Media NOT overwriting when full

[IsaacICSM]

Hello,

We are running BE 2010 and a tandberg media controller with LTO4 tapes and have our jobs setup for "Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available".

I am wondering where I can start looking to work out why the jobs are not doing the "overwrite if no appendable media is available" part.

The job will sit there not doing anything as there is no appendable media, it isn't overwriting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[pkh]

It could be that your media is also not overwriteable.  Check your alerts.  If there is an alert asking you to insert overwriteable media, then your media is not overwriteable.  You got to then adjust your OPP.

[ArulPrasad]

Hi,

1. Check the Media set in the Job

2. Check the Media set for overwritable media

3. Check if You have any other Media as overwritable in a different Media set

4. From -> tools ->  option -> media management

check for the protection level :

FULL

Partial

None

5. Make sure atleast partial or full is selected

Let me know how it goes

Regards,

Arul

[RahulG]

Check the option in the tool--Option --Media mangement

the option to overwrite recyclable media should be selected

[IsaacICSM]

Thanks guys, I will let you know how this goes either after tonight or next week as this is when the next job that should overwrite will run.

APR: I did the checks which you have asked and they are all fine - no other overwritable media at the time of the job; the protection level setting is at partial.

RahulG: I have changed this setting so will see how it goes.

pkh: The media is definitely overwitable.

Thank you,

[IsaacICSM]

No luck, last night's job is 'queued' waiting for writeable media to become available. I will cancel that job now as today's media's 'Overwrite Protection Until' time will fall due soon - and then it will start writing onto it.

Thanks for the help so far, but unfortunately no bikkie yet.

[ekeeling]

Have you tried going to media-> online media-> select a number of "overwirtable" objects and right click, then associate with media set "scratch media".  Does the backup process after doing this?

If the backup does process then make certain that in the console Tools-> opitons-> media management-> media overwrite options, that you have slected "Overwirte recyclable".

Also confirm the media set that the online media is associated with vs the job running/queued, I have seen the system not overwirte an associated set with another backup set type.

[IsaacICSM]

Hello ekeeling, the next full tape ran last night which I had put into the scratch media - the backup ran fine.

I do have the Overwrite Recyclable option selected.

I check the backups each day, the only jobs are the daily x4 (8 tapes in total)/weekly x1 (5 tapes in total)/monthly x1 (there will be 12 tapes in total)- we do not have any other jobs set up and the tapes are set so that overwrite protection is removed about 8 hours before the job starts, on each day (I make sure of this as a week 5 tape sometimes does not get used for a couple of months - therefore I have to adjust the overwite protection on them).

I change the tapes each monday ready for that week's backups (and lately, abortions)

As far as I can see, there is only one set type,

[pkh]

You got to go to the Media tab, click on each tape that you want to use and make sure that it is overwriteable when your job starts.  The OPP of your tapes are part of the properties of the media set that they belong to.

Your screenshot does not show anything that will solve your problem.

[RahulG]

Do you have paritions created in your library ?

If Yes you need to make sure the backup job is targeted to correct partition . As per the screenshot you have posted the backup job started and wrote some data to the tape and after that it might be the tape is full and it would have prompted for overwritable media .

When the backup job starts with appending to the tape it would write till it fills the tape completely and incase if the tape does not have enough space to complete it will prompt for overwritable media . It cannot continue on another appendable tape .

[IsaacICSM]

RahulG: There are no partitions on the media.

As per the screenshot you have posted the backup job started and wrote some data to the tape and after that it might be the tape is full and it would have prompted for overwritable media .

This is now making some sense - however I need the job to overwrite the one tape, and only that one IF it is no longer appendable, ie (in very simple terms), it writes some data at the end of the appendable tape and fills it, it then needs to continue writing the rest of the data to the start of that tape, rather than searching for another tape to write to.

Does that make sense? And probably the bigger question: is that possible?

Thanks all for your assistance so far!

[pkh · Accepted solution]

 it then needs to continue writing the rest of the data to the start of that tape, rather than searching for another tape to write to.

This is not possible.  BE will always need a new overwriteable tape if the first tape is full.

[IsaacICSM]

pkh: Thanks for that, at least it is now all making sense to me.

So I suppose now that I have to look at other options: I suppose that most people just use the Overwrite option - which is what I will start doing.

Thank you all for your help - at least now I know what is going on and where to go now (the pub)!

[Ken_Putnam]

You don't have to run all Overwrite jobs, that can lead to lots of wasted tape space

If you have the Appendable tape available, and also have an overwriteable tape available, BackupExec will automatically span to a new tape volume when the first (appendable) volume fills up

[IsaacICSM]

That would still mean having multiple tapes per backup. I suppose what we are after is one tape per backup job performed, and the only way I can see that happening is to have the (for example, Monday) tape almost fill up, then on the next monday job, get halfway through the backup and fail as there is no extra space on the tape. It would then on the next monday job, overwrite the monday tape as there is no other appendable media. It would just mean that one backup at some stage would not complete.

Edit: added pic to better explain.

[pkh]

If you want everything on one tape, it would be easier if you use overwrite.  Unless you have a lot of left-over space on the tape, inevitably you would need a second tape.