How to expire tape data of failed/canceled jobs

Came across this issue myself on several occasions - the problem is whether any successful images are also on those tapes.

If I remember correctly, irrespective of the fact that the backup actually failed, I always found that if the media already had valid images on from successful backups, then essentially I couldn't use that tape again until those first images had expired.

If the media has been totally utilised by the failed backup then it *should* be marked as available again by NB following its cleanup procedures (could try bpimage -cleanup -allclients & bpexpdate -deassignempty).

If not try the bpexpdate command:

e.g. bpexpdate -d 0 -m your_media_id.

If you *really* need the space that the failed backup is using then you could always duplicate off the valid images then expire the originals.

In support of Andy's excellent post - NBU will automatically discard image info when the backup fails, but the fragments on tape cannot be overwritten or reclaimed as can be done with disk backups.

Only when all images/fragments have expired can the tape be overwritten.
Use 'Images on Media' report to see a list of valid, unexpired images on these tapes.

See this excellent blog :
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/understanding-how-netbackup-writes-tape

Hi,

There are no valid images on the tapes, still don't know what the process is

Hi Marianne,

No valid images on those tapes but they are still reported with the retention and time stamps they got following the backup job, what happens if I delete the tape and then re-create it?

What does bpmedialist -m <media id> show for one of these tapes ?

M

Have you tried bpexpdate -deassignempty ?

What does 'nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id> ' show for one of these tapes? 

Also bear in mind that image cleanup (followed by tape deassign) only runs every 12 hours.

The following should clear all images associated with the media (if you are 100% sure...):

bpexpdate -m <media-id> -d 0

bpexpdate -deassignempty -force

 id     rl  images   allocated        last updated      density  kbytes restores
           vimages   expiration       last read         <------- STATUS ------->
           On Hold
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAPEID  6      2   08/11/2013 16:15  08/11/2013 09:30  hcart2  1843352064     0
              MPX   01/26/2014 17:15        N/A         FULL
           0

bpmedialist output looks a bit skewed, but it seems that there are still images on this tape that will only expire on 01/26/2014 17:15.

Please show us output of 'nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id>'  as requested above.

Thanks Marianne,

when i run bpexpdate -m <media-id> -d 0 .... netbackup tells me it is going to delete the tape, prompting me with a yes/no.... is that going to prevent me later on from scanning/recreating the tape?

also, what will this do:

bpexpdate -deassignempty -force

here is the output of nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id>

NBEMMCMD, Version: 7.5.0.5
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     0015aefa-f789-4ee4-accb-fc138b4d423c
Media ID:                       TAPEID
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART2
Volume Group:                   ---
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    TAPES
Barcode:                        TAPEID
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                MEDIASERVER
Created:                        08/11/2013 11:26
Time Assigned:                  08/11/2013 16:15
First Mount:                    08/11/2013 13:06
Last Mount:                     08/11/2013 21:33
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                01/27/2014 17:15
Last Written:                   08/11/2013 16:15
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     NONE
Robot Control Host:             -
Robot Number:                   -
Slot:                           -
Side/Face:                      -
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               3
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   FULL MPX
Kilobytes:                      1843352064
Images:                         2
Valid Images:                   2
Retention Period:               6
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      1024
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             0
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    MASTERSERVER
Server Group:                   NO_SHARING_GROUP
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    16
Volume Pool:                    VOLPOOL1
Previous Pool Name:             -
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
Media on Hold:                  0
====================================================================