Tapes going frozen

Check logs by "bperror -all -hoursago XX " or so on.
You can find some relating messages like below.

FREEZING media id %s, Encryption unavailable for an ENCR pool
FREEZING media id %s, External event caused rewind during write, all data on media is lost
FREEZING media id %s, Medium identifiers do not match
FREEZING media id %s, Operation requested via BPTM
FREEZING media id %s, WORM media detected in a non-WORM pool
FREEZING media id %s, it contains %s data and cannot be used for backups
FREEZING media id %s, it didn't convert to WORM and cannot be used for backups
FREEZING media id %s, it is cleaning media and cannot be used for backups
FREEZING media id %s, it is unmountable and cannot be used for backups
FREEZING media id %s, it is write protected and cannot be used for backups
FREEZING media id %s, its a WORM platter thats already been written to
FREEZING media id %s, non-WORM media detected in a WORM pool
FREEZING media id %s, third party copy block miscompare
FREEZING media id %s, too many data blocks written, check tape/driver block size configuration
FROZE media id %s, could not write tape mark to begin new image
FROZE media id %s, could not locate correct position to begin new image
FROZE media id %s, could not locate correct position to begin new image
FROZE media id %s, could not locate correct position on optical disk
FROZE media id %s, could not write backup header to begin new image
FROZE media id %s, could not write tape mark to begin new image

FREEZING media id %s, it contains %s data and cannot be used for backups is logged when the tape contains some data that should not be overwritten, like TAR, Offline Catalog Backup(NetBackup database backup), ...
If you doesn"\'t need these data, label volumes without "Veriry ..." checked.

Hi,

Thanks for prompt reply. I was suggested by one of my friend's to do an quick erase of the tapes going frozen(only set of tapes) and then run a catalog backup following that. Does this really help ? Or I need to follow some other way ?

Thanks,
Dan

In most case, short erase will works like labeling.But it might take more time in some circumstance. Label without verify is enough.
You don't have to do catalog backup after erase.

Try to follow this article:

 

So we need to look at the problems log.
See if you can find anything for one of your tapes that says why it is freezing the tape.

Things that come to mind.
Tape is write protected when NB picks it up for a backup, see it is write protected, freezes so it does not pick it again.

You have a tape drive issue
Tape drive 1 is looking for tape T0001 but gets T0002
and Tape drive 2 is looking for T0002 and gets T0001
Meaning your system drives are not matching the config of the robot drive numbers.

Your inventory in the library is not up to date.
NB thinks T0001 is in slot 32 but T0002 is really there - verify that the inventory is correct

Bar codes don't match written label on tape
You have the external label (bar code) and the first time the tape is written to it writes that same media id at the beginning of the tape.  You take that barcode off and but a new one up but you don't do a bplable on the tape.  NB Grabs tape T0001 but the written id is X0032 - the do not match NB will freeze it.

So see if you can find any info on why it is freezing it in the logs - start with the Problems log in the gui.

come about because of write errors. After a few errors (its in the doc somewhere, 3 in 12 hrs springs to mind ) the tape will get marked as frozen and I just make a note of whats on the tape (in case it really is duff) and repeat backup to maintain backup  coverage,unfreeze the tape and then monitor it going forward.  If it turns up again I generally remove it from service.

Hopefully youre also monitoring tape drive cleaning (you got autoclean and have suitable cleaning media? Are your drives requesting a clean?).

Tim