Forum Discussion

smckelvey's avatar
smckelvey
Level 5
14 years ago

Tapes with no images or expiration, but can't be used

Netbackup Enterprise Server 7.0. Windows Server 2003 SP2. StorageTek 40 tape library, 299 tapes. I have a handful of tapes that don't appear to have any images, no expiration date (images or on the...
7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
Troubleshooting
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    14 years ago

    Any chance that a media server was improperly deassigned or lost it's mediaDB in pre-6.x days?

    If that happened, images were expired but media could not be deassigned due to missing mediaDB entries...

    Try the process in this TN:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH58277

    2. Determine if the media ID exists in the merge table.  If the media ID appears in this listing, then a different issue exists - do not proceed further.  Contact Symantec Technical Services for assistance with getting this media ID out of the merge table.  The following example shows no media IDs in the merge table:

    Command syntax example and output:
     
    nbemmcmd -listmedia -mergetable
     
     
    The following number of records were found:0
     
    Command completed successfully.

    3. From the same path, type bpimmedia -mediaid 000538 to determine if there are any images on this piece of media.  If there are no images, then no output will be displayed.  If there are images, an IMAGE line and FRAG line will appear for each valid image on the media ID.

    4. As long as the media ID does not appear in the merge table, the bptm command can be used to build a complete media record for each affected media ID.  Then the volume can then be unassigned and expired.  This will require the media ID of the affected media, as well as the density and the volume pool number.

    Command syntax example from a UNIX server with a media ID of 000538, a density of HCART, that resides in Volume Pool 1 (NetBackup):
     
    bptm -makedbentry -m 000538 -den hcart -poolnum 1
     

    5.  Once this command completes, rerun the nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 000538 command from step 1.  There should now be a valid Last Write Host hostname.  

    6. The tape can now be expired with the bpexpdate command:

     
    bpexpdate
     
    Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
     
    Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\admincmd
     

     
    If there are no valid images for the media, the command syntax example and output:
     
    bpexpdate -m 000538 -justmedia -d 0  
     
    Are you SURE you want to delete 000538 y/n (n)? y
     
     
    If there are  valid images for the media, the command syntax example and output:
     
    bpexpdate -m 000538 -d 0 
     
    Are you SURE you want to delete 000538 y/n (n)? y
     
    Now that the media is expired, it can be used for backups again and will be overwritten.  
     
Marianne's avatar
Marianne
Level 6
14 years ago

Any chance that a media server was improperly deassigned or lost it's mediaDB in pre-6.x days?

If that happened, images were expired but media could not be deassigned due to missing mediaDB entries...

Try the process in this TN:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH58277

2. Determine if the media ID exists in the merge table.  If the media ID appears in this listing, then a different issue exists - do not proceed further.  Contact Symantec Technical Services for assistance with getting this media ID out of the merge table.  The following example shows no media IDs in the merge table:

Command syntax example and output:
 
nbemmcmd -listmedia -mergetable
 
 
The following number of records were found:0
 
Command completed successfully.

3. From the same path, type bpimmedia -mediaid 000538 to determine if there are any images on this piece of media.  If there are no images, then no output will be displayed.  If there are images, an IMAGE line and FRAG line will appear for each valid image on the media ID.

4. As long as the media ID does not appear in the merge table, the bptm command can be used to build a complete media record for each affected media ID.  Then the volume can then be unassigned and expired.  This will require the media ID of the affected media, as well as the density and the volume pool number.

Command syntax example from a UNIX server with a media ID of 000538, a density of HCART, that resides in Volume Pool 1 (NetBackup):
 
bptm -makedbentry -m 000538 -den hcart -poolnum 1
 

5.  Once this command completes, rerun the nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 000538 command from step 1.  There should now be a valid Last Write Host hostname.  

6. The tape can now be expired with the bpexpdate command:

 
bpexpdate
 
Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
 
Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\admincmd
 

 
If there are no valid images for the media, the command syntax example and output:
 
bpexpdate -m 000538 -justmedia -d 0  
 
Are you SURE you want to delete 000538 y/n (n)? y
 
 
If there are  valid images for the media, the command syntax example and output:
 
bpexpdate -m 000538 -d 0 
 
Are you SURE you want to delete 000538 y/n (n)? y
 
Now that the media is expired, it can be used for backups again and will be overwritten.