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Associate With Media Set - problem!

erickt
Level 3

I have a very odd problem that has followed me as far back as Backup Exec 2010 and has never gone away.
I'm running MS Server 2008R2 attached to a Dell TL-4000 with four LTO-6 FC drives.

When I set up my tape backup set i do the usual erase, label and then associate with media set for a group of six LTO-6 tapes.

I have Daily, Weekly and Monthly associations set up.    Problem is, when I set up a Monthly, one of the tapes, usually the 3rd but sometimes the 2nd, will switch to "Weekly" over the course of the weekend while the backup jobs are running.  This of course causes problems because it effectively removes one of the tapes from the Monthly backup job, so I tend to run out of tape.  

I am running the latest BE16 with updates and the agents have all been updated on the servers.   The problem still continues almost every month and refuses to go away.
Anybody else experiencing this or know a fix???

4 REPLIES 4

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Your problem stems from the fact that you have insufficient media in your targeted media set.  As a result, BE needs to grab media from other media sets to make sure that your job completes.

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Media sets are not a way to force Backup to use specific tapes, they are ONLY a way to manage the time period for Overwrite and Appends against tapes. There are rules for how Overwritable media is chosen that depend on general settings in Backup Exec and the job start settings, along with the state of the media at the exact time that Backup Exec needs media.

How  Backup Exec chooses overwritable media  including the choice order with relation to changing specific settings is all covered in the admin guide. Every combination of settings does eventually include the choice of overwrite recyable media in any media set, hence why tapes are taken from a different media set if (as PKH said) you do not have enough suitable media in the media set specified in the job. 

If you want to force Backup Exec jobs to only use specific tapes you have to partition the storage slots in the library and then target the jobs to the relevant partitions. However this will increase your chances of other issues (jobs failing or waiting for media etc) as once you do this, if a job cannot find suitable media in the partition, the job will wait for you to provde media in the partition (and possibly then fail against a timeout setting). Any waiting jobs might then impact other scheduled jobs too.

 

As an aside the reason this is stil an issue for you is because it is by design and the information about how Backup Exec chooses overwitable tapes has worked the same way in multiple BE versions (and the rules for the order of choice have always been in the admin guide)

Thanks for the response.  I've already partitioned the storage slots and yes I am targeting them with the jobs so that part is not the issue.  I'm also definitely using sufficient tapes.

jurgen_barbieur
Level 6
Partner    VIP    Accredited

I dind't find the information, but can we asume you are using barcode labels within your library?

you can find more information about media management in the admin guide p219, more specific how backupexec searches for an overwritable tape on p233. review this information with the settings in your configuration.