05-16-2017 11:41 PM
Hi all
I have a server with 2 tape drives, 1 x LTO 5 and 1 x LTO4. Only 1 backup job. backup starts with one of the drives (usually LTO 5) and then when that tape is full it automatically moves on to the LTO4 drive.
I start running out of space on the tape so i decide to replace 1 of the drives. I take out the LTO4 and replace it with a LTO6 drive.
LTO6 Drive is recognised by Backup exec upon reboot - i put in a LTO5 tape (i have loads of those :) - i can see in backup exec that the LTO6 drive now has a LTO5 tape inserted. Everyone should be happy - status of the LTO6 drive is "ready"
Backup starts normally and the LTO5 drive stars to backup. I return to the office this morning and i see the LTO5 drive has ejected its tape and is requesting a new tape put into LTO5. i can see that the tape in the LTO6 hasnt been used. and i can see as per normal the LTO5 tape is full.
Only way i could complete the backup was to put in a new tape into LTO5 drive.
Can someone help me? how do i make the new drive pick up where the LTO5 drive stopped.
The LTO4 drive i took out is still listed in Backup exec, but i disabled it in backup exec.
The backup job is set to use all devices
Kind regards
Kenn Christensen
05-17-2017 12:03 AM
Additional info:
I run Backup 2010 R3
I can see from other posts here that beyond BEWS 2010 this feature of 1 job 2 tape drives isnt support. But i didnt change anything besides replace a tape drive.
05-17-2017 12:47 AM
That is correct. This tape pooling feature was removed even before BE 2010, so I don't know how you managed to get it to work.
You should be looking at getting a tape library.
In case you are not aware, BE 2010 is EOL and you should be planning to upgrade to the latest version of BE which is BE 16.
05-17-2017 06:02 AM
That is odd - its been working for years in my setup.
Only thing i did was replace a tape drive.
the new tape drive works fine too - i tried creating a small job with only a few GB's and it was put on the tape no problem at all.
I have now tried to create a new device pool, once that does not contrain the old LTO drive (the one i removed)
ill respond tomorrow with results.
Kind regards
05-17-2017 11:05 PM
I mentioned in my post from yesterday that i did a small job to the new tape drive and it completed. But that isnt 100% accurate, i had to reboot 1 extra time before i was able to access the drive. And upon that reboot the LTO4 drive was marked as offline.
I think the extra reboot did the trick, because the backup job ran successfully last night, using 100% of the tape in the new drive and about 40% of the tape in drive number 2.
Just to let everyone know that tape pooling is indeed possible in Backup 2010 R3 :)
Kind Regards
Kenn