Forum Discussion

mniechcial's avatar
mniechcial
Level 4
16 years ago

Problem after barcode changing

Hello,

I changed the barcodes for two tapes and now I have a frozen media.
I have Overland NEO library and NetBackup 6.5.3. At the beginning tapes had some barcodes and they had been used by NetBackup. After some days, I changed the barcodes and re-inventory robot. In Console I see these tapes with new label/media ID, but when I'm trying to use them - tapes are frozen. I think, that somewhere these tapes has the old label or media ID. I unfreezed the tapes via CLI and GUI but when NetBackup wants to use them - it can't do this. I'm a newbie with NetBackup, so please tell me step by step what should i do now. Thanks

7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Basics
NetBackup
Tip-How to
  • J_H_Is_gone's avatar
    J_H_Is_gone
    16 years ago
    When you get a brand new tape and you put a barcode on it then you put it in the library.

    Netbackup is told about the BARCODE and shows that to you.

    The first time the tape is written to it is give a Written label on the start of the tape.
    This is the media label as compared to the External label ( the barcode).

    Now the next time you go to use the tape - when it is mounted the media label is compared to the external label to see if they match.  If they DO then the tape is written to.

    If they do NOT match then the tape is Frozen.
    Reason being is that NB does not know if this was on purpose or by mistake.  Say the barcodes fell off of two tapes and you put then on wrong.  One tape had all images expired and the other one had valid images on it.  When the barcodes were put on wrong the good tape could have been over written.

    So this failsafe was put in place to verify that the barcodes match.

    So if you want to change a barcode, First make sure all images on the tape have expired.
    Change the barcode.
    Delete the previous media from the NB console
    put the tape in the library and inventory
    Now as stated by the other people above, right click the new media and choose Label ( runs the bplabel command)
    UN-CHECK the 'verify media label'  ( this would make it compare the two and see that they are different and would not allow it).  With that unchecked it will force it to write the new media id to the tape.  Be careful of this as it will force the over write of valid media as well.
  • FrSchind's avatar
    FrSchind
    Level 5
    16 years ago
    bperror -tape -hoursago 24 gives you the tape errors of the last 24 hours. There should be mentioned, that the media id does not match the header of your tape. you can relabel your tapes with the bplabel command.

    stumpr has written it all down: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/netbackup-freezing-new-tapes
  • Deepak_W's avatar
    Deepak_W
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    you can run the bplabel media to relabel them (from admincmd) as those media are previously used, their soft labels still be there.

    also if those madia are having any retention you can expire them manually using bpexpdate command


    for more information on media management refer to NBU admin guide 
  • Raghuraam's avatar
    Raghuraam
    Level 4
    16 years ago
    you can use bplabel from cli or quick erase from gui (uncheck verify) can do and check backup. If not you will continously get 96 error and get freeze this media.

    Raghuraam
  • Stumpr2's avatar
    Stumpr2
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    he has given the correct solution if you follow that link he provided to my replies to the same situation :-)
  • mniechcial's avatar
    mniechcial
    Level 4
    16 years ago
    Thank all of You for help. I was on a vacation, so I couldn't answer You. Bplabel command helped me.
  • J_H_Is_gone's avatar
    J_H_Is_gone
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    When you get a brand new tape and you put a barcode on it then you put it in the library.

    Netbackup is told about the BARCODE and shows that to you.

    The first time the tape is written to it is give a Written label on the start of the tape.
    This is the media label as compared to the External label ( the barcode).

    Now the next time you go to use the tape - when it is mounted the media label is compared to the external label to see if they match.  If they DO then the tape is written to.

    If they do NOT match then the tape is Frozen.
    Reason being is that NB does not know if this was on purpose or by mistake.  Say the barcodes fell off of two tapes and you put then on wrong.  One tape had all images expired and the other one had valid images on it.  When the barcodes were put on wrong the good tape could have been over written.

    So this failsafe was put in place to verify that the barcodes match.

    So if you want to change a barcode, First make sure all images on the tape have expired.
    Change the barcode.
    Delete the previous media from the NB console
    put the tape in the library and inventory
    Now as stated by the other people above, right click the new media and choose Label ( runs the bplabel command)
    UN-CHECK the 'verify media label'  ( this would make it compare the two and see that they are different and would not allow it).  With that unchecked it will force it to write the new media id to the tape.  Be careful of this as it will force the over write of valid media as well.
  • eucalyptus's avatar
    eucalyptus
    16 years ago
    My old media id was A00000 I want to change to B023L2, i had run Label by unchecking the verify media id even though label job was not running and if i try to change to old media id it was working please help me Thanks in advance