Choose next available tape

[khoagk]

when using the robotic tape libary, how do I set it up to run mutilple  full backup jobs (staging with different time), and chose the next available tape for different days? once again, thank you for all your help and quick responds.

[pkh]

If you want each job to start with a new tape, then specify overwrite for each job.  If you want all the jobs in one day to use one set of tapes, then specify overwrite for the first job and then append for the rest of the jobs.  See this document to set up your OPP and AP

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH5459

[khoagk]

thank you for your quick reply.I have 4 full back up jobs, I want 2 jobs to go to a certain tape, and the other 2 to a different tape and these 2 sets would chose the next available tape on weekly basis. would partitioning the robotic tape library a better option than using media sets for this situation?

[pkh]

Media sets will do fine

[khoagk]

how would i set up these media sets for BE to recognized which is which?

[jurgen_barbieur]

create a different media set for each type of full backup.

assign each type of full job to its own media set

[pkh]

Just target your jobs to different media sets.  These media sets should have the appropriate OPP and AP so that they are overwritable when you next need to overwrite the tapes.  See the document below for a better understanding of OPP and AP.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH5459

For the initial run of your jobs, leave the tapes in the scratch media set.  After the jobs have used the tapes, they would be placed in the targeted media set.

To have two jobs write to the same tape, the first job should specify overwrite and the second job specify append.  Assuming that the jobs run within a day, set the AP to 1 day. 

[khoagk]

ok . for 4 full back ups,I should have 2 media sets. First job would be OPP and second job in APP for set 1. The 3rd job would be OPP and 4th job APPf for set 2. My question is how would BE knows to pick a new tape tape for the 3 rd job?  Let just say these 4 jobs are running on daily basis. please advise.

[pkh]

The tape used for the first two jobs would be write protected when the third job starts so BE will need a new tape to overwrite

[khoagk]

these 4 back ups are all different tape of back ups. i tried to use media set and BE wrote to 2 different tapes on the same job.

[pkh]

This means that the data from that job need 2 tapes to back up

[khoagk]

i have plenty of space on the first tape for the job. i talke talk to Symantec support and they insist for me to do partitioning for what i want to do.

[pkh]

How can you have plenty of space on your first tape if your one job writes to 2 tape? How do you come to that conclusion?

[khoagk]

the tape is 1.4tb and the job is only 100gb . the job writes to tape 1 and 3 for the same job

[pkh]

Did the job specify append or overwrite? If it is the former, this situation is possible because append means that the data is written to the tail end of the tape. Let's say the tape has only 50Gb of space left, then it will need a second tape to write all the data. If you want to fully utilize the entire space on the tape then you need to specify overwrite in your job.

[khoagk]

the first job was set to over write and second job was to append.

[pkh]

Which job needs 2 tapes?

[khoagk]

the first job. it wrote to tape # 1 and partial of tape 3.

[pkh]

Save the job log of Job 1 as HTML and post it as an attachment

[khoagk]

I accidentally deleted all the job logs...ok. I  started the same job today and BE could did pick up any tapes. all the tapes are in scratch media. am i suppose to assign all the tapes to a cerain media set first?