Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Chris Geraghty
Chris Geraghty

asked on

Backup exec media disappears

I have  BE 10d with all current updates and the library expansion option. (have tried re-installing the software)
Connected to this (using an Intel SRCU32 raid card) is a Sony TSL-A500C 4 AIT autoloader/magazine system. (have tried both BE and Sony drivers for the autoloader + drive)

My problem is that when I label the tapes, they appear fine... when I inventory them they all take the label of the first tape and generate the following errors on the remaining three:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Backup Exec Catalog Server
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      34327
Date:            30/05/2006
Time:            20:09:14
User:            N/A
Computer:      servername
Description:
Update to catalog index (Catalog index database) failed.
Reason:  [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Invalid attribute/option identifier cat_RecordSet::Delete()
e:\caicosmp2\5629r\becat\beplugins\beimage\catmedia.cpp(780)

 For more information, click the following link:
http://eventlookup.veritas.com/eventlookup/EventLookup.jhtml

and

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Backup Exec
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      34338
Date:            30/05/2006
Time:            20:09:14
User:            N/A
Computer:      servername
Description:
Backup Exec Alert: Catalog Error
(Server: "servername") ODBC access error. Possible lost connection to database or unsuccessful access to catalog index in the database.

 For more information, click the following link:
http://eventlookup.veritas.com/eventlookup/EventLookup.jhtml

If I then try bring up the information about a tape it gives them default media ID's lots of 0's and F's ( with just 1 digit changing for the different slots).

I've tried running a backup, it completes sucessfully, but then when I run the next backup, all reference to the 1st tape disappears from the system.


Strangely though, server2003 RSM can inventory successfully.


The main problem is of course I cant setup media sets as the tapes cease to exist.

Could it be a problem with WSUS running on the same server ( sharing MSDE ).

Any help would be appreciated.
Avatar of stafi
stafi
Flag of Israel image

Avatar of Chris Geraghty
Chris Geraghty

ASKER

Unfortunately they haven't helped , the first one references a catalog file which hasn't yet been created ( as it's storing the current bit of data in the MSDE database ), and the second one mentions reading the job log, which doesn't help  as the inventory job completed sucessfully (so it doesn't show any errors)- it was BE's internal workings that died.
>Strangely though, server2003 RSM can inventory successfully.

BE was written before MS brought out RSM and doesn't get on with it very well, disable the service to give BE direct control of the library unless you are using both BE and ntbackup on the same server. Same goes for most other backup software.
part of the problem might be in the raid card itself as most of the tape drive do not work or are not designed to work with raid controllers as they are relatively faster
also check the event viewer and backup logs to see what could have been the cause of the problem
These two error messages look more like a permissions or network problem, rather than any problem with the tape, drive or the backup software itself!

Update to catalog index (Catalog index database) failed.
Reason:  [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Invalid attribute/option identifier cat_RecordSet::Delete()
e:\caicosmp2\5629r\becat\beplugins\beimage\catmedia.cpp(780)

Backup Exec Alert: Catalog Error
(Server: "servername") ODBC access error. Possible lost connection to database or unsuccessful access to catalog index in the database.

It can't be network as both BE and the MSDE database are on the same server.

Not sure about permissions or how to modify them in MSDE.

Looking closer at that error "Invalid attribute/option" doesn't that sound more like the database isn't set up as BE is expecting it.  But I may be wrong.
It seems to be BE failing miserably to deal with blank tapes, as if I allow it to overwrite a tape that has been used by NTbackup it is fine.  

More testing is in order.
Fixed!

In the end all it took was to "long erase" all the tapes, at which point they come up as "blank" on inventory rather than crashing the DB connection.

Oh well, I'm suprised no-one else has ever had this issue, though it may only be because I don't have a bar-code reader so BE couldn't implicity tell the tapes apart and needed to use the media ID.
The long erase must write the media ID to the tape, wheras a normal job doesn't seem to.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of GhostMod
GhostMod
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial