Backup Exec 2012 Dedup Media is Unrecognized

[js_newc]

We have been receiving the following informational message randomly at the beginning of our backup jobs to deduplication disk:

Media is unrecognized.

The media labeled '?' from slot '66', read by drive 'Deduplication Disk (servername):1' is written in an unrecognized format. Erase the media to make it usable.

It does not prevent the job from running, but is there a way to prevent this message from reoccurring?  Since there is no way to view the 'media' for a dedup disk, I am not able to erase or delete the unrecognized media.

[SuperBrain]

You can configure Backup Exec to automatically clear that type of alert after 1 minute (or any other time).

1. Click on the Backup Exec button.

2. Configuration and Settings - Alets and Notifications - Alert Categories.

3. Select Media Information - on the right hand side you can either
     a. Uncheck "Enable alerts for Media Information" and disable Media Info alerts.

      OR

     b. Select "Automatically clear after "x" time.

I also found a technote which provides informaiton about the alert you're getting : http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH23217

Hope this helps.

[js_newc]

Thanks for the response.  I do know how to get the messages to clear, but if the system is seeing an unrecognized media on my depulication disk, I would like to clear that out so it doesn't keep giving that message.  It is always the same slot number in the message.

I had also located that technote, but it seems to be referring to tape and doesn't seem to apply to a deduplication disk.

[Petr_KASL]

This is definitely not a solution of problem with deduplication folder.

I am solving same problem now and by that time there is not resolution from Symantec.

[Biker_Dude]

The Technote below will help determine which OST media is not recognized and prevent BE from attempting to use it:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH188776

[js_newc]

The Technote you referenced states:

"From the SGMON log find all such media having issues and perform erase or move them to retired media set. This will allow backup exec to read and load those medias or ignore them if they are moved to retired media set."

How can this be done in BE2012 since there is no way to interact with the individual dedup media files and "perform erase or move them to retired media"?

[BradleySCFO]

Been wondering exactly this myself.  I'm not sure we can get in and see the OST files anymore.

[Javed_Nawaz1]

Hi JS_NEWC,

Do you have any update on the above problem. Certainly we have a workaround but manually modifying media inside the deduplication folder to find the four individual files in the \\.pdvfs\servername mount point and delete them.
It is a time consuming and cumbersome method of removing these corrupt media from Backup Exec. I would ask you rather call Symantec Support & let us take care of it rest.

[David_Jerwood1]

Does anyone have a fix for this yet, I also have exactly the same issue.

[lissl]

Need the fix

[Javed_Nawaz]

All affected users with the above problems are requested to call Symantec technical support.

[Affinity_eSolut]

Has anybody got this solved? because i am going no where with symantec tech support...sigh..

[Branko_Stimac]

For those of you getting this same issue on Backup Exec 20120 R3 this seems to have worked for me.

1. Find all OST's with the media label "?" or a blank media label in the Media tab. Mine were in "Offline media" and associate them with "Retired Media".

2. Remove Hotfix 191248 from Backup Exec using add/remove Programs.

3. Remove remote agents that have been updated to 5204.127 and reinstall 5204.125.

4. Take new full backups.

5. Test restore/duplicate/verify etc.

Previous backups will still not be able to restore/duplicate/verify but at least new ones will be fixed.