Loading requested media

[Alex_K_]

Hello,
everytime I start a backup job (appending) and there is no media loaded in the tape drive (DLT V4/Quantum) BE asks me to insert a media. After i have inserted the media, BE again asks me for inserting a medium for overwriting and the media is unloaded. The inserted media is marked infinte appending but secured for overwriting and should work. To solve this I have to cancel the job, insert the same media and start the job again. This procedure works fine for manually started jobs but clearly works not very well on planned tasks:). Has anybody an idea what to do. Thanks.

[SRodriguez]

Alex:

When a tape is ejected and you see an alert "Please insert overwritable media" is because the media in the drive is overwrite protected.  One thing that you will need to also take in consideration is "you said that the jobs are set to appending", if a job is set to append, it will start the backup on the current media on the drive, no matter how much space is available on the tape.  If you backup job is for example of 35GB and your tapes are 40GB, the current tape has only 5GB of space available.  The backup job will write the first 5GB of the job in the current tape, then the tape will get ejected and you will see that an alert is requesting for overwritable media. 

If a job is a append job and it has to span multiple tapes due to the size, Backup Exec will only append to the first tape, then the next tape that is going to use needs to be overwritable, because is going to start from the beginning of the second tape.

Hopefully, this will clear it.  If no let me know.

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

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

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

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

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=18&message.id=15534&query.id=58427#M15534

Regards,

Sandra Rodriguez
Advanced Technical Support Engineer

[Alex_K_]

Thank you for your reply.

The problem is not spanning on more tapes. That works fine, no problem. The problem is, that there is a job started with a wrong mediaset cartridge inserted. This is normally no problem I think, because BE ejects the cartridge and asks for a new cartridge with the right mediaset.
Now I have to insert this cartridge and then in my case I can only insert a overwritable (or empty, or  from temporary mediaset..) tape NOT an half full tape from the right mediaset. BE will not append data in this case.
In the other case, if I have inserted  this half full cartridge (before the job is started) in the drive already (no matter how much space there is left), BE has no problem to perfom this backup job and append the data to the tape.

The question is, where is the difference between this two cases?  Is it normal, that there has to be the right cartridge inserted BEFORE the job starts. Does the requester for a new cartridge not work if I insert a tape for appending data? I dont understand why BE is not accepting a half full tape in the first case but has no problem with this tape when its already in the drive before I start the new job. Do I really have to stop the job that requests the tape, insert the (half full) tape and restart the job?

If this is a normal behaviour, ok then I have to deal with it. But if the tape has the right mediaset and is appendable why does BE refuses to write on it and asks for an overwritable tape?  Thanks.

Regards Alex

[Sergey_Sinegubk]

hi Sandra,

I have nearly same situation.

Backup size is more than one tape.

In proccess of backup only first tape is used, but when it became full - BackupExec askes for "owerwritable" tape"

There are other free appendable tapes in autochandger, but BackupExec don't use it because they are appendable (not owerwritable).

Owerwrite protection period is configured for this set of tapes (4 week period), but it should be active only when tape is full, am i right?

Why BackupExec can't use next free tape?

What can i do to solve this problem?

Best regards,
Sergey Sinegubkin
Senior BT Analyst
ISO BT Pfizer Russia
Pfizer International LLC
Phone:  +7(495)258-5535
Direct:   +7(495)258-5540 Ext 394

[Hywel_Mallett]

The overwrite protection starts from the last moment data is written to the tape, not from when the tape fills.

Have a look at how media sets work

[Sergey_Sinegubk]

It's OK that overwrite protection starts from the last moment data is written to the tape

But why BackupExec doesn't use free (appendible) tapes from the same Set to continue job?

I have 3 sets (daily, weekly and monthly) and all tapes are sorted to these sets.

Should i move all free media to the Scratch set instead of this?

[SRodriguez]

Hi,

Backup Exec(BE) will never append to a second tape in a job.  This is by design. 

If the backup job is set to append to media, BE append to the first tape.  If this same append job needs a second tape, it will look for overwritable media.

Regards,

Sandra Rodriguez
Advanced Technical Support Engineer

[Alex_K_]

Hi sandra,

if have no problem that BE will not append to the second tape.In my case BE refuses to append to the first tape, but only when this first tape isnt already in the drive before the job starts.

Again:
Case1:
The tape to append data is already in the drive before job starts, right mediaset, everything ok. This works fine.BE appends data to this tape.

Case2:
The tape is not in the drive,,job starts, BE asks for a overwritable media, the tape to append data is loaded but in this case BE refuses to append data to this tape. This is the first tape!

Could it be, that BE NEVER accepts appending data to a tape when the requester "Please insert a overwritable...bla bla bla" comes up?
I understand that the second tape will not be filled up by appending data. This is ok.  But in the other case it´s not very comfotable.
I just want to know, if I am doing something wrong, but I dont think so...

Regards Alex

[txtech1997]

I have been having this same problem for about 4-5 weeks now.  Nothing has changed with regards to media, media server, our MSL 6000 library, nothing.  Then all of a sudden, when I come in in the mornings, I'll see that a job is QUEUED because it reports, 'Insert Overwritable Media', even though the job is an append and there are many tapes in the media set to append to.  Again, nothing has changed with our infrastructure or backup solution and this issue just started about 4-5 weeks ago.

I have about 10 different media sets including daily and weekly ones, but half of those are used for jobs that will always span to more tapes.  My current solution is to change the overwrite protection period to a sooner time and then the job will continue within a few minutes.  The problem with that is that it will overwrite a tape that was just used yesterday as easy as picking one that is completely empty.

What I normally do is when the tapes are returned each week from Iron Mountain, I erase them and put them in the appropriate media sets.  So should I still erase them and just leave them in the Scratch Media folder and then when the backup job starts, it will automatically look in the Scratch Media folder first, grab it, and then place it in the designated media set and run the job?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Charles Holley

charles.holley@staubach.com

[Ken_Putnam]

What is happening is that BackupExec looks for an Appendable tape.  It can't find one, so it looks for an Overwriteable tape,  It can't find one of those either, so it asks for an Overwritable tape.  

Once it starts looking for Overwrite, it will never accept an Appendable tape again

Just the way the software is written.  It's been this way since v6.1 that I know of

[txtech1997]

So once a tape has been pulled out of Scratch Media and overwritten but has plenty of space left, it won't be appeneded to again?  Is that right?

[txtech1997]

Ken... The backup jobs that I know will require a second tape, always have plenty of appendable tapes in the media set.

If a job goes to get a tape in Scratch Media, is that for all jobs or does it only go to Scratch Media once the job has started and it spans to a second tape?

Guess what?  This happens with me on backup jobs that never span another tape.  The backup job could be halfway finished or at any point of the backup and then it says 'insert overwritable media'.

[Ken_Putnam]

No

when the job closes the second tape, then that tape can be used as the first tape in another APPEND job (job B, Job C etc  or even the next execution of job A), but once Job A asks for an overwritable tape, it will never accept an Appendable tape again during that run.

Sorry for the confusion

[Ken_Putnam]

If a job goes to get a tape in Scratch Media, is that for all jobs or does it only go to Scratch Media once the job has started and it spans to a second tape? 

Just during that run.  The next run if the job will look first for an Appendable tape, then look for an Overwritable tape, then ask for an Overwritable tape

This happens with me on backup jobs that never span another tape.  The backup job could be halfway finished or at any point of the backup and then it says 'insert overwritable media'. 

That makes no sense at all. As long as it is one job, and as long as there is room on the tape, it shouldn't ask for an Overwriteble.