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How to Inventory and Catalog many tapes

nghitd
Level 4

Hi Community,

I am facing issue with BE 2012 on Windows Server 2008 STD R2, using Tape Library Fujitsu.

I have 20 tapes, devide to 4 genration for 4 weeks per month, each generation has 5 tapes.

Each generation, tape 1, 2, 3 will use for Incredental backup, tape 4, 5 will use for Full backup. I also set Media set: INCREDENTAL, FULL

At first generation, i put all 5 tapes to 5 slot, then Inventory all. After finish, it showed blank tape, then i label for each tape (ex: GEN1 - 1, GEN1 - 2, GEN1 - 3...). Then i associated tape 1, 2, 3 to INCREDENTAL media set, tape 4, 5 to FULL media set.

After that i get these tapes out of Tape Library, i put another 5 tapes for generation two to continue Inventory and Label.

After Inventory, while i assume that in Media information of Tape Library, it will show 5 new blank tapes, besides with 5 tapes of first generation.

However in Media information, it only showed GEN1 - 1, GEN1 - 2, GEN1 - 3...

It means BE undestand that GEN1 - 1, GEN1 - 2... is the name of slot, not tape.

Do you have any idea to advise? What and when shoud i do (Inventory/Catalog/Label...) for this design?

Thanks much.

Nghi

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pkh
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No. As long as the tape is labeled whether manually or barcoded, then BE will be able to recognise the tape and put them in the proper media set. Note that if you put the tapes in a media set after they are labeled then the OPP of the media set applies and the tape would be protected. If you want to overwrite them then leave them in the Scratch Media Set. After the are used by your job they would be placed in the Media Set targeted by your job. I don't know what media id that you are referring to. Post a screenshot of what you mean

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pkh
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If these are new tapes, just label them with the correct labels. You can solve all your problems if you use barcode labels. Then you don't need to physically label the tapes. See my article below https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how

nghitd
Level 4

Hi pkh,

Thanks your answer.

I also used barcode labels before, but with this case, our these tapes did not have barcode.

So do you have any advice for our design?

 

pkh
Moderator
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No. Barcode labels are preferable for efficiency, but you can use physical labels. Just label the tapes manually

nghitd
Level 4

Hi pkh,

So it means if we do not use barcode for tapes, it could not regconize the tapes of each Media set/Generation and then could not do the properly work?

Because i saw when i go detail of each tape, it showed Media ID, is it the ID of each tape of just ID auto creat whenever do Inventory?

Thanks your answer

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
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Employee Accredited Certified

If you use a barcode enabled library and don't use barcodes on all the tapes it can cause problems

 

As such if your library has a barcode reader you should definitely put barcodes on every tape. If you don't use barcodes then none of the  tapes should really have a barcode on them and the reader will need disabling (in the library itself, Backup Exec has no control over this)

 

Also are you aware that Backup Exec can move tapes between media sets and just because you put the tape in a media set does not mean it will stay there. You are better off leaving the new tapes in scratch and letting Backup Exec move the tapes to the media sets as the jobs use them (especially as they will be immediately overwrite protected when you put them into a set manually so may not be available for use by a job at that point in time.)

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
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No. As long as the tape is labeled whether manually or barcoded, then BE will be able to recognise the tape and put them in the proper media set. Note that if you put the tapes in a media set after they are labeled then the OPP of the media set applies and the tape would be protected. If you want to overwrite them then leave them in the Scratch Media Set. After the are used by your job they would be placed in the Media Set targeted by your job. I don't know what media id that you are referring to. Post a screenshot of what you mean

nghitd
Level 4

Hi Colin,

Thanks very much for your detail information.

From pkh's and your advice, i decided to do manually barcode on all tapes, it should be better.

Nghi