BE2010 R3 and robotic library ignoring named tapes

[Steve_Bottoms]

OK, so... we set up a robotic library on our Win 2k8/Be2010 R3 system, and all testing and backup schedules working fine.  However, we can't get barcode labels working for a number of reasons, so we're skipping that for now.  Inserted a bunch of new tapes, initialized, inventoried, etc.  I then applied Media Labels to five of the 8 tapes installed, and let the backup jobs run.  Fast forward Monday morning, and the backup jobs have completely skipped the named tapes in slots 1-5, and started using the tapes beginning in slot 6.  All are identified as "scratch media", so can someone enlighten me on why just applying a name to a tape PREVENTS it from being used (new tape, Scratch Media, at top of slot rotation).  Barcode rules are shut off; tapes have barcode labels on them, but BE isn't reading them (not that it should if barcode capability is shut off).  I'm at a loss here.

Thanks.

Steve in Reno

[pkh]

After you labeled your tapes, did you put the tapes in some media set?  If you do, then they immediately use the OPP of the media set and would become protected, so BE will use the scratch tapes.

If you had left the tapes in the scratch media set after they were labeled, then their allocate date are newer than the other tapes and the other tapes would be used first.

[psj_symhelp]

hi check proper position of bar code lable. login to tape library management cansole and make sure the bar code lable read by robot. run inventory from backup application. if bar code lable not appear in backup application then might be problem with library.

[Larry_Fine]

re: Barcode rules are shut off; tapes have barcode labels on them, but BE isn't reading them (not that it should if barcode capability is shut off).

BE should always DISPLAY the bar codes, regardless of if you are using bar code rules or not.  So, if the bar codes are not being displayed in BE, then please follow PSJ's suggestions above.

[Steve_Bottoms]

Thanks for replying, guys...

1. No, I did not assign the labelled tapes into any specific media sets.  They are currently assigned to "Scratch Media" according to the media listing in the Devices tab.  It's my understanding that scratch media is taken as needed, according to whether the media set (in this case Scratch media) rules allow them to be used.  I understood this to mean that, if all tapes are not protected and not assigned to any media set, then the first available tape (slot one) would be used.  This doesn't appear to be the case, so I'm trying to find out the rules for usage.  As I said, all tapes at the time of my original post were all unused, unprotected, in Scratch Media media set, and five had media labels (NOT barcodes) assigned to them.

2. The five tapes in question DO have barcode labels on them, but bar code rules are NOT enabled.  The drive/library does NOT read the barcode labels; it's my assumption from the documentation that the barcode labels WILL NOT BE USED if barcode label option is not enabled.  Is this the case?

3. I will re-label the next set of tapes and see where we are at that point.

Steve

[Steve_Bottoms]

Update:

Bar code labels: I removed the existing labels and re-applied new ones.  The drive/BE still won't "see" the bar code labels.  So either a) my bar code label software doesn't work with BE (wouldn't surprise me), or b) the reading of bar code labels only works with the bar code label option enabled (which I can't do, because I can't create rules because the tape device type (LTO 5) doesn't exist because BE2010 R3 won't let me add it).

Thanks for helping me out here.

Steve

[Larry_Fine]

What brand/model of tape library?  I assume it has a web interface?  Does the web interface or LCD show the bar code labels?  If the hardware cannot read the labels, then those labels are not being sent to BE for display.  Make sure your labels are readable by the hardware before troubleshooting BE.

Once you have bar codes displaying correctly in BE, and if you want to use bar code rules for LTO5 just use "LTO [8]" (the next choice after LTO4 in the drop down).  This is just a cosmetic issue where you will have to remember that "LTO [8]" = "LTO5"

[pkh]

You have 2 problems here.  It would be better to post them as separate discussions.  As you can see, the answers to the 2 problems are all mixed up and it is very difficult to distinguish them.

1) use of scratch tapes - 

 if all tapes are not protected and not assigned to any media set, then the first available tape (slot one) would be used.

You are mistaken.  As I have said before, the tapes are used based on their allocated date and NOT according to their slot position.  The tape with the oldest allocated date would be used first.

2) barcode labels not recognised.

Make sure that your barcode labels conform to the standards set by the tape library manufacturer.  There are previous discussions in this forum where the user insists that the barcode labels are correct and they ultimately turned out to be wrong for the tape library.  If necessary, check with the tape library manufacturer.

You can also use the Web interface to the library to check whether the tape library is reading the barcode labels correctly.  If the Web interface shows that the barode labels are not reqognised, then it is either wrong barcode label used or the barcode reader is faulty.

If you are using a HP tape library, see this for the barcode specs.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/de/blogs/barcode-requirements-hp-tape-libraries

If you are sure of your library manufacturer's requirement, you might want to do your own barcode labels.  See my article on how to do so.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how