Not overwriting overwritable media

[DubyaG]

I've seen this topic before and have not been able to solve my problem.

Background:

Running B/E 2010 R3 SP4 on W2K8 R2 Standard

One Tandberg Library, Backup to Disk and a Deduplication Storage Folder.

Weekly Backups are configured to run to the Dedup folder.  OPP is six days.

Tools | Options | Media Management set at Partial/Prompt for imported overwrite

Overwrite recyclable meda before scratch.

Media set for "Dedupe Weekly" job has 68 "Media Labels" of which ALL are "Overwritable"

Media set Scratch has 23 "Media Labels" also all Ovewritable.

All are 50 GB each.

I get "Open Storage device is out of Free Space" alerts.

If Overwritable, why no overwrite.  I suppose I could "erase" all the media that is older than six days. 

Screenshot:

What else is necessary to trouble shoot this issue?

[pkh]

When you use dedup, it is not a simple "overwriting the media".  The underlying process is a lot more complicated than that.  Do read my articles below for a good understanding of the dedup process.

https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/deduplication-simplified-part-1-backup

https://www.veritas.com/community/articles/deduplication-simplified-part-2-restore

You can try to force a space reclaim of the dedup folder using the procedure below

http://www.veritas.com/docs/000006828

How much free space is there on the volume on which the dedup resides?  Is the volume shared with other applications?  It is recommended that the dedup folder has exclusive use of the entire volume on which it resides.

If the disk is full, you might need to move it to another volume with more space.  Use the procedure in the document below

http://www.veritas.com/docs/000082421

[Colin_Weaver]

Really you should upgrade the version of Backup Exec, both the way Backup Exec handles disk based or deduplication media (media sets vs DLM) and the technology that maintains deduplication (PDDE) has been updated more than once since that version. BE 15 is now the 3rd full release since BE 2010 and BE 2010 (all revisions) is no longer subject to full suppport.

If you are going to upgrade

1) Check the HCL and SCL very carefully to make sure you are not going to end up with some unsupported older technologies in your environment

2) Avoid BE 2012 as (primarily) a few design changes in this version proved to have been a step in the wrong direction with such changes being corrected in BE 2014 and later - recommended is BE 15 as it is the current verion

[DubyaG]

Therefore the answer to my current problem is to blow away my dedupe folder once in a while and start all over as I do not have more storage I can add. 

I'll try forcing a space reclaim and what I can do.  More investigation is in order.

I have backup to disk and to tape, so I will lose basically nothing.  An upgrade to B/E15 is in the works, but I have to wait for pricing from my vendor and approval to upgrade and that always takes time I do not have.  I cannot wait to get modern on this!

Thanks for the help, I'll drop a status on here when I resolve my issue one way or another.

[DubyaG · Accepted solution]

OK, I blew away my deduplication folder and made it a Backup to Disk folder.  I have lots of space and will just keep the last couple of months on disk.  That will solve my space problem and I'll be able to restore to disk quickly if the request is for reasonably recent data.  An upgrade is in the works.