BackupExec not following Media Sets

[PatKam_AU]

Hi there,

In our Backup Exec 12.5 with robotic library, we have 3 media sets - Daily, Weekly and Monthly. Weekly Tapes have 4 sets (Week 2..5) and Monthly Tape on first Sundays.

Occasionally on a Monthly job, a Daily tape was used even though there are free Monthly Media tapes in the library! Before the Monthly job start, there are 3 tapes assigned to Monthly, 4 to Daily. After the recent Monthly backup job, it used 1 of 3 Monthly and used 1 Daily!

This is very annoying as i have to re-label them both in Backup Exec and a Physical label on the tape. Can someone explain how could this happen? Anyway to found out why it didn't use the asigned Monthly Medias?

Thanks in advance.
Pat

[pkh]

It is no good having tapes in the media if they are not overwriteable or appendable.  Check the Overwrite Protection Period and the Append Protection Period of all your data sets to make sure that their tapes can be used when the time comes.  Perhaps you can post them and we can take a look.

As to why it is using the daily tape, BE will grab a tape from another media if it cannot find a suitable tape to use in the targeted media set.  For a tape library, this is more desirable than failing the job.  If you partition your tape library and put your media sets in different partitions, BE will not grab tapes from partition other than the one that is targeted by the job.  In this situation, if BE runs out of tape in the targeted partition, it will prompt you to insert a scratch tape and fail the job if this is not done.  It is better to sort out your OPP and/or APP before partitioning your library.

[PatKam_AU]

Thanks for reply,

I am a contractor after everything was setup and running. From what I can check, the Monthly Media set is configured as:
Overwrite Protection Period: Infinite - Don't Allow Overwrite
Apend Period: Infinite - Allow Append

And you are right that it's better to use the Daily tape instead of failing the Monthly backup. Now I am wondering what is the proper process for reusing a tape for Monthly? Lets say one of the Weekly tape becomes extra and want to use this as Monthly? Is "Label Media" in Devices tab then "Associate with Media Set..." in Media tab all I need to do?

Below is what I changed the unused Feb tape to March, is there anything wrong?


Since the Monthly tapes are stored off site, should I make another Media Set "Monthly_Offsite" with OPP to Infinite and change the current Monthly's to a year or something? I am curious about the proper way of re-using a tape that previously have data on it to Monthly. Long Erase it before associating it to Monthly?

Thanks!

[pkh · Accepted solution]

When a BE job specifies append which seems to be your case, it will write to the end of the first appendable tape in the media set and then overwrite the 2nd and subsequent tape.  For the 2nd and subsequent tape, it needs overwriteable or scratch tapes.  That is why it uses the first tape from your Monthly media set and then uses tapes from other media sets.  All the tapes in your Monthly media set cannot be overwritten.

To reuse your monthly tapes, you can erase it (long or short does not matter).  When you erase a tape, it becames a scratch tape and is thus overwriteable.  The other why is to change the OPP.  For example, you want to keep 3 months of tape then specify an OPP of 3 months.  After 3 months, the tapes will automatically be overwriteable, there is no need to erase them before re-use.

There is no need to create the Monthly_Offsite media set.  Just export the Monthly tape and BE will mark them as off-site.  When you import them again, they will be placed in the Monthly media set and subjected to its OPP and APP.

[PatKam_AU]

Thanks very much pkh!

You have clarified the concept to me. But if I erase the "reuse" tape so it became scratch media, will the Daily backup use it when there are 2 more overwritable tapes in Daily set? The maximum a Daily backup in previous history only used 1.5 tapes.

The company will not allow to overwrite any Monthly backup tapes. So I think I should let the Monthly backup use the scratch media then label it after it completes.

[pkh]

When you erase the tape it becomes part of the scratch media set and it is free for any job to use.  If you want to use it only for your monthly job, then associate it with the Monthly media after you have erased it.  After it is part of the Monthly media set, your Daily job will only use it if it ran out of tapes in the Daily media set.

[PatKam_AU]

Really helped to make things clear!