BackupExec 12.5: automate initialize on robotic library

[JaapB]

Hello,

After changing the tapes in the robotic library i manually perform an initialize from the robotic library so old tape information is updated. I want to schedule this initialization from the library, but initialize has no schedule option. Is there an other method to accomplish this?

I already tried using inventory, but inventory does not put the new tapes in the scratch media set.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[RahulG]

Running Inventory is the only option ....

[sksujeet · Accepted solution]

Neither inventory nor initialize can put the tapes in the scratch media.
Scratch media can only be:

1>Any brand new media goes to scratch media
2>when you erase a tape it goes to scratch media
3>you can manually move media to scratch media
4>When you label it goes to scratch media
So you have to performa any of the above steps to make the media as SCRATCH

[CraigV]

...just to expand a bit on the above...
Unless you run a scan/inventory, your library won't know what is available. This is easy enough to schedule. You simply run through the steps to create an immediate inventory for example, and then set the schedule to run at a specific time, on a specific day.
Media is also returned to the scratch set when its OPP/Append periods expire. If this isn't happening, it means that 1 or both are set too high, and you need to go take a look at those periods on your media sets.

[JaapB]

I nowhere see an option to schedule a scan.

As for performing a inventory, i checked both the opp/append periods and both are configured for 10 days. When tapes are used they are send offsite for a periode of 30 days and after that return to be used again. When i perform an inventory on the returning tapes, the information is updated but the tapes not return to the scratch media set but to a media set with some exotic name.

[CraigV]

? Can't schedule a scan...that has to be manual. Inventory can be scheduled though.
What are the expiry dates on the tapes you're getting back, and what media set is it being assigned too? If there is no use for it, I would look into deleting it.

[sksujeet]

you can't schedule a SCAN.

[JaapB]

Tapes are assigned to the media set "Tape" on creation. The Tape media set has a opp/append period from 10 days. When the tapes come back from the offsite location after 30 the opp/append period is expired. I checked this by performing a scan after putting the returned tapes in the library. All tapes were overwriteable.

We don't want to do a manual scan/initialize, as it can be easily forgotten in which case no backup will run. 

I think we will opt for a scheduled quick erase which will put the tape in the Scratch media set.

Thank you all for your replies.

[CraigV]

Cool...please close off the query with the solution that helped the most.

[Ken_Putnam]

You cannot schedule a scan, (requested many times) but you can schedule a BEMCMD Inventory using the Windows Task scheduler  using the =013 option  if you would like to see scan added to BEMCMD, add your request to the Ideas area of the forum (top menu bar, far right)

as for the tapes not being in scratch when you mount them after coming back from off-site, that is correct, they stay in the media set they were placed in when they were written,  but if they are past their OPP, ANY job can grab them, place them in any media set and write to them

[pkh]

You can vote for the following ideas

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/idea/add-ability-schedule-scan-tape-library

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/idea/add-option-bemcmd-scan-tape-library

[pkh]

You don't have to put the tapes in scratch media set to re-use them.  As you said, the returned tapes are overwriteable and your jobs will reuse them.  If your job targets the Tape media set then it will automatically write to the overwriteable tapes.  If your job targets another media set in the same partition as the Tape media set, it will automatically grabs a tape from the Tape media set if it runs our of overwriteable tapes in that medai set.