express device using a SAS cable.The interface card is using the Adaptec Drivers. The tape drive shows up in Device Manager under the "Tape drives" section.

Let me know if I can provide any more information that may be helpful.

--MidwestMarty

[martymidwest]

Upgraded firmware on the drive, unplugged the drive and plugged it back in and rebooted the machine and now it is showing up!!

One of those things must have worked!!!

Once we test that it works I will try to post back here so the list can be updated to include it.

[foggy]

Would be highly appreciated!

[martymidwest]

Looks like it is not recognizing when a tape is inserted. When I put one in it says "Empty" under "State"

Going based on what it took to recognize the drive itself, I'm guessing it's not polling the state correctly, or not communicating with the bus or the drive.

Should I open a ticket on this? I've already had a ticket open for a week now because one of our VMs won't backup so I don't guess this will get solved in the 8 days I have left in my evaluation... It's not looking good for a successful evaluation of Veeam, but please tell me if you think it would help.

[veremin]

So, you're using Windows default drives, not the ones provided by Dell itself? Also, are there any Symantec remnants that might affect proper drive usage? According to our policy, customers even with Free version (let alone evaluation period) are eligible for support. So, you can certainly ask support team for assistance.

Thanks.

[foggy]

Have you tried to start Inventory job after inserting the tape into drive?

[martymidwest]

On versions: The "Windows Update" provided versions have a slightly higher version than the Dell versions, so I left them as is. I can certainly try the Dell versions. *OH* and the Dell website doesn't have drivers listed for Windows 2008 R2, just the "R1" version... Update: I'm installing the Dell version to see what affect that has. It turns out that even though the driver is listed as "Windows server 2003 x64" it is actually the right one for newer versions as well...

On starting an "Inventory Job", how does one go about doing that?

[foggy]

On starting an "Inventory Job", how does one go about doing that?

Please review the corresponding user guide section for instructions.

[martymidwest]

Please review the corresponding user guide section for instructions.

That SEEMS to have worked! I have 4 tapes in my "tape pool" now.

HOWEVER: They are all showing up with a capacity of "71.1 GB". These are 800GB tapes... (The label says "1.6TB*" ... "*=Assuming 2:1 compression ratio")

If I use the Dell Diagnostic utility it says:

Code: Select all

START TIME                          : Tue Apr 01 09:28:24.490 2014
 PAGE CODE                           : 31: Tape Capacity
 Remaining Capacity MB               : 762933
 Maximum Capacity MB                 : 762939

Any ideas? I think we're getting close...

[veremin]

This behavior looks unexpected, as backup server gets information regarding tape capacity directly from the drive/library. I recommend you contacting support team with this issue. Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Could you, please, run Catalogue operation on tape media and then go to properties and check the free space.

Please note, that compression rate applies only to non-compressed data. If we are talking about putting Veeam backups on tape, which would be already compressed by the Veeam B&R itself by default – the hardware compression would be close to zero. However this would still work pretty well if you are using File to tape job instead.

Thank you.

[martymidwest]

Could you, please, run Catalogue operation on tape media and then go to properties and check the free space.

Yes, I already tried that, but went ahead and did it again just to make sure.

It still says:

Code: Select all

Capacity: 71.1 GB
Free: 71.1 GB

[veremin]

Then, the support team should be your way to go. They will be able to shed a light on the issue, once required logs are analyzed. Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Ok thank you. Then, please, contact our support team as it was recommended above.

[martymidwest]

Ok thank you. Then, please, contact our support team as it was recommended above.

Thanks! I opened a ticket.

You've all been a tremendous help getting me this far. Hopefully this is the last hangup in getting this working!

[veremin]

Can you provide us with the ticket number, so that, we can follow the case and update the topic once the resolution is found? Thanks.

[martymidwest]

Case # 00542997

[rborhara]

What was the backup write speeds, i have a similar issue Veeam 8 with a locally attached Dell LTO4-120 via SAS cable and Dell SAS 6GBPS ScSi card wring to a green LTO4 tape
Tape drive is recognised fine but backup speeds are 3MB/s

latest firmware has been installed on the physical server and for the SAS card ,tried a 2nd SAS cable, incidently i was getting similiar speeds using a SAS 5E adapter card and the same tape drive

[rborhara]

Raised a call with Veeam, advised to disabled VSS for the tape enabled job, and although the backup speeds was still 2-10mbps, this improved backup from 1hr 40mins to 15mins for a full backup

[Dima P.]

Hello rborhara,

I wanted to follow up in order to understand your case better. Assuming you are using file to tape job, right? How many source files did you select? Thanks!

[veremin]

And by the way, can you provide us with the case ID, so that, we can check the case directly? Thanks.