Large number of copy and verification errors in LTO using PreRoll Post

[Dan Montgomery]

Jeff,

Glad to hear you figured out what was causing your failed copies. Yes, it’s usually a good idea to set the Symbolic Link treatment option to something other than Cancel.

Likewise you’re correct that determining video types is time consuming and can also cause trip ups with files this option may think are videos but turn out to not be handled. This option is needed when you’re simultaneously making proxies using ProxyMill, in which case you generally know the content and quality of the video files you’re feeding the archive.

We recommend pre-formatting tapes ahead of a spanning session, but the software will prompt to pause and do that if need be.

Offload with Confidence…

[Bobby Cooper]

That is really exciting that IBM released an update to LTFS 2.2.0.1. Can you please pass along a link if possible to 2.2.1.1?

I tried IMB directly since Quantum does not have an updated version posted yet… Still waiting on a workable download link to be forwarded to me from IBM Fix Central Dept (they say no contract, no support even though I have the Quantum LTO-7 drive that uses their LTFS software to operate).

Thanks!

[Bobby Cooper]

My other post may have been dumped/moderated and never posted…

Great to hear IBM has an update to 2.2.1.1 for their LTFS for Mac. Do you have the link available? I have a Quantum LTO-7 tape drive, but Quantum is not offering the updated version and IBM will not provide me with a download link to it since I do not have a contract with IBM.

Thanks!

[Dan Montgomery]

Email us at support@ imagineproducts.com and I can send you a link from our website to download it.

Offload with Confidence…

[Joe Bender]

Hi All,

Just want to check back and share the outcome of this struggle. After months of wrestling with hardware support from HighPoint, Quantum, etc. and many hours of software support for both PreRoll Post and YoYotta, I was never able to get either of those programs to produce a successful backup.

Then, after months of frustration, I learned a minor detail that clarified the whole situation: my files are often well over 100GB each (long takes in 4K ProRes), and it appears that LTFS just doesn’t handle very large files well. Bizarre, considering it’s designed for archive, but it appears to be the case. I switched over to BRU, which uses its own proprietary file system and (as I understand) writes/verifies smaller blocks of data, and finally was able to create verified backups of my footage.

Moral of the story: think twice before using LTFS and LTFS-based software to archive very large files. I don’t know what the size threshold is, but I consistently got verify errors with files in the ~100GB range and above.

So, thanks everyone for your help with this, and happy archiving,

Joe

[James Vorley]

BRU is superb.

It’s supposed to support single archives up to an exabyte in size.

I’ve been in your position before trying to troubleshoot issues between software, computer, HBA and LTO drive. It can be impossible to get to the bottom of an issue with each supplier blaming it on the other.

The cool thing about TOLIS is they supply both archiving hardware and software and know what works with what.

LTFS seems like a good idea long term due to the open source nature but tbh I would rather trust proven proprietary technology to safeguard my data.

As an aside, we had an issue with the way BRU was reading catalogs which resulted in BRU requesting the wrong volume of a spanned tape set. This was quickly patched by TOLIS once we flagged the issue. We’ve also seen occasionally slower restore/verify times. TOLIS have suggested this is due to memory fragmentation on our Mac.

Anyhow the CRC verification method used by BRU is great and helps me sleep at night!