Forum Discussion

maronson15's avatar
maronson15
Level 3
9 years ago

Insert overwritable media into the drive.

I am using Backup Exec 2014 with a Quantum Scalar 50 Robotic tape library that has 2 drives. There are 2 partitions with 13 tapes in each partition. I put brand new tapes in the library and did an erase and Inventory/Catalog before use in Backup Exec. When I do a backup, I can backup to drive 1, but get prompted with the below message when trying to backup to drive 2. If I disable the drive 1 and force it to backup to drive 2 or choose drive 2 when configuring the backup, I still get prompted to insert overwritable media. The drive is configured to overwrite which doesn't work. I've powered off/on the Scalar 50 Robotic tape library without success. I also did an inventory on the tape drive after restarting the tape drive. I've also deleted the drive 2 and recreated it. Any thoughts?

 "Overwritable media includes scratch, blank, and recyclable media. Please note that depending on the current media, Overwrite Protection setting, imported and allocated media may be overwritable as well. Consulting the online help for more information on overwritable media."

 

Mitch

  • maronson15's avatar
    maronson15
    Level 3
    9 years ago

    Some additional info to my orginal post

    I'm being prompted to insert new tapes before the backup starts and there is no data on any of the tapes since I did an inital erase on all tapes.

     

    - Backup Exec Version 2014

    - backup jobs are configure to media set

    - This is being run on Server 2012 R2

    - Tapes are set to overwrite

    • Colin_Weaver's avatar
      Colin_Weaver
      Moderator
      9 years ago

      Typically insert media requests (against tapes)  are usually misunderstandings of how the various rules for controlling how overwrite requests choose tapes or down to the inventory of the device not being up to date. Admitedly that does not rule out a defect but it is rare to find one for tape selection (the tape selection the program coding has not changed through multiple versions of Backup Exec)

      I guess questions are

      1) Do you have a LEO installed?

      2) In your partitioning of the library did you just partition the slots or did you also define that each partition could ONLY use a specific drive?

      3) Are the backup jobs configured to start as Overwrite or Append and then switch if there is no appendable available?

       

      From your current description I suspect you might need a formal support case (if you have a support agreement) - although you should perhaps be aware that not being on the latest versuion of BE (BE 15) might limit our response if it appears that you have found something that might be a defect.

       

       

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    After your initial erase jobs are you leaving the media/tapes in the scratch set or are you moving them to a specific set?

     

    If you are moving the media from Scratch yourself instead of letting Backup Exec do that for you as each overwite occurs then this will be the cause of your problem as your action will be setting every piece of media to overwrite protected.

    • maronson15's avatar
      maronson15
      Level 3
      9 years ago

      I leave the media/tapes in the scratch set after the erase. Backup Exec is configured to use a created media set for the backup. The robotic library drive 1 works fine, but the drive 2 is requesting the media which are all blank. Could this be a bug in Backup Exec 2014?

  • selva4's avatar
    selva4
    Level 4
    9 years ago

    I would like to give some possibilities for the tape drive to ask the overwritable media.

    I see that you have two tape drives.

    You are initiating a job to the tape drive 1: its running.

    2nd job initiated to the tape drive asks for overwritable media.

    Possible reasons are:

    Its searching for a overwritable media but its not finding one.

    Make sure you scratch it and run the inventory for the slot which has the fresh tape and initiate the backup job again.

    Also, try deleting the Tape partition and try the same.