New problem

[JaredO]

We got the tape drive online, but now when a backup job starts it is randomly grabbing a tape and changing the media set that the tape is associated with in order to back up on it.  Previously BE12 would follow the media sets that we had assigned to a tape, now it is just grabbing any available tape and backing up to it.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

This is by design in order not to fail a job when there is an overwriteable tape in the library.  BE will look for overwriteable tape in the media set targeted by the job then the scratch media set and lastly in any other media set.

You can restrict the search if you use partitions.  BE will not take a tape from outside the partition targeted by the job.  However, you may end up with a situation where your job fails while there are overwriteable tape in other partitions in the library.

If BE is grabbing tapes from other media sets, it means that the targeted media set does not have sufficient media or the OPP is not set correctly.  You should look into these first before considering partitioning your library.

[CraigV]

...you need to check your append/overwrite settings.

However, if a tape becomes scratch, it becomes scratch media globally...this means any job that runs will grab that tape and use it for storage. It doesn't matter what media set it previously belonged too!

[Ken_Putnam]

As Craig says, verify your OPP settings

Also, from Tools\Options\Media Management, verify that the option to "use overwriteable media in the target media set before scratch media" is selected