Duplicate job not using all available tapes in tape library partition

[adamf83]

This week we are running our first end of month B2D job using BE2012.  I've set it up that once the B2D job is complete, it automatically duplicates it off to tape.  This worked fine for the first couple of B2D jobs as they were small, once it got to duplicating a job that was larger than a single LTO4 tape that when the problem occured.

It has filled one tape and then the job has dropped into a queued state.  When I looked into why it was queued, it is asking for another tape, but there are 3 other tapes in the partition (2 empty and 1 with 600GB free).

Why wouldn't another tape be used in this situation?

I ended up cancelling the duplicate job as it is holding everything up.

Cheers

Adam.

[pkh]

When BE appends to a tape and needs another tape, it needs an overwriteable one. It may be that all the other tapes in the partition are not overwriteable.  Check the tape statistics to see whether they are overwriteable.  See my article below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/tape-statistics-explained

Although it is for BE 2010, it should be valid for BE 2012

[adamf83 · Accepted solution]

Thanks.  I can see what has happened. I have set the duplicate job up incorrectly and set it to overwrite rather than append.