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Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

 
Bautzen
New Member

HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

Hi to all, I have a question about this library:

I have this HP Autoloader with a DLT-8000 drive and management card (for web access and control). All the diagnostic tests and the backup-jobs work fine but when I browse the Autoloader via WEB under drive information, it shows me "compression: off". I have not found a menu where I could active it or something like. I have made the compression test with L&TT and it said me that was OK, but all my backup tape shows me the compression ratio = 1:1. If I load a new tape DLT IV, in web-management section it continues to show me compression as off. I would like to activate this function on the unit drive but I have not found in www.quantum.com any jumper setting for the drive. Could someone please help to understand?

Sincerely

Best regards

Patrick
6 REPLIES 6
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

Hi Patrick,

Compression is normally controlled via your backup software rather than a physical jumper, hence why L&TT said things were OK.

Check the manuals for your backup software and/or OS.

Cheers,

Rob
Bautzen
New Member

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

Hi Rob, thank you very much for your fast reply!!!
I know that normally the backup software, when it executes the job, initialize the drive using standard SCSI commands. By this way it actives or deactives this and other options.
It's my first time with autoloaders because I usually install single DAT, DLT, LTO units. In particular the DLT drive has a Led to show when it's working with compression option or not, so it's more easy to understand the status. With my autoloader I'm not able/sure the real status, for that reason I have tried to start a backup job (setting up the compression option by software) and during the writting operation I have browsed the WEB Administration page of the library under "unit status" and it continued to show me the compression as OFF.
What does it mean? Is the unit fault?

I'm using Symantec Backup Exec 11d (full patched) for SBS Windows Server.

Another question is the option "25 maintenance sweeps" every hour for avoiding oxydation and other problems. I would like to know if there is a way to disable it.

Thanks to all

Sincerely

Patrick
Bautzen
New Member

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

with "... for that reason I have tried to start a backup job (setting up the compression option by software) and during the writting operation I have browsed the ..." I mean that I have setup the job in Backup Exec with "Hardware compression option"


Sorry for my bad english ;-)

Patrick
Curtis Ballard
Honored Contributor

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

As already stated compression is controlled by the host software and the autoloader is displaying the setting the same way the LED on the front of the drive would.

Compression with DLT 8K can be tricky. Once it is set on a tape it is fixed. If you are using used tapes you get the compression setting that is already on the tape. To change the compression you have to start a write from the beginning of the tape. Some drive firmware revisions required you to erase the tape before changing the compression setting.

What software and OS are you using? Some Unix OS'es use different device files to specify whether to use compression or not and a setting in the application may not mean anything if you have selected a non-compressing device file.
Bautzen
New Member

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

Hi, I'm using the Library on SBS 2003 R2 Premium with Backup Exec 11d.
The backuped files are so divided:

20% Office files (Doc, Xls, PPt)
40% Photo (jpeg, bmp, TIF)
20% Marketing Video (AVI, mpg)
10% Exchange DB
10% SQL DB

I just undestand that files like Jpeg, avi etc are just compressed but the compression is always 1:1. I know that it's impossible to have 2:1 but something like a 1,2:1 or similar!!!! But the compression as off???

Patrick
Efrain Valencia
Valued Contributor

Re: HP Autoloader 1/9 Compression always off HELP

Hello Bautzen

If you ran the L&TT compression test and it was whowing fine, then the drive is working ok.

Usually the backup aplications can turn off the hardware compression, and will reactivate during backups. And Backup Exec 10d and above usually does it.

Just make sure your software it's been configured to use the Hardware compression instead of software compression,

You shouldn't have any problems with your backups.

:)