Inventory required when changing tapes ?

[Gooshie]

OK, so this may be the most stupid question ever asked on this forum, but I've checked all Symantec resources and can't find an answer...

We've just started using Backup Exec (previously had Tapeware), and I've noticed that when swapping tapes the Media list still shows the original tape as online and the tape I just inserted as Offline.
Fearing that this may cause a problem with the backup (which I really can't afford right now), I've been running an inventory when changing tapes to mount the media.

I guess that an inventory is done as part of the backup process, but I don't want to take that risk.
If however this is necessary, I presume scheduling an inventory prior to the backup would suffice ?


Thanks for your advice.

[Barbara_Hall]

Hi

The official Symantec answer to this will be interesting ...

I've had backup exec with an HP tape library for 18 months and I've been doing an inventory whenever I've added tapes

Kind regards

Barbara

[Hywel_Mallett]

No need to do an inventory before a backup job - it just works without it.

[Ken_Putnam]

AFAIK, an inventory is the only way to tell BackupExec that a new tape has been mounted.  If BackupExec doesn't know about the change, it assumes that the old one is still loaded, and will treat the new tape according to the OPP and APP of  the previous tape

[Dean_Bliss]

"If you change the media in the robotic library or device, run Inventory so that the

current media in the device is displayed in the views; otherwise, the previous media is

still displayed as being in the device."

You can schedule an inventory to start before the job runs.
If you have a robotic library with a bar code reader you can save time by running a Scan of the barcodes instead of performing a full Inventory.

[Gooshie]

Thanks everybody for your input.
I'll schedule an inventory just prior to the backup with a higher priority.

Dean - may I suggest in the next release of your software you guys include a checkbox in the backup properties to automatically perform an inventory ? (right alongside the 'retension tape' option)

[Dean_Bliss]

That is an execellent idea and you can post suggestions for next releases here:

http://enhancement.symantec.com/

[Will_Salen]

We have the same issue with version 12.  Symantec Support told me that we always had to do a manual scan, but I am 110% positive that it used to scan automatically on insert. One of our secretaries used to be able to insert the new tape, but now a technician needs to do it as we have to tell Backup Exec to scan the partition where the tape was inserted.

[Ken_Putnam]

until this gets straightened out (if it ever does) you can schedule an inventory or perhaps a scan, don't know how v12 handles this) to determine which volumes are mounted before the nightly job(s) start

use BEMCMD in a CMD file and run it with Windows Task Scheduler