Feature Story : ARCserve Tape Backup Operations & Procedures
Published 15 Nov 2004
At work, I use ARCserve to backup a lab full of Linux servers. We've dealt with hours of headaches and anguish, however, troubleshooting a multitude of design flaws, program bugs, and hardware incompatibilities. So I finally got around to writing this reference document which includes many of the tips and answers we've had to hunt for in the past. I've omitted images, network details, and company information which may or may not be considered proprietary. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!
The following procedures are for maintaining tape backup operations using ARCserve 2000 Advanced Edition, v7.0 build 1086 on a Windows NT 4.0 (SP6a) environment.
All directions below are from within the ARCserve Manager, using the Job Status Manager and/or the Device Manager (note: Manager, not Wizard). References to the Device Manager assume the "ADIC VLS DLT" is selected from the Devices list in the left pane, with the right pane displaying each slot of the Quantum DLT 4000 device, including the cleaning tape in slot 7 (see Figure 1).
Each day
You should check the status of the previous evening's backup each morning. From the Job Status Manager, the "Last Result" column of the Job Queue will contain a status, usually "Finished" or "Incomplete" (see Figure 2). The latter is sometimes acceptable, as UNIX directory or file permissions may affect the backup job. If the result indicates an error, analyze the problem using the "Activity Log" tab. This log will contain slightly more detailed messages regarding the cause of the error or failure.
You should also check the media pool each day from the Device Manager. After each evening's backup operation, one or more tapes should be named according to your media pool convention. At the time of this document, tapes used between Monday and Thursday are labeled as "WEEK" and the Friday tape is labeled as "FRIDAY." Unused tapes will marked as "Blank Media" until they are used.
Each week
The tapes must be changed out whenever the media pool is full. This will usually occur within one or two weeks, or whenever all six tapes have been used/labeled (by default, jobs are not set to overwrite, so if the pool is full and a job begins, ARCserve will throw an error and abort the backup until blank media is mounted). Follow the steps below to dismount full media and mount a new set of tapes.
Dismount Procedure
- Take note of the tape label / media name for each slot. You will use that to manually label each tape for storage later.
- Dismount the existing set from the Device Manager. Right-click on the "ADIC VLS DLT" device, and select "Mount / Dismount Magazine ... " (see Figure 3). "Slots 1 through 7" should be highlighted / selected; click Dismount.
- The jukebox will eject the last-used tape, and position the tray to the first tape position. On the tape drive, press ALT, then OPEN (in succession, not simultaneously). Remove the tray of tapes.
- Label each tape using the pre-sized label template at the end of this document.
Mount Procedure
- Pull six new tapes or older used tapes that may be erased and reused, and place them into the tray.
- Place the tray back into the tape machine, and press ALT, then CLOSE.
- From the Device Manager right-click on the "ADIC VLS DLT" device and select "Mount / Dismount Magazine ..." "Slots 1 through 7" should be highlighted / selected; click Mount. Each tape will mount and the respective slots will be labeled accordingly (i.e. "blank" if the tape is new or labeled as the previous media pool name if used).
Erase Procedure
- From the Device Manager right-click on the "ADIC VLS DLT" device and select "Erase ..."
- Highlight the six tapes in the magazine and select "Quick Erase Plus - destroy label and serial #" and click "Ok."
- Once all tapes have been erased, they will all be labeled "Blank Media."
At this point, the 6th tape will most likely be loaded in the tape drive. ARCserve has a tendency to get confused at the next backup job, so the magazine should be aligned back to the first slot.
- On the tape drive, press MENU, DOWN (to "Diag Menu") and press ENTER.
- Press DOWN to "Unload Medium," then press ENTER. The drive will eject the tape after a minute or two.
- Press UP to "Position Mag," then press ENTER. Verify the screen is displaying "01" and press ENTER. The magazine will align back to the first tape.
- Press ESC, then press MENU. The display will be something to the effect of "SRC SLOT: 01, ONLINE-MAG LD." The tape drive is now ready for backups.
About our backup jobs
Because of our server architecture and some issues detailed in the "of note" section below, our backup schemes within the lab are somewhat unique. We cannot use one GFS job (to combine incremental and full backups), so to get proper backups each day/week we must use the following two jobs:
Job One: Monday through Thursday, Incremental Backup
| Node Filters: | Exclude File Pattern: *.iso;*.mp3 Include File Modified Within: 1 Day(s) |
| Execute: | Every day at 9:00pm |
Note that the filters above are node filters, not global filters. See "of note" section below for information on filters, including an explanation for the use of the File Modified filter.
Job Two: Friday, Full Backup
| Node Filters: | Exclude File Pattern: *.iso;*.mp3 |
| Execute: | Every day at 9:00pm |
Note that the filter above is a node filter, not a global filter. See "of note" section below for information on filters.
Adding a backup job
There are several ways to add (create) a backup job, but I prefer using the "Backup Manager" interface instead of the Wizard, which often makes incorrect assumptions about your intended job. Start from the ARCserve Manager, and click on "Manager," then "Backup." You will see a screen to set the source, the destination, and the job schedule (see Figure 4).
Source
Start by selecting what you would like to backup. "Client Agents" refers to machines with ARCserve client software; "Preferred Shares/Machines" refers to shares mounted through ARCserve, not Windows (I've found this to be somewhat buggy and unreliable); "Network" refers to machines/public shares that are available on the subnet or network.
When you select a network share, you must provide valid login credentials to ARCserve for [at least] read access. ARCserve should actually prompt you if it needs these credentials, but you may also specify (or modify) the login/password via the "Security" link for a given machine (see Figure 5).
At this point you may also want to set one or more filters for your backup job. Filters can greatly extend the customization of the operation, and optimize what you do or do not archive. Our lab uses filters to exclude any unneeded files (like iso or mp3), and to include [only] files modified within the past 24 hours (as with our incremental job, Monday through Thursday; see the "of note" section below, and Figure 6).
Destination
There isn't much to the destination. You will obviously want to pick the "Group" that represents your tape drive.
Schedule
Use the "Schedule" tab to set the time and frequency of your backup job. You can select from traditional weekly backup schemes or create your own custom schedule (as with our jobs in our lab, see the "of note" section below).
Submit your new job
Once you have set the source, destination, and schedule, you will want to save and queue your job. Click on the traffic light icon towards the top of the page, or select "Backup," then "Run/Schedule" from the menu. ARCserve will ask you to enter/verify login credentials. You will then see a verification summary of your job (see Figure 7) - you should save your job, double check the runtime and schedule, and click OK. You will be directed back to the Job Status screen where your job will be entered in the job queue.
Modifying a backup job
To modify a backup job, go to the Job Status screen. Right click on the job (or click on "Job Status" from the top menu) and select "Modify Job ..." (note that from this same menu you can add a previously saved job to the queue, "reschedule," or "delete" a job). Follow the same steps from "Adding a backup job" above to make and commit the necessary modifications.
Of note: ARCserve bugs, issues, & reminders
Samba + ARCserve = horrible torture
Because of the bureaucracy associated with acquiring ARCserve products, we must run the server on Windows NT and without the benefit of ARCserve Agent software on our many Linux boxes. Unfortunately, this version of ARCserve doesn't know how to work properly with Samba shares: first, some versions of samba (pre 3.0.6?) flat-out broke ARCserve/Windows authentication rendering backups completely useless. Second, even with the newest versions of samba, ARCserve simply can't do incremental backups on samba shares; those backup jobs end up doing full backups with every session. Therefore, we are forced to break up backups among two jobs: one for four-day "incremental" based on the last modified date of every file, and another single-day full backup. See the "Adding a backup job" section above for information on creating filters.
Global filters don't work
Global filters can supposedly be set with a job via the net icon (next to the traffic light). These have never worked for me at all, though. I don't know why. Use "node filters" instead; these are the filters specifically set and associated with any share (as mentioned above in the "Adding a job" section).
Changing the NT admin password breaks backup jobs
If you ever change the NT Administrator account password, everything blows up. Go to the ARCserve Server Admin, and select "Admin," "ARCserve System Account ..." (see Figure 8). You must cycle the job service [engine] after changing the password.
