Forum Discussion

RobertPBham's avatar
RobertPBham
Level 3
16 years ago

PowerVault 124T and Backup Exec 11d

Hi folks,

I have been using a Dell PowerVault 124T with Backup Exec 11d for nearly three years and although the autoloader works well, I have had one issue that I have never been able to solve - or solve to what I believe to be satisfactory. :-)

When our scheduled backup fills the first tape (LTO3) it will not run onto another tape without manually scanning the slot that the tape is located - its as if Backup Exec/Autoloader doesn't see the tapes that are there. It will always start the backup and find/use the tape in slot 1, but it will never look at the other slots for tapes unless I do the manual scan when I get the error message asking me to insert media.

I have got around this by running a manual scheduled job that uses the bemcmd command that carries out an inventory of the specified slots before the backup runs - this then allows the backup to complete fine as it knows the tapes are there. I do have to be careful with this command though as if you set it to inventory all slots and the slots are not occupied with tapes, the inventory will fail and then the backup won't start.

I guess my question is - should Backup Exec check the slots for tapes if you haven't run an inventory before a job starts? If so, is there any idea why I have the above problem when jobs go over the first tape? If not, then I know running an inventory before the job starts is the correct procedure - it just doesn't seem right as I would expect Backup Exec to do a scan of the slots before/during a job if it needs a tape. :-)

Thanks for all your help
Rob
11.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Configuring
  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    Yes, you should run an inventory whenever new tapes are added to the library.  Do your tapes have bar codes on them and do the bar codes show up in the Backup Exec user interface?

    An inventory job should not fail simply because a slot is empty.  Can you provide more details?

    Once all the tapes in the library are known to BE and in the BE database, all the tapes should be usable, depending upon the overwrite and append protection times.
  • RobertPBham's avatar
    RobertPBham
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    Hi Larry,

    Thanks for the response. First off, I'll answer the bar code question - non of the tapes I use have bar codes. I'm guessing this could cause the inventory to crash and I can always order some bar codes to see if this solves the problem! The inventory would hang when it got to an empty slot - this however was happening when using the bemcmd command and not when doing it through the GUI. When done via the GUI, everything works fine! I guess it could just be an issue with the bemcmd command!

    Just so I'm absolutely clear - every time I add tapes to the autoloader, I need to run an inventory - even if the tapes have already been used by the autoloader the day/week/month before and I know there in the Backup Exec database? If that is the case, then everything is working fine and I was just making the assumption that Backup Exec  would find all the tapes automatically once you had inserted them into the autoloader.

    Thanks for all your help
    Rob
  • Ken_Putnam's avatar
    Ken_Putnam
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    every time I add tapes to the autoloader, I need to run an inventory ?

    That is the only way for BackupExec to know what tape is in what slot
  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    You don't need to run an inventory when re-importing a previously known/used tape IF you have a bar code on the tape and your library has a bar code reader.

    So, if you run an inventory job via the BE GUI before the backup, then will your job span tapes without intervention?

    When syntax are you using for your BEMCMD?

  • RobertPBham's avatar
    RobertPBham
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    Hi Larry,

    Sorry for the delayed replying - I've been away.

    Non of my media has barcodes, so this could be the issue. When you say re-importing, is all I'm doing is entering the tapes into the autoloader slots via the front panel on the Dell 124T - I'm not using BackupExec to Import or Export tapes at all. Maybe this is bad practice and something we should be doing? I've just never done it with a single LTO Tape Drive, so didn't think to do it with an autoloader?

    If I run the inventory command from the GUI everything works fine. The BEMCMD command I have been using for over two years which works fine is:
    "C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\bemcmd.exe" -o103 -a"DELL 1" -s1,2

    This inventories slot 1 and 2.

    The main problem with this command has been if I set it as a pre job command on the backup job, it doesn't run? I run it as a scheduled Windows task 30 minutes before the scheduled backup job starts then everything works fine. The main problem being is our Full Backup happens on a Friday evening and if we have to change this to another day and someone forgets to modify the Windows Scheduled Task, the job hands waiting for the second tape!

    So going on the above, my questions would be:
    1) If I barcode all my tapes, should I be able to just load them into the slots on the Autoloader and NOT run any commands - import/export/inventory and the backup should work and find the tapes?

    2) If not, then is it correct practice to run the import/export commands when changing the backup tapes daily through the BackupExec GUI?

    3) Should I just carry on using my BEMCMD command to achieve everything as it works even though I cannot schedule this to run daily as it seems to hang on inventorying slot 2 when no media is present.

    Thanks for all your help and apologies for the essay!
    Rob
  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    If you aren't using bar codes and are not running import jobs, then Backup Exec has no clue that the media in a slot has changed, which leads to your jobs not spanning to the second tape easily.
    Using import/export jobs is the proper way to change media in a robot, with or without bar codes..  Adding bar codes makes life easier on you by avoiding the need to re-inventory a known tape.