Backup to disk does not overwrite overwritable media when disk is full. Jobs fail.

[Vinz59]

Hi,

I have a network share as backup to disk destination.

This destination splits files into 1Gb files and I have set up a protection of 1To of free disk space (that's not much compared to the full size).

Jobs using this destination are set up to :
-use that share
-append or overwrite if not appendable
-use a media policy called 'Overwritable' that let medias to be always overwritable.
(something like http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/266377.htm)

My network share is now at capacity (there is only 1To left on the device as it should). Jobs using this destination now fail with insufficient space message.
It's true that there is no space but medias that were created by previous jobs run are all marked overwritable (and there are because of the policy), but are never overwritten...

Global overwrite protection policy is set to partial with raw support usage first without prompt. (I have tested complete/raw first, complete/assigned first, partial/raw first and partial/assigned first).

This is not the behaviour I'm expecting.
I'm expecting :
B2D media being reused(overwritten) as soon as they are overwritable when using partial/assigned first
B2D media being reused(overwritten) as soon as there is no space left when using partial/raw first

Am I doing wrong somewhere ?


 

[Ken_Putnam]

Hmm

Just a comment to start.

For B2D jobs, I would HIGHLY recommend not using append, since this extends the OPP date of all BKF files in an "append family" when the latest file is closed

I would also set the OPP of the media sets to what ever you need and get rid of the Always Overwriteable Policy.  If you want to completely fill the space aside from the 1TB reserve, make sure the Global Media Management Option is set to "Use Scratch media before overwriteable media in the target media set"  if you only want xx days of data, select the Alternative " "Use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media"

I'm not sure what can be done now that the share is full, aside from manually moving some of the BKF files to the Scratch media set.  but if yo have been using Append, that could get messy real fast 

[Vinz59]

 Hi,

Thanks for trying to explain me some guideliness.

I don't understand why I should not use "append". If one of my BKF file is not full after a backup, it will be filled up during the next job. This BKF file and the new ones created during the job get their OPP updated, just as it does with tapes?! I'm using 1GB files on 15TB volume, so it's not a problem if my first appendable media get its OPP updated, because in the worst case I'm losing 1GB until the end of the protection period.

The policy "always overwriteable" was not the policy I was using in production, I just wanted to make things explicit for my tests and my explanations. Thanks for pointing me the Global Media Management Option, but I have already noticed it, and as I explained, this is not working as expected.

The configuration I was using was : (sorry for the terms I used, I'm using a french version...): 
Use Scratch media before overwriteable media in the target media set
So my space was filled up, that seems logical.

Now that my space is full, I turned this option to :
"Use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media"
I have overwriteable medias, but they are never used, and the soft still throw me that my space is full and that it won't backup anything.

I could understand this imaginary error :
"Insufficient space and no writabeable media was found"

 But the problem that summarize this topic is that my disk space is full and recyclable medias are not used as it simply should. 

[Ken_Putnam]

so it's not a problem if my first appendable media get its OPP updated, because in the worst case I'm losing 1GB until the end of the protection period

But NONE of the BKF files in an "append family"  will every pass the OPP, since all share an OPP based on the last time one of them was closed

Use Scratch media before overwriteable media in the target media set
So my space was filled up, that seems logical.

Correct

Now that my space is full, I turned this option to :
"Use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media"
I have overwriteable medias, but they are never used, and the soft still throw me that my space is full and that it won't backup anything

if all the files were created with APPEND then they should not be overwritealbe.  If they were created with OVERWRITE, then I have no idea why they will not re-use

[Vinz59]

 Hi Ken,

I think I understand what you mean. I thought a "append family" was medias (BKF files) used for one particular job. At this time, all my disk jobs are using "append" method to the same disk folder.
From what I understand, you're telling me that all medias used by all the jobs share a common hidden OPP, and when a job just finish, it updates the OPP of all the medias in the disk folder even if they have not been used for a job.

I'm gonna try to not append at all for all my jobs and I will tell you the result in a few weeks when I have sufficient representative amout of data.

The last thing I don't understant is why the soft tells me medias are overwriteable whereas they are not :

Here is the translation :
Media label                     Allocation date                    Media Set                        Disk folder                          OPP('Ecrasable' means overwriteable)                Appendable(not possible, media is full).

Why is the OPP not up to date ?
Why using tapes this behavior does not occurs (as all of my jobs use the same settings and tapes are juste overwritten if they cannot be appended, and OPP is updated only on medias used for a job)?

Again thanks.