Erase tapes in backup exec 2014

[Microcare]

Hi Guys,

Im a newbie to Backup exec 2015 and i have a Tanberg robotic tape library atatched to my backup server and a san in the TB's

I have a few tapes that are set to overwrite protect infinate and i know they are now safe to use and overwrite

How \ can do i erase them and re use them?

Also i want to set up a new media set using a number of tapes  for a complete Tape backup of the SAN which will span across many tapes.

I want to keep the data indefinately. What is the best overwrite \ apend setting for such a media set please?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Many Thanks

William

[VJware]

Instead of erase, you could also move the tapes to the Scratch Media Set. This will make the tape overwritable for the job.

Else, if you prefer to erase, right-click the slot where the tape is present and choose erase.

To keep the data indefinitely, you have couple of options ~

1) Set the Overwrite Protection Period as Infinite and choose this media set in the backup job.

2) Once all tapes are written to, slide the read protect slider on the tape itself. This will physically protect the tape from being overwritten.

[Microcare]

Many Thanks VJware, Much appreciated.

I think when i tried to right click on the tape in question, the erase opption was greyed out?

What append period would you suggest for this type of large backup when i want to keep data indefinately?

Thanks again

William

[VJware · Accepted solution]

Append depends upon how many jobs (writes) do you want to add to the existing tape. For egs, if you have a 800GB capacity tape and if you can fit in 3 backups, you would set the backups to append. This will not impact the requirement of keeping the data indefinitely as this depends upon the overwrite protection.

[Microcare]

Great thanks for the info! much appreciated.

I have a large complete backup to do of about 68TB and when i start it off it all goes fine picks up the first scratch tape in my 40 Tape Lib and starts writing it adds it to the appropriate media set etc.

But it dosen't seem to move on to the next tape when it fills the first one? there are many scratch tapes still available to add to the media set.

Can you explain why it might stall at this point? Could it be if there is not enough spare tapes left it wont start the backup?

Any insight to this problem would be great

William

[VJware]

Ideally, the backup job should span across to the other tapes. Do you receive any alert in BE when it doesn't do so ?