Volume pools media list
Dear Friends,
We have quite a big infra to take the backups. And my jobs failed now and then with error 96, "no media in the pool". Kindly suggest any script or command, where i can get the free and full media list for each volume pool. We have almost 69 Volume pools.
Thanks in Advance.
netbackup 7.7, win 2008 R2 Ent.
You can run available_media script from cmd on the master server on a daily basis.
The command is in ...netbackup\bin\goodies.
Best to send output to a text file as output in your environment will probably be quite large, e.g:
.... \goodies > available_media > c:\temp\media.txt
(assuming there is a temp folder on c-drive...)You may want to create a Scratch pool and mark the pool as type scratch.
Over the next couple of weeks, move tapes to Scratch pool as soon as they expire.
You only need to do this once for each tape.
NBU will take tapes from Scratch if no empty media exists in a pool.
Once these tapes that came from Scratch expire, they will automatically be resturned to Scratch.Next thing to look at is the amount of Volume Pools - why does this environment need 69 pools?
If you understand that media servers do not share media by default (can be enabled), and that retention levels are by default not mixed (should NOT be enabled), it makes sense that media managent in your environment will be a complete nightmare...
69 volume pools sound like very bad design. More volumes pool require more media, and more tape drives because netbackup does not mix backup going to different volume pools. One example, lets assume each volume pool require one additional tape because each pool is 100% used, that will sum up to 69 free media being required. If you had one pool, it would only require one tape. From a tape drive efficiency perspective you will have a similar issue. Many volume poll = many tape drives required.
For one company, you should have no more than 1-3 volume pools.
For a view of the media you have run avaiable_media script in [install_path]\netbackup\bin\goodies\available_media
Saleem04 wrote:...
We have these number of pools, as we have almost 140 policies... with multiple backups, schedule and selection and retention...
...
Each volume pool has a different retention level, and a different type of bakcups as Exchange DB, Oracle, SQL, SSB, File level.
.... but do they all go to separate places when the tape is full? Have you a business requirement that means each type of backup needs to be on separate media (in it's own volume pool)?
Essentially, you could probably run NetBackup straight 'out-of-the-box' with just the one default "NetBackup" volume pool. The application will then utilise the media to the best of its abilities - it's an enterprise product & it's what it's designed for after all.
If we look at the 'default' case of one volume pool "NetBackup", as the application does not mix retention periods on media by default, if you have 2 retention periods you will have a minimum number of TWO partially full media - one for one retention period & one for the other. If you have 4 retention periods, then obviously this increases to a minimum of FOUR partially full media. Now imagine you have 100 volume pools ..... you end up with A LOT of partially full media that NetBackup will not utilise again until such time as the media in question fulfil the requirements of the backup being run.
There is, potentially, the opportunity to be (much) more efficient in how your media is being utilised
