Backup Exec 2012 not writing to destined tapes in Media sets

[sptechie25]

Hi 

I am trying to backup VDRs of vCenter servers 5.0 and Windows (File server) through Backup Exec 2012, initially i have couple of tapes in scratch media  set and i created 2 different Meida sets and moved these tapes from Scratch Media set to the New Media sets X & Y.

When i created 2 Backup jobs A & B assigned to Media sets X & Y as destinations, i did run a test run which was successful, but later on when it ran the actual backup it didn't run backup to the destined tapes in the destined Media sets defined and it did ran backups but to different Media sets and tapes which are not defined in the new backup jobs.

I got this verified looking at the job logs.

Can someone please help me in this, why its running to backups to the destined tapes in the relevant Media sets.

Thanks

[CraigV]

Hi,

Don't assign scratch tapes manually to a media set. BE will pick a scratch tape for use for a backup job...let BE assign the media accordingly, and the media should then stay in that media set based on your Append/OPP settings.

Unless you REALLY need too, leave your tapes as-is.

Thanks!

[sptechie25]

Hi CraigV,

Thanks for your quick response on this.

In my situation now, shall i move the moved tapes from New Media sets X & Y backto scratch Media se and leaving the New Media sets created X & Y as it is with out any tapes associated with it.

Doing this, will the Backup Exec 2012 do its job of assigning the tapes to the Media sets X & Y for the New jobs created A & B as mentioned above.

[CraigV]

No. I would leave the tapes as-is to be honest. They have been assigned to the "correct" media set with the jobs that ran. If you have enough tapes in each media set, then leave them.

Thanks!

[sptechie25]

its bit confusing here with the above statements,

The reason for my posting a question here is that it did run the scheduled backup job set yesterday to the newly created Media sets and associating the tapes from the scratch Media set, but it didn't write anything to the tapes in the Media Sets X & Y and moreover it pickedup the tape from the scratch Media and kept it in the Media set X assigned as a destination tape Media for Backup Job A.

Looking at your comments, i am assuming that i should leave/move the tapes from Media Sets X & Y in/to scratch media. Then run the backup jobs A & B again. This time, i am hoping that it would pick up the tapes from scratch media and put it in its destined Media sets X & Y while writing the Backup data to these tapes for these backups A & B.

Please confirm / Suggest on this.

Thanks

[CraigV]

OK that is strange...if they haven't been written too, then move them to Scratch and they will be pulled into the correct media set.

[Colin_Weaver]

First a few of points:

- Media takes on the overwrite protection timing at the point of time it is added to the set and then the timing changes as you add more data to the media. This means if you manually move the media into a set it could take on an immediate overwritre protected state and not be usable for overwrite jobs even though it is empty

- BE does move media to the target media set when it uses media (from any media set containing overwritabel; media not just scratch)

- BE can choose media already in another media set to move to that target media set if it cannot find overwritable media  by any other means - the exact order of how BE choose overwritable media is controlled by a number of settings in BE itself (and the dates the media were last used) there is a table in the Media managerment chapter of the admin guide that explains this.

- The OPP moves back to the time of the last write operation, as such if, for exmaple) you want to re-use media in a weekly job, DO NOT set 7 day OPP as this does not take into account the length of time the job sets to run. Instead set 6 days (of maybe even consider entering 6.5 days but in hours)

Because of the above, new media should always be placed in the scratch set and BE will move it when it needs to move it. To reduce the likely hood of having a piece of media move from one set to another adjust the various settings that affect the choices and try to make sure that usable media are avvailable in the correct places. If manually moving media to make them overwritable, move themn to scarcth and then let BE move them to media sets as needed. Make sure your OPP settings are correct for your rotation and allow for the timing of the last data write operation on the media.

[sptechie25]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your explanation on this and is really helpful in this.

CraigV

I have moved them right now into Scratch Media set and scheduled the backup jobs A & B to run it for tonight. So i will get to know tomorrow more about this where its picking up the tapes from scratch Meida  and moving it into the right Destination Media sets X & Y.

Will post you further on this, once i get more status on this backup jobs.

Thanks for your help on this.

[sptechie25]

i have done 1 backup yesterday night, it seems to backup for Backup job A to tape picking the tape from Scratch Media set as discussed earlier in the comments and kept it in the destined Media set X which is good and working so far.

For 2nd Backup job B, i have setup the back up job and did test run now, but its failing giving the error messages in the ojb log as shown below:

Online Media Check: message saying as Insufficient online or nearline media is available to start job

Overwrite Media Check: There is no media online or nearline that can be overwritten or the job has been marked append/terminate.

media check status failed.

But the same test run worked yesterday.

Can someone explain this and help me in getting this worked, so that i can schedule the backup job B tonight.

Thanks

[Colin_Weaver]

Did the second job start before or after the first job ended?

Bascially some other facts I missed from earlier info which may also apply.

- If an appendable jobs attempts to start and the only available media in slots in teh library are not appendable, the jobs will switch to an overwrite. Once switched to an overwrite it will not be switched back to append

- if a job is actively using a tape then that tape can only be marked as appendable once that job ends (because the job might fill the tape)

- the descision on what tape to use is made before we find out if all drives are busy or not

As such if job one started and moved the tape from scratch to media set and you intended job 2 to use the same tape, then a) the media set MUST have an appropriate append period, b) job 2 MUST start as an append c) Job 2 cannot be scheduled to start before job 1 ends.

Note: if you intended job 2 to be an overwrite then you needed 2 tapes in the scratch media instead of 1

[sptechie25]

Alright, there's some bit of missing info.

We got enough 7 tapes in scratch Media and out of them 1 media has been picked up for job A and moved into right media set X, which is good and wat we need.

Actually, 2 jobs are independent and are meant to run on different tapes. 

Now for job B, these 6 tapes are in scratch Media set and when i run the test run for this backup job, it fails with the above message. not sure why, but it did run earlier. Please let me know how to resolve this.

Also, those 6 tapes in scratch media are completely free and still test run doesn't run succesful, where as it should run successful.

Thanks

[sptechie25]

To add to this post, i am using Dell PV 124 T - Tape Loader as a Tape Storage Device for all these backup jobs. As i am getting the error of Insufficient Media and i am sure its not picking up the tapes from the scratch Media set. 

I can't even connect to the tape loader interface, so i thought of restarting the tape loader and the backup exec server which seems to be working this backup job.

But in theory i shouldn't be restarting the Tape Loader device all the time to run the backup jobs this way.

Can anyone point on anything wrong in this situation.

Thanks for your help on this so far.

[CraigV]

Couple of things to check out:

1. Is the media server a VM? If so, there is very limited support for running a media server on a VM, and it is not recommended.

2. What OS is the media server running? If Win2K3, is the Removable Storage service stopped and disabled, as this causes issues between BE and the library.

3. Is the firmware on the library up-to-date? If not, update it and check again. Is BE up to date, and are you using the Symantec drivers for the device?

4. Dell will have a tape drive utility...download this, stop the BE services, and run the diagnostics against the library...this will either rule out, or point too, hardware issues.

Thanks!

[sptechie25 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your response on this:

Well, its proved out to be a problem on the source VDR as its corrupt.

Media Server is on a Physical Server

OS - Windows 2k8 R2 Server

Tape Loader firmware not uptodate, going to update it soon.

i will check with Dell tape utility,

Thanks