Not Appendable (Media Full)

[chuckfleeger]

Howdy!

Have a question reference to Appendable/Overwrite within Symantec Backup Exec 10d.  I ran a full back up job last Friday and was utilizing a tape that I had been appending data to on previous back-ups.  The back up job was about 130 GB and there was  around 110 GB left on this tape.  The media set was Overwriteable and had a setting of "Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available".  When the back up job got to the 110 GB mark, it ejected the tape and gave me a notice to "Please insert overwritable media into the drive". 

My concern is that I have 3 other tapes in this rotation of full back ups and they are also getting to the end of available appendable space and will need to go into overwriting data on the tape.  Is there something else that I should check, how should I proceed?  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Ken_Putnam]

You don't describe your backup scheme, but ...

Generally, when you have append jobs, these are Diffs or Incr jobs, associated with FULLs

The Fulls are generally Overwrite, and the first Diff/Incr is also overwrite, with subsequent jobs APPEND, and you onlt keep them for a limited time, while keeping the FULLs (weeklies) for longer periods

If you are just appending all your jobs to a limited number of tapes, sooner or later, the tapes fill up, and when/if you overwrite them, you lose ALL data currently on them.  if this is unacceptable, your only choice would be to get some new tapes and start from the beginning again

[chuckfleeger]

Ken-

Our back up scheme is as follows:

1.  Mon-Thur complete a differential back-up of data changed since the last full back up.
2.  Fri complete a "Full" back up of all data related to Document Management System on re-usable media.
3.  Every 4th Friday of a month, complete a "Full" back up of all data realted to Document Management System on archivable media. 

The Mon-Thur tapes are doing fine with still plenty of room for data.  The re-usable media for the "Full" back ups are to the point of filling up now.  The media set is set up with a 3 week "over-write" protection and "infinite-allow append".  The template for the re-usable job has "Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available".  Should I change the template to "overwrite media" on the re-usable media set? 

Thanks for your feedback!

Have a great day!

Chuck

[Ken_Putnam]

I'm assuming (I know, I know) that you have a standalone drive, not a loader/library?

If so, about all you can do is stick a blank tape in when you come in and see the "Insert Overwritable ... " prompt, and let it continue on that volume, appending the following weeklies to the new volume. 

or if you can get about 3 1/2  jobs on a tape (for example) just insert the blank tape every fourth run of  the job.

[chuckfleeger]

Ken-

Thanks for the feedback.  Want to get one more opinion from you.  You are correct in that I have one standalone drive for back-ups.  If I am wanting to go ahead and re-use the FULL tapes that are almost now full, what is the best way to start doing so?  Is it to change the Template to Overwrite for the FULL Reusable Media Set, or should I simply place the FULL tape in the drive and do a Quick Erase?  Or is it even something that I have not even suggested?  I am again very thankful for the assistance.

Have a great day!

Chuck

[Ken_Putnam]

You could define your job as "Append,  Else Overwrite", but change the Append period so that when you want/need to reuse the tape the APP has expired.  As long as the OPP has also expired, Backup Exec will then overwrite the tape

APP is figured from the time the FIRST backup set on the tape is opened, and never changes, until the tape is overwritten

OPP is figured from the time the LAST backup set is closed, and is reset everytime the tape is closed

Or you could manually drab the volume to the scratch media set, and run an overwrite job