How do I adentify a media set?

[rderham]

Hi, please could someone tell me how to identify the label of media in the tape drive. The media has been labeled (I presume by Veritas default) e.g. 4MM000001, 4MM000002 etc  (I can tell this by looking at the 'media' tab) But how do I tell which tape is which? Thank You.

Veritas Backup Exec for Windows Server V9.1 running under Windows SBS 2003

[RahulG · Accepted solution]

When you run a Inventory on the tape it recognize the tape you have in the Drive .
The Media labelling option is set under tools --options and --media mangment
The information of the data stored on the tape is saved in the catalogs folder in the program files/Symantec /backup exec directory .
And if you are tryign to perform a restore form another backup exec server you need to run catalog on the tape so it generates the catalog on the other media server and creates the restore ...

[RahulG]

Also you have option to label the tape and rename the tape as per your need ...

[sksujeet]

Media used in Backup Exec is identified by its media label. When new, blank, or unlabeled media is used during a backup operation, Backup Exec automatically labels the media. This label consists of a prefix that identifies the cartridge type, and an incrementing number.

If you put the tape in the library the backup exec will tell you on which slot that media is. You can check the media in the BE itself and eject the media from that particular slot. If you want to use or export that tape you can do it.

By just seeing the tape it will not be possible to find the label of the tape unless you manually label the tape

[pkh]

The media has been labeled (I presume by Veritas default) e.g. 4MM000001

What you are seeing is the internal label of the tape, i.e. the label that is physically wrtitten on the tape.  I guess you did not label the tape before you used it for the first time.  What you should do is to label it so that the internal label matches that on your external label.  For example, if your external label is TAPE01, you can label the tape so that is is TAPE01, instead of 4MM00001.  This way you can easily identify your tape.

To label your tape, do the following: After you put the tape into the tape drive,go to the Media tab, right-click on the tape drive and select label.  You would be prompted to enter the tape label.  Just beware that when you label the tape, its contents are erased.

In future, you should label your tape using the above procedure before using it.

[JoaoMatos]

Hi.
You also can buy labels, to label the tapes.

Regards,

JoaoMatos

[rderham]

Thank you RahulG you pointed me in the right direction. The key was to inventory the tape.

For the benefit of others, who like me may not be familiar with how to run an inventory on the tape here  is a step by step guide. (I just have a single drive)

1) Select 'Devices' from tool bar
2) Select drive containing tape
3) Right click on the selected drive and from the menu select 'inventory' and then 'Run' which will then run as a job
4) When the job has completed select the 'Job Monitor' tab and double click on the completed job in the 'job history' box to view the results.
5) Expand the 'Utility Job Information' line and you will see the media label of the tape in the drive.

Happy Days!