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gnussbaum's avatar
gnussbaum
Level 3
15 years ago
Solved

Netbackup 7.0.1 not returning expired media to scratch pool

Hello,

I have read the previous posting here but it has not helped me.  I have CHECK_EXPIRED_MEDIA_INTERVAL set to 12 and RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL set to 'yes'.  I have even looked at

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/358346.htm

but this hasn't helped me either.

Does anyone have any suggestions.  The expired tapes show up when I run 'bpexpdate -deassignempty' but, like I said, the aren't being automatically moved like they did before my upgrade from 6.0 MP4 to 7.0.1.

7.1.x and Earlier
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  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    15 years ago

    As you say they "appear" if you manually run bpexpdate -deassignempty but not automatically during 'cleanup' then maybe this T/N is relevant?

    The bpexpdate -deassignempty command is not being run automatically by the scheduler, and empty tapes, which hold no valid images, are not being made available for backups
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH135182

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  • Zahid_Haseeb's avatar
    Zahid_Haseeb
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    I dont think that you can move the tape via bpexpdate command.

    Moving tapes to the scratch pool

    (Associate this volume with a different pool)
      vmchange.exe [-h <EMM_server> | <volume_database_host>]
               -p <pool_number> -m <media_id>

     

    bpexpdate command description

    The bpexpdate command allows the expiration date and time of backups to be changed in the NetBackup image catalog. It is also used to change the expiration of removable media in the NetBackup media catalog. If the date is set to zero, bpexpdate immediately expires backups from the image catalog or media from the media catalog. When a media ID is removed from the NetBackup media catalog, it is also deassigned in the Media Manager volume database, regardless of the media's prior state (FROZEN, SUSPENDED, and so on).

  • Andy_Welburn's avatar
    Andy_Welburn
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    The command that George is looking at is bpexpdate -deassignempty which does exactly as it says i.e it unassigns empty tapes (no images). As the value of his RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL is 'yes' these unassigned media then do get returned to the scratch pool.

    This is an automatic procedure scheduled to run every 12 hours but for some reason (which we hope is now resolved!) this automatic procedure is not working. When George runs the command manually it works.

    @George Instead of waiting 12 hours you could temporarily change the interval per http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH63221

    ***EDIT***

    There's also the following (for 6.0 - 6.5.4) which has a couple more files you may like to check (altho', "fingers crossed", you've already found the culprit!):
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH125287

  • gnussbaum's avatar
    gnussbaum
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    I tried your second link beofre and it didn't help.  Just waiting for tapes to expire to see if it;'s fixed, but that won't be until next week.

  • gnussbaum's avatar
    gnussbaum
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    Hi Marianne,

     

    I already have that in the file and it didn't change things.

  • gnussbaum's avatar
    gnussbaum
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    I wish...what I meant is that the next time any of my tapes are set to expire are on the 9th of November.

  • Zahid_Haseeb's avatar
    Zahid_Haseeb
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    (Just for checking. if possible) Is that not possible that you take backup of some data on an individual tape with a retention level one day. and see what happen after one day.

  • gnussbaum's avatar
    gnussbaum
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    Well...I have good news and bad news.  The good news is removing the 'deassign_lock' file fixed my issue and expired tapes! :)  The BAD news is that I have 35 tapes that expired that should not have as some were not set to expire for months amd/or years from now.  This is another issue I was having when I upgraded from 6.0 MP4 to 7.0.1.  The weird thing is I actually recalled most of these a week ago and ran a Phase I import and that recreated the contents for the database and they were seen again, but it seems after the Phase I import the expiration dates were reset.  I was told by another engineer that all I need was the Phase I to get them imported back into the database.  I ran a Media Contents and it saw everything after the Phase I.  I had originally tried a Phase II on some of these but was getting an error about the TIR file.  That's when the engineer said all that I needed was a Phase I.