Problem with expiry date on tapes and backup images.
Dears,
Problem 1:
When we first got the backup solution, whenever a tape is last mounted, the retention period of the data is added and then I got an expiry date for the tape.
I tried to solv...
- Don't get confused between the expiry of images on tapes and the expiry of tapes.
Image Expiry: Once a tape is full, it will not be able to be re-used until ALL the images on it have expired based on the retention period of the backups & when the backups were taken (NetBackup ONLY appends to a tape, it will NOT re-use areas that were utilised by expired images). Once this has transpired then the tape will either remain in it's volume pool as AVAILABLE (for subsequent backups) or be moved to the scratch pool from where it can be called for subsequent backups & ASSIGNED to the relevant volume pool.
Tape expiry: is another matter. This is effectively a "sell-by" date that you can assign to a tape after which it will not be used for backups. Essentially, tapes have a limited shelf life & it's up to you to decide after which date you will no longer trust that tapes ability to successfully store backup images.
