Forum Discussion

Leoooooo's avatar
Leoooooo
Level 4
11 years ago

Tapes becoming freeze

Hello all,

Few weeks ago I realized that a lot of jobs were failing with status 96 and 196. We were adding tapes, the backup windows was ok so no obvious reason for the failed jobs. Then I realized that the tapes that were coming back from vault and we were loading into the robot was actually on freeze state.

I manage to check all reloaded tape with:

bpmedialist -m XXXXXX
bpimmedia -mediaid XXXXXX, and then:
bpmedia -unfreeze -m XXXXXX

So I don't have a problem with it anymore, as long as I check tape by tape. My question would be, why is this happening:

My NBU is 6.0MP7 running on a Windows 2003.

Thanks in advance!!

7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
Troubleshooting
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    11 years ago

    Best to find out why tapes are getting Frozen as soon as possible - not when they get back on site.

    You may want to keep an eye on 'Media Logs' report on a regular basis.
    Use Filter to exclude 'Info' type output in Severity column. You will be left with Warning and Error logs.
    Also add VERBOSE entry to ...Veritas\volmgr\vm.conf on all media servers and restart NBU Device Manager service.
    Exact reason for media being frozen will be logged in Windows Event Viewer Application log.

    PS:
    NBU 6.x ran out of support almost 2 years ago.
    PLEASE upgrade!

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    11 years ago

    Please download System Administrator's Guide for Windows, Volume 1 : http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH43931 

    Chapter 5 - Viewing NetBackup Reports
    On page 299, have a look at 'Standard Toolbar', 
    You will see an icon that look like a funnel. That is the 'filter' icon.

    So, run Media Logs report.
    Select the filter icon.
    Select 'does not contain' and in Severity column type Info.

    This will exclude Info messages and leave you with Warning and Error messages.

    To add VERBOSE entry to vm.conf, open the file with a text editor such as Notepad and add VERBOSE on a new line at the bottom of the file.
    Save and close the file.

  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    11 years ago

    You can check the bptm logs on the media servers for entries stating

    "<16> write_data: FREEZING media id"

    This is usually followed by something like "Medium identifiers do not match" or "Externl event caused rewind during write, all data on the media is lost" or what ever the problem is that was found with the media.

     

    This would show that they were frozen on that date and weren't frozen already.

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Best to find out why tapes are getting Frozen as soon as possible - not when they get back on site.

    You may want to keep an eye on 'Media Logs' report on a regular basis.
    Use Filter to exclude 'Info' type output in Severity column. You will be left with Warning and Error logs.
    Also add VERBOSE entry to ...Veritas\volmgr\vm.conf on all media servers and restart NBU Device Manager service.
    Exact reason for media being frozen will be logged in Windows Event Viewer Application log.

    PS:
    NBU 6.x ran out of support almost 2 years ago.
    PLEASE upgrade!

  • Leoooooo's avatar
    Leoooooo
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Hi Marianne,

    Thank you for your assistance.

    But, what should I filter to exclude "Info"? And how do I add VERBOSE to that file?

    Thanks in advance.

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Please download System Administrator's Guide for Windows, Volume 1 : http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH43931 

    Chapter 5 - Viewing NetBackup Reports
    On page 299, have a look at 'Standard Toolbar', 
    You will see an icon that look like a funnel. That is the 'filter' icon.

    So, run Media Logs report.
    Select the filter icon.
    Select 'does not contain' and in Severity column type Info.

    This will exclude Info messages and leave you with Warning and Error messages.

    To add VERBOSE entry to vm.conf, open the file with a text editor such as Notepad and add VERBOSE on a new line at the bottom of the file.
    Save and close the file.

  • Leoooooo's avatar
    Leoooooo
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Thank you both.

    Riaan, no I'm not sure, how could I check it?

    Marianne, done it. Checking the Media Logs, from earliest available until current time, only 3 messages are shown, should I increase the logging level? It's current set up as global, which is 0.

    Thanks.

  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    You can check the bptm logs on the media servers for entries stating

    "<16> write_data: FREEZING media id"

    This is usually followed by something like "Medium identifiers do not match" or "Externl event caused rewind during write, all data on the media is lost" or what ever the problem is that was found with the media.

     

    This would show that they were frozen on that date and weren't frozen already.

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Have you had any media that became frozen lately?
    If not, there will be nothing in bptm log or Media Logs report or in Event logs.
    That is why I suggested that you run the report on a regular basis - once or twice per week so that you can catch the tapes getting frozen while there are still logs available to find the reason.

    Apart from Media Logs report, you can also run Media Summary (with Verbose option selected) or Media List report and look for tapes with (new) Frozen state.

  • Leoooooo's avatar
    Leoooooo
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Brilhant!!

    Understood what you both are telling me, and from now on I'll keep an eye on it.

    Thank you very much!!

  • INT_RND's avatar
    INT_RND
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Please mark this question solved once you have figured it out.