ntbackup problems

[Wade Preston]

Repost, since I have not gotten an answer yet. I still need help....

I have a backup job created that runs every night and I am having some
problems with it. I modeled this backup job after one that I have been
using on another machine for a couple of years. This one however will not
refresh the media unless I go to the machine and open up the Computer
Management screen and refresh the drive. And this will only work if I do it
right after the tape is put into the machine. I don't understand why this
does not work. What could I be doing wrong. I have tried using the
friendly name and the GUID and also the media_type_id and it does not seem
to matter what I do. I just can't seem to figure out what is wrong. Here
is a copy of my command file that is run each night:

@echo on
rsm.exe refresh /lf"Hewlett Packard LTO Ultrium tape drive"
sleep 60
for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=/ " %%i in ('date /t') do set dt=%%i-%%j-%%k-%%l
for /f "Tokens=1" %%i in ('time /t') do set tm=-%%i
set tm=%tm::=-%
set dtt=%dt%%tm%
C:\WINNT\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
NT\NTBackup\data\FS10 Full backup.bks" /n "F-FS10-%dtt%" /d "F-FS10-%dtt%"
/v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hcn /m normal /j "%dtt%" /l:s /p "LTO Ultrium" /UM
rsm eject /pf"F-FS10-%dtt% - 1" /astart
exit


Does anyone have any clue what could be wrong or what I should look at to
try and fix this problem? Thanks for your help!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Repost, since I have not gotten an answer yet. I still need help....

I have a backup job created that runs every night and I am having some
problems with it. I modeled this backup job after one that I have been
using on another machine for a couple of years. This one however will not
refresh the media unless I go to the machine and open up the Computer
Management screen and refresh the drive. And this will only work if I do it
right after the tape is put into the machine. I don't understand why this
does not work. What could I be doing wrong. I have tried using the
friendly name and the GUID and also the media_type_id and it does not seem
to matter what I do. I just can't seem to figure out what is wrong. Here
is a copy of my command file that is run each night:

@echo on
rsm.exe refresh /lf"Hewlett Packard LTO Ultrium tape drive"
sleep 60
for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=/ " %%i in ('date /t') do set dt=%%i-%%j-%%k-%%l
for /f "Tokens=1" %%i in ('time /t') do set tm=-%%i
set tm=%tm::=-%
set dtt=%dt%%tm%
C:\WINNT\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
NT\NTBackup\data\FS10 Full backup.bks" /n "F-FS10-%dtt%" /d "F-FS10-%dtt%"
/v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hcn /m normal /j "%dtt%" /l:s /p "LTO Ultrium" /UM
rsm eject /pf"F-FS10-%dtt% - 1" /astart
exit


Does anyone have any clue what could be wrong or what I should look at to
try and fix this problem? Thanks for your help!

In view of the numerous switches of ntbackup.exe, and the finicky
nature of the Removable Storage Facility, it is difficult for an outsider
to put the finger on the source of your problem. It might be easier
for you to try somebody else's command (after appropriate
adjustments) and see if it works. Here is what I do:

rsm refresh /LF"Seagate STT20000A"
ping localhost -n 60 >nul
ntbackup backup @d:\Logs\Backup.bks /j "%date%" /n "%date% Full Backup" /d
"%date%" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /n Normal /p "Travan" /L:S /um

Furthermore: I have come across one machine that refused to refresh
a tape until rebooted. I now reboot it prior to each backup.

Lastly: The "exit" command at the end of your batch file is
unnecessary and counterproductive, as it prevents you from
seeing any error messages generated in the batch file.

 

[Wade Preston]

I got this from someone else and I have the same setup running on another
machine. The only difference is that I am using a DLT tape drive on the
other machine instead of the Ultrium drive on this machine. I am not sure
that the problem lies with in the command file because sometimes when I
manually refresh the tape drive, I have to eject the tape and then re-insert
it into the tape drive in order for it to be seen. I don't see any
difference in the rsm command and the wait time you used and the one that I
have used, other that you are using a Seagate tape drive and you use the
ping command for your wait. I have an HP tape drive and use the sleep
command from the resource kit, which causes the delay for the tape drive to
refresh.

I don't know, the backup job works just fine if it knows there is a tape in
the drive, and when it doesn't there doesn't seem to be a way for me to get
it to refresh the tape drive. What do you think? Anyone?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The art of successful trouble shooting lies often in temporarily
suspending logical thinking and trying all sorts of silly things
that don't appear to make sense - such as rebooting a machine,
or trying someone else's command line, even though that may
appear to be essentially the same as the current line. When
a solution becomes apparent, logical thinking takes over once
more. Swapping tape drives is further step I would try.