I'm running NBU 6.0MP4 on Solaris 10. I'm testing NDMP backups but none seem complete successfully. My problem is I'm running out of tapes. I tried expiring the image ID from database but since the backup failed I'm guessing it doesn't get recorded in the image/media DB's? I assumed if that's the case new jobs should overwrite the data on tapes from this failed job. It doesn't seem so as I'm quickly running out of tapes. The failed job used about 4-5 tapes before failing. How do I free up the space on these tapes? Thanks

Well, my answer is no.A tape is not random access media, so NetBackup firstr eels a tape to the end of the last record and then starts adding new images. New images can't be inserted beetween existing images. It is because you can't calculate the image size in advance. So once all the images on a tape are expired, NetBackup puts this tape into SCRATCH pull and it is considered empty and ready for writting.Message Edited by Anton Panyushkin on 02-19-2009 06:21 AM

How do I free up tape space used by failed Job?

11 Replies

Karthikeyan_Sun
Level 6
17 years ago
I dont think this can be done !

Because Netbackup wont delete the written data's in tape;if job got failed.

But it wont generate any images. Images db only contains only the images of successfull backup.

SO you will not able to utilize the tape that is having failed job data's

One thing you can do is: If you are sure that a tape contains only data's of failed backup job, then goahead and expire tat tape using bpexpdate command !
Stumpr2
Level 6
17 years ago
# bpexpdate -deassignempty
Search for empty media that meet the following criteria:
Media id: All
Continue? y/n (n)y
todis
Level 4
17 years ago
Thanks for the quick replys --- I did find each tape that the failed job used and expired the tapes that contained that job only. Other tapes and different jobs on them. Will

# bpexpdate -deassignempty
Search for empty media that meet the following criteria:
Media id: All
Continue? y/n (n)y

pretty much do the same thing? search for tapes that no longer have valid images and free them up? I saw this command yesterday in the command line reference manual but was afraid to use it thinking it might wipe tapes with valid images. I guess you've used this command with no issues?
Stumpr2
Level 6
17 years ago
Netbackup runs bpexpdate -deassignempty every day. It's just good to do it from the command line once in awhile in order to see its output.
todis
Level 4
17 years ago
so I guess it will only deassign media with no valid images? it won't deassign the media as long as there is at least one valid image correct?
todis
Level 4
17 years ago
I guess not....

-deassignempty
Expires removable media from the media catalog when that media no longer contains valid backups and also deassigns the media ID in the Media Manager catalog.
S_H1
Level 5
17 years ago
Instead, how about bpexpdate -d 0 -force -m <media ID> command?

or, tplabel :-X

Cheers.
Ashz_Tomz
Level 5
17 years ago
this command will erase de tape fully so no valid images are left out

Bob is ryt ,, u need to deassign the tape which belongs to a vol pool and den perfom it ..
todis
Level 4
17 years ago
Ok, this may be a stupid question and maybe already answered. Do either of the command listed in the last two posts allow you to erase certain images only or the entire tape only?
Anton_Panyushki
Level 6
17 years ago
Well, my answer is no.
A tape is not random access media, so NetBackup firstr eels a tape to the end of the last record and then starts adding new images. New images can't be inserted beetween existing images. It is because you can't calculate the image size in advance.

So once all the images on a tape are expired, NetBackup puts this tape into SCRATCH pull and it is considered empty and ready for writting.
Message Edited by Anton Panyushkin on 02-19-2009 06:21 AM