Cataloging of tape produces unexplainable results

[JustTryinToGetI]

I have many LTO tapes that are a few years old. I am trying to determine the contents so I can make a decision as to if we should archive/reuse/scrap them. The first tape shall be referred to as tape # 1.

I have the default option for 'catalogs' DE-selected regarding  the "Request all media in the sequence for catalog operations."

Question

Tape 1 is inventoried successfully. I then run a catalog job and after a short while I am prompted to insert media tape # 2.  Why is that?

Question 2 that is now perplexing based on first question

A perform a mock 'restore job' to see what is available. Interestingly, when I go to the 'View by Media' tab, I see the contents from tape # 2 which will allow me to select it to 'restore'. However, tape # 1 does not even show up in the 'View by Media' tab. How could that be?

[CraigV]

Hi,

Q1 - because you've probably spanned 2 or more tapes, and selecting that option means you need Tape 2 to continue. If you don't have Tape 2 (or more!), then deselect this option and it will only catalog that particular tape.

Q2 - It might be that it has rolled up the information on both tapes into 1 view. If you try restoring data and it is on Tape 1, then it will prompt you to insert it into the drive before it continues.

Thanks!

[JustTryinToGetI]

It was my understanding from prior 'cataloging' issues that Selecting "Request all media in the sequence
for catalog operations" would in fact "require" you to have all the tapes in the series.
And thus one could then select "Use storage media-based catalogs" which would speed up the catalog process ten-fold.

The down-side is that I have dozens of tapes of which I do not know which ones 'go together'.
So i cannot catalog tapes with the hope of having all the other tapes readily available in a "spanned tape" situation".
There will be cases that the other tape does not exist.

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

...sorry for only noticing this now. Unless you can refer to job logs that state which tapes go together, the only way to figure this out is to actually catalog every single one.

Thanks!