Hi Forum,
I know this is a really old thread to resurrect but I finally got a restore to work using a standalone drive. The key points as point out by Marianne and mph999 is to make sure that from a command line on the media server is that you can see the drive. "tpconfig -l" and "vmoprcmd -d" commands are very helpful. Being standalone the "ExtMID" will be blank as it has no external bar code reader but the "RecID" should be read from the tape. From these commands you will be able to find the Drive Index number. Once you have that then you can use "vmphyinv -u <DriveIndexNumber> -h <mediaserver>
If you get an error that "no drive can be found" then NetBackup is not aware of the drive. It took a power cycle of the drive and reboot of media server. The drive then appeared in the "Drives" tab in "Activity Monitor"
In my case I was returned an error by this command "Barcode conflict detected: Media in slot -1 is non-barcoded. There is another media MediaID with barcode MediaID in the EMM database."
Next I checked that the media was "robot type = none" by using vmquery -m <MEDIAID>
I kicked of a restore and looked at the "Details Status" I saw this:
"13-May-2021 12:10:59 - awaiting resource <MediaID>. Waiting for resources.
Reason: Media is in use, Media server: N/A,
Robot Type(Number): NONE(0), Media ID: <MediaID>, Drive Name: N/A,
Volume Pool: N/A, Storage Unit: N/A, Drive Scan Host: N/A,
Disk Pool: N/A, Disk Volume: N/A"
I went to lunch and when I returned the "Detail Status" had progressed to
13-May-2021 12:39:38 - Info bptm (pid=7624) Waiting for mount of media id <MediaID> (copy 2) on server <MediaServer>.
13-May-2021 12:39:38 - started process bptm (pid=7624)
13-May-2021 12:39:38 - mounting <MediaID>
13-May-2021 12:39:38 - granted resource <MediaID>
13-May-2021 12:39:38 - granted resource QUANTUM.ULTRIUM-HH4.000
13-May-2021 12:39:39 - Info bptm (pid=7624) INF - Waiting for mount of media id <MediaID> on server <MediaServer> for reading.
13-May-2021 12:39:41 - mounted <MediaID>; mount time: 0:00:03
13-May-2021 12:39:41 - Info bptm (pid=7624) <MediaID>
13-May-2021 12:39:42 - Info bptm (pid=7624) INF - Waiting for positioning of media id <MediaID> on server <MediaServer> for reading.
13-May-2021 12:39:42 - positioning <MediaID> to file 9
13-May-2021 12:40:58 - positioned <MediaID>; position time: 0:01:16
13-May-2021 12:40:58 - begin reading
And finally the restore completed successfully. I hope this help someone that has a silly configuration such as ours where they only purchased a standalone drive after replacing the robot with updated kit.