We just purchased a couple of new Dell PV124T autoloader tape drives, for use with our Windows Server 2003 Poweredge servers running Backup Exec 10.0. We've been using BU fine with our internal drive, but now wish to use the autoloader to speed up full backups, since they run over onto multiple tapes.
I have the drive configured, and properly recognized in Backup Exec as a robotic library. I labeled all of my backup tapes with the barcode labels that the PV124T uses, and they are being read ok. I've also inventoried the tapes and created media pools, 1 pool for each day of the week, assigning the appropriate tapes to each media pool (i.e. 4 tapes total for Monday, 4 for Tues, etc., as we're going to run a 2-week rotation of tapes, where each full backup takes 2 tapes). Finally, I created backup jobs for each day, specifying to use that day's media pool (Monday job uses 'Monday' media pool).
The problem I'm having is that when the job runs for a given day, it seems to use any old tape it wants (a Friday media pool job might use a tape from the Tuesday media pool, and then it automatically moves that tape to the Friday pool). Can someone please help me and explain how to get this media pool select working properly. My goal is - each day, the backup operator (not me, personally) will load the day's tapes into the autoloader. Under ideal conditions, each day s/he will then remove the previous day's tapes and load the tapes for that night. If, however, the backup operator forgets or is gone for a day, I don't want those tapes being used for that night's backup (i.e. if s/he is gone Wednesday and isn't there to swap out Tuesday's tapes for Wednesday's, I don't want the job to run and use the Tuesday's tapes that are still in the autoloader). How might I accomplish this? I feel like a total noob with this thing behaving the way it does :)
Also, in Backup Exec, under the devices tab, there is the 'Robotic Libraries' heading. The next level in (indented) lists the PV124T autoloader. Then, underneath that, it lists both the PV124T and the 'Slots'. When I create a backup job, it gives me the option to use either the PV124T autoloader (parent item in the devices tab - I renamed it to 'PV124T External'), or to use the PV124% (child item to the PV124T autoloader in the devices tab - I renamed it to 'PV124T drive'). Which device should I be selecting when I define my backup job - the parent or the child device?
Thank you very much in advance for your help!
-Al Yarrington
Universal Map
