[Whitney Sickels]

That’s annoying! It was a PAIN to set up in the beginning, but finally had it working well… until I upgraded CatDV to version 10.

And now files won’t archive at all “Can’t Archive Media Files…”

[Whitney Sickels]

Thanks, I’ll give that a try!

[Whitney Sickels]

I recently sent an email to Cache-A support about this, but I have yet to receive a response. This seems to be along topic (and probably answers it), but I will post here to make sure:

We recently realized that our archive was only being copied to VTAPE and not actually writing to LTO. We then reinserted a tape and it started archiving, but we ended up tape spanning, which CatDV does not support. So then I deleted the VTAPE and started re-archiving to avoid tape spanning. However, I am getting “lost space” and would like to try and avoid/minimize this. On a daily basis, we would not archive that much. Therefore, what is the best workflow? If I archive through CatDV, then it will automatically write to tape; at least it does now the way it is set up.

I see in the manual it mentions creating a ‘Staged Data’ folder on the Cache-A Share. Should I do this and “archive” the files from CatDV to this folder and then when that has a decent amount of files on it, I then drag the contents to the VTAPE folder? If so, then what? Will it automatically write to LTO or is there another step?

Cheers!

Cache-A version 2.1.17
CatDV version 9.0.6

[Whitney Sickels]

Ah, that answers it then. I was archiving often, instead of all at once. Would it make sense to consider the vtape the backup until we reach almost 1.5 TB and then archive to tape all at once?

Regardless, I think we need support! I just checked the first LTO we put in (that I thought was full when it asked for another tape – as we were spanning), but there was only a very small amount of data on it!

Will you be at IBC in Amsterdam this year by any chance?

[Whitney Sickels]

OK, thanks. That’s a shame.

On another note, I just checked the ones I (re)archived yesterday and there seems to be an issue. On some of them, on the Archive details they say ‘Copied to’ (as opposed to ‘Archived to’), even though they all said Archived before I left work yesterday (and I left CatDV open to make sure it had time to copy to LTO). However, I checked the LTO and the file seems to be there. I was told Copied means they are on vtape and Archived means they are on LTO. So why do some still say copied when they are on the LTO? I checked a few files that are marked as copied and they are also on LTO.

After the ‘Archived/Copied to’ there is a semi-colon and something that either has said “currently on vtape” or “currently offline”. What is this referencing? If the former, then it’s still on vtape and the latter it is no longer on vtape?

Cheers.

[Whitney Sickels]

Hi again,

I deleted the VTAPE and am re-archiving everything to avoid tape spanning. However, I just checked some and they say “Archived to (NEW TAPE NAME)”. Sounds good. But when I “Check archive status” it says it’s on the old (spanned) tape number. How do I get it to reference the new tape number?

I checked the LTO and as of now it has about 800 MB lost space… and growing as I continue archiving. What is causing this? It’s Cache-A format (tar).

2.1.16 Cache-A
9.0.6 CatDV

Cheers!

[Whitney Sickels]

Ah yes! Thanks for the help and advice, much appreciated.

[Whitney Sickels]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your response – very helpful.

We would prefer not to span the tapes and re-archive to individual tapes. What is the best way of doing this? Is there a way to tell it not to span or do I need to clear the vtape and essentially re-archive everything via CatDV?

Also, what is this archive interface in CatDV that lets me know how much space is on each tape that you speak of? 🙂 I see the information on Cache-A in Tape Information/Summary, but not in CatDV.

Cheers!
Whitney

[Whitney Sickels]

Ok – now I understand the difference! Thanks!

So I need to select the clips, ‘Archive Media Files’ and then leave CatDV open so it can then copy to LTO. Is there a specific setting we need to let it know to “automatically” transfer to LTO or once it’s on vtape it knows to copy over? Should I re-open the catalog to see if the status has changed from Copied to Archived or is there a better way of knowing once it’s on LTO? (Check the Cache-A Tape Directory?)

What should the workflow be like? Do I archive files (daily) as I create them, check the LTO periodically and once it’s full, delete the contents of the vtape, and then put in a new LTO? Or do I have to wait until I have 1.5 TB worth of footage on the vtape and then put a new LTO in?

[Whitney Sickels]

Ah, splendid. Thanks guys!