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Drive Pools Not Working

573006451
Level 3
We have five sites that are all running Veritas BackupExec. At each site we have two tape drives that are in a user-created drive pool. When drive1's tape fills up it does not spill over to drive2's tape.

All sites have only one user-created drive pool and one media set. All media sets are set for no overwrite protection. All backup jobs are set to use the user-created drive pool and media set.

Here is our configure per site: Sitename, BackupExec version, drive types.

Site1, be 8.6r3878, DLT 64k & 8mm 8k.
Site2, be 8.5r3572, DLT 32k & DLT 32k.
Site3, be 8.6r3877, DLT 64k & DLT 32k.
Site4, be 8.5r3572, DLT 32k & DLT 32k.
Site5, be 8.6r3878, DLT 32k & DLT 32k.

As you can see we are running a few different version of BE as well as different drive types. All servers are Windows 2000 with either SP3 or SP4.

Please help,

Thanks.
7 REPLIES 7

ramblreb
Level 4
Are you using cascaded drive pools? I believe that cascaded drive pools are the only way to have the job continue to another drive when the first drive gets full. In order to cascade drives, the drives must be the same drive type. That is, cascaded drives must be from the same vendor and have the same product ID; the firmware on the drives does not need to match. To determine the drive type, look in the drive's property page

573006451
Level 3
Hmmm, okay I know that most all of the sites have mismatched drives.

Do you have any good links or articles that explain the cascaded drive pools in detail?

Your help is much appreciated.

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
The Admin Guide would be a good place to start. You can also take a look at http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/240249.htm

Cascaded drive Pools MUST be the same type, but no longer the same drive id and firmware level or mnaufacturer - see http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/247970.htm

ramblreb
Level 4
I figured he was not using cascaded drive pools when he stated the drive makeup at his sites with configuration at Site1, DLT 64k & 8mm 8k as these two drive could not be in the same cascaded drive pool. I stand corrected on the drive id issue, thanks Ken

573006451
Level 3
Hmm, okay. Although I thank both of you for answering my question, I'm really stunned that Veritas would make drive pools so limited. It just can't comprehend any reason to make it like this.

Oh well. Thanks again.

573006451
Level 3
Turns out you have to purchase a Library Expansion Option MRSP'd at $1100 to utilize drive pools.

This is what Veritas techs and sales told me.

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
For standalone drives, yoo should NOT need an LEO

That is required when you have more than one drive in a library or more than one llibrary attached to one media server


Again for a Cascaded Drive Pool, the drives need to be the same type and capacity, but not necessarily the same Mfg and/or Firmware.