backup failure with error 96 even when tapes are available in scratch pool.

Work Around:

• Checked the tape list in TLD (X).

• Verified the tape stats for some of the tapes. Identified on most of the tapes Volume Expiration is set XX/XX/201

• Selected ABCXXX which is scratch.
• Change the volume expiration date to never.

• Triggered the backups. ABCXXX scratch tape allocated to backups.

Problem

If a media volume reaches its expiration date, the media will become read only.

Solution

If the expiration date of the media is reached, the volume is considered too old to be reliable and Media Manager allows no further mounts in write mode. Further mounts in read mode are allowed, but a message appears in the system application log to advise that the expiration date of the media has been reached. As the volume is still available for read only mounts, the volume will still appear as active or available in the available_media output. NetBackup will exit with status code 96 if all media required for a backup have reached their expiration dates.

If the expiration date of the volume has been reached, then changing the media expiration date to 'never' or to a later date will resolve this issue.

Volume expiration date: The volume expiration date refers to the physical expiration of the volume and is independent of the backup data written on the volume. Its the time at which the volume is considered too old to be reliable.

Date of expiration: The image retention period determines how long the backup image is available for restores. The expiration date for the backup image is set as the retention level during schedule configuration.