Jobs fail to start with event "Please insert overwritable media"

[Tom_Francis]

We have one Windows 2003 server. Running BackupExec 10.0 Quick Start edition that came with our Quantum 4mm drive (Seagate DAT 9SP40-0000).

The jobs ran for a while... but now all are failing. Only indication is in the event log that advises

"Backup Exec Alert: Media Insert ...
Please insert overwritable media into the drive"

Our backup sets are only 3-6 G. Tape properties show capacity of 19 G with 3-6 G used.
Tapes are all new - and write protection tab is set properly (closed).
Under Tools | Options | Media Management "Overwrite protection level is set to NONE and the prompt before overwriting is unchecked.
Media overwrite Options has Overwrite recyclable media selected.

If I go to the Media button from the main window... we have one media set. It shows Overwrite protection as NONE (grayed out) and Append Period as NONE (grayed out) followed by "Infinite - Allow Append"

From checking the various help options it seems that the jobs should be starting with no alerts or user intervention required... but none of the jobs have been successful for the past several days. So it is not one job, but apparently all of them.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are running without current backups now.

[Ken_Putnam]

if you cannot change the OPP and APP of the default media set, try creating a new one with OPP set so that the tapes will expire before the are due to be reused (six days for tapes reused the same day each week, 13 days for tapes used every other weel, etc), set the Global Overwrite to "partial" and change the job(s) to use the new media set

[Tom_Francis]

I can change the settings of the default media set. I mentioned "grayed out" just for completeness, as that is what happens when you set the default overwrite protection to "NONE".

I just changed the default media overwrite to Partial - with no prompt.

I then set teh OPP on the media set itself to 2 hours and append period to infinite.

What is the thinking behind PARTIAL rather than NONE?

[Ken_Putnam]

Overwrite of "None" means just that. Backup Exec will overwrite any media that is mounted. You may as well be using a spreadsheet to track your tapes

"Partial", will overwrite any "foreign" tapes (written outside of backup exec) but will follow the OPP of any defined media setsMessage was edited by:
Ken Putnam

[Tom_Francis]

Turns out that in additional to the message "Please insert overwritable media"... there was another message that was not showing up in the windows event log, but only in backupexec.

That message indicated "the media in drive xxxx is written in an unrecognized format. Erase the medium to make it usable."

This is a new server, so we only had about 10 tapes (also new) that had backup jobs on them. History showed all these jobs as successful. But we checked each of the tapes and they all produced the message above.

We ended up relabling all of them (thus losing all backups to this point-which in one sense did not matter because successful or not, BackUpExec wanted nothing to do with them) then moving them to the active media set. They then worked fine.

So in one sense I am glad the problem seems to be resolved. However, I am more than a little bit concerned as to what would cause all the tapes that we have used to date to become unusable. A backup is only good if you can use it, and a mass invalidation like this is scary.

If I did something really dumb I would really prefer to know that.

Any ideas on what may have caused this would be appreciated.

[shweta_rege]

Hello,



If the Opp was set to Infinite dont allow overwrite then there is no other overwritable tape available.



Kindly refer the following Documents for the same;

The basics of Advanced Device and Media Management for Backup Exec for Windows Servers

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265


An explanation of the "Overwrite Protection Period" and the "Append Period"


http://support.veritas.com/docs/237374



Thank you,

Shweta

[Ken_Putnam]

None of which explain why tapes that had ONLY been written with BackupExec were seen as

"the media in drive xxxx is written in an unrecognized format. Erase the medium to make it usable."

[Terry_W]

I am hoping it is ok to jump in a thread, for I am having the same or similar issue. I have my job properties set to 'Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available'.

What happens is that the media will work, append, until the job it is witting at the moment runs out of tape space then it spits out the tape and wants me to put in an overwritable tape. I would like it to recognize it is out of tape and overwrite at the beginning of the job or restart the job it's self and overwrite the tape. Can this be done?? If so... what are the proper settings. I have had 5 service calls with symantec since I got the Back up Exec and they all assured me that their conversation with me and their settings would have it working. But the problem persists.

Help Please??

Thanks,
Terry

PS: Who said anything about 'Infinite'??

[Tom_Francis]

We setup the system with no overwrite or append protection. We are relying on an assigned person to remove the ejected tape and insert the one for that evening. Without debating the pros and cons of this philosophy... this is the way we want it to work.

My fears about this failure and the behavior of this drive have just been confirmed as after I renamed each tape in the media set, the jobs ran successfully for two days.

It then failed the next night and asked for the cleaning cartridge - which we ran. We inserted the next tape and that evening the drive ate it. Please note that this is about the eighth time we have had the clean light come on in about four weeks of use... and it is doing so only after running about 3-5 jobs which are about 2-3 hrs in duration. I am used to drives running daily jobs for months without asking for a cleaning (we usually ran the cleaning tape once a month anyway).

So now I am going to try to get Quantum or Backup Exec to provide a warranty replacement. Something is definitely wrong here. These are both (usually) very reliable products.

If anyone has any ideas on the frequent cleaning requests please post. Thank you.

For reference, these are new tapes, and althought the enviroment is not the best, the server sits next to an AS400 that has been doing tape backups without problems for several years.

[Ken_Putnam]

Do you have any mfg diagnostics you can run against the drive?

certainly sounds like a hardware problem.