Backup Media no longer recognized

[Jason_Blair]

I'm running BE11d on a Win2k3 server, and I'm backing up to an Exabyte VXA 1x10 library with a VXA320 drive.

I'm having a problem with the tapes from my full backups. (The differentials are all fine) I'm attempting to do a restore, but when I loaded the tapes for the last full, they are showing up as unrecognized media in the scratch media set. These backups reported a successful completion to these particular tapes. I would attempt to catalog the media, but the option is grayed out. Any idea how this might happen, or what I can do to get the data off these tapes?

[Ben_L_]

Did you by chance run an inventory on the tapes after you inserted them into the library?

[Jason_Blair]

I attempted the inventory operation, but it failed with the error:

e000821e - Library error - incompatible storage media detected in robotic library.

This puzzles me, since all the media is the appropraite type for the library/drive. And, the other backup job with these tapes seems to be fine. Searching the knowledgebase and Google on that error code gave no result. I also attempted to run a restore and let the job prompt me for a tape, but ultimately go this error:

e0008105 - Invalid Physical Volume Library Media Identifier

That one lead me to a Symantec link here, which I read, but the three articles it gave (260761, 190877, 237573) didn't help. One told me to run the inventory, but that gives the error above. Another told me to make sure the backup job has the appropriate tape device selected, which it did.

[Ben_L_]

Do you have bar code rules enabled on the library?  You can check this by going to the properties of the library on the devices tab.  If it is enabled, uncheck the box and run the inventory again.

[Jason_Blair]

Bar code rules are disabled on our system. We had that issue during initial setup a couple months ago.

(BTW, blipsey, thank you for the fast replies.)

[Ben_L_]

Interesting, going to need some logs from the server then.

Run through this technote, use all 3's for the case number and select send via ftp when prompted.  Message me the file name when completed.

http://support.veritas.com/docs/285911

[Jason_Blair]

message sent - thanks!

[Jason_Blair]

There's one other thing I'm seeing in case it is relevant. When I view the properties of the drive in the library and look at the Media Types tab, the only entry I see is type *** with No for both read and write. Shouldn't this list the multiple 8MM tape options for this drive?

[Ben_L_]

when was the last time the server and library were rebooted?

[Jason_Blair]

The last reboot was 12/4/2007 at 10:31am

[Ben_L_]

Try this when you can:

Power down the library and server

Bring the library back online, wait for the console to be in a read or idle state (depends on the library).  Once read/idle, bring the server back online.

Now test the inventory.

[Jason_Blair]

OK, after restarting everything, I was able to run an inventory on the partition with the full backup tapes. The two most recent ones (that ran yesterday) show up fine with correct usage statistics.

The two (of four) older ones that have not been overwritten are showing up as overwritable scratch media. I fear this may be due to a previous attempt to fix my problem. When I inserted the tapes for a restore, I usually run a scan to update. When I do this, the bar code changes, but the media label does not update. At the time, I ran an import job, which updated the media label, but everything went bad after that.

I later read on the forums that I don't need to do this, as importing tapes from the library should automatically update for me. The solution in the other forum said to remove the device from media, then reimport and catalog the tape. Not being able to inventory lead to this discussion thread.

I'm sure I probably made some kind of newbie mistake here, as this is the first library system I've worked with, but now my question is this: Are these backup tapes hosed, or is there any way to get at the data that I know is there? I would attempt to catalog the tapes in question, but that option is grayed out.

Thanks again,
Jason

[Ben_L_]

"The solution in the other forum said to remove the device from media"

You did what?  Sorry that section just confused me.

Disregarding that section, all you should to do when you bring tapes into the library is an inventory on those slots, and that's only if the import did not update the information. 

As for getting the data off the tapes, as long as the data has not been overwriten we should still be able to restore them.  First thing you should do is move them to a media set other then scratch so they do not get overwriten while you are working with them.  Then go to the devices tab, right click on that tape and select restore.  This should take you directly to the restore selections for that tape.  If it gives you an error, then you don't have a current catalog for that tape, so run a catalog on it and you can restore the data after that.

Hope that helps.

[Jason_Blair]

"You did what?  Sorry that section just confused me."

In another tech forum, one person's solution to a similar problem was to remove the tape in question from any media list, then reinsert the tape and catalog it as if it were imported from another system. As I have discovered, this did not work.

--

To get to your recommendation: I know for sure that the tapes have not been overwritten. The only operation performed on them since the original backup was to run an import job when they were inserted. (I believe Inventory was grayed out at the time, which we resolved on Friday.) This morning, I moved the tapes to a protected media set. However, since BackupExec thinks they are unwritten tapes, when I right-click and choose to restore, I get the message telling me to catalog the media. The catalog operaion is grayed out, so I cannot do that.

This is the point where I started on the other site. If removing the tape and attempting to treat it like imported media is a bad idea, where should I go from here?

[Ben_L_]

---

@blipsey wrote:
If it gives you an error, then you don't have a current catalog for that tape, so run a catalog on it and you can restore the data after that.

Hope that helps.

---

Right click on the tape from the devices tab and select catalog.

[Jason_Blair]

That's what I tried. The catalog option is grayed out and unavailable to me for the tape.

[Ben_L_]

Does the tape you are trying to catalog show up in offline media on the media tab?

[Jason_Blair]

No. It was in the "Backup Exec and Windows NT Backup Media" section of the "Imported Media" set, but I had moved it to the full backup set I created to protect it from overwrites.

[Jason_Blair]

Update: I have a solution to the inability to catalog the media. Backup Exec was showing the media to be of an unknown type (***_). As soon as I edited the properties and selected the correct type [8MM VXA (230m, 160.0GB) in my case], I was able to catalog the media and restore my data.

For clarification, and for the benefit of others who may have this issue, is it correct to state that when loading media into a VXA 1x10 library, you should not run an import job after the scan? Rather, one should run an Inventory job.

Thanks again for your assistance over the past few days. This saved us a lot of hassle.
Jason