Overwrite media prompt.

[Gautamj90]

Hi,

I am using Symantec Backup Exec 2010 R3 for backup of my data.I have scheduled differential backup for each day and there are individual tap drive for each day but when the job runs according to its scheduled time that time why it asks for "Please insert overwrite media into drive". Plz post your solution for this issue.

[CraigV]

Hi,

You'd get this message if the tape isn't in the drive, or if the tape currently in the drive isn't overwritable.

Check your Append/OPP settings on your media set and make sure that those settings are correct. If not, the tapes won't be returned to Scratch on time.

Thanks!

[AmolB]

If the job is configured to overwrite and if there is no overwritable media available than BE will throw

alerts for overwritable media. Check the overwrite protection period for the tapes. 

[Kiran_Bandi]

.....adding to the above, consider the time taken to complete the job aslo while deciding the Overwrite Protection Period. Otherwise tapes might not become overwritable by the time the job starts during the next cycle. So, if you want the tape to be overwritten on 7th day, set the OPP to 6 days.

Thank....

[Gautamj90]

Hi,

I set my backup job on "Keep Data Infinitly-Do not allow Overwrite" so as I think it should not ask for overwrite and if there is some setting to make Tap drive not overwrite protected than you please provide me that steps to make my Tap unoverwritable.

Thanks.

[CraigV]

...if you don't want your tapes to be overwritten, you select that setting. If you want your tapes to be overwritten, you change your Append/OPP settings on your media sets.

Thanks!

[Kiran_Bandi]

Hi Gautam,

The alert is not for informing that the tape in tape drive will be overwritten. It is asking you to insert a overwritable media into tape drive to continue the backup job. 

With "Keep Data Infinitly-Do not allow Overwrite" setting tapes won't be overwritten by BE unless Overwrite Protection Level is set to "None".

Thanks...

[pkh]

When Overwrite Protection Level is set to "None", there is no overwrite protection for any media, so beware of this.

[Gautamj90]

Hi,

Before this,my backup job was configured on  Append/OPP settings only  and but when it started throwing "Please insert overwrite media into drive" error then I changed it to "Keep Data Infinitly-Do not allow Overwrite".But as you posted above setting, I'll change my configuration and let you know about this.

And one thing I also want to know " Is there any setting to make our tap drive to un-overwritable ? ".

Thanks.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

@Gautamj90 - When you set the OPP to "Keep Data Indefinitely", it means that your media cannot be overwritten forever.  I don't think that is what you want.  If you want to re-use your media, be it tape or disk, you need to set the OPP to a reasonable period.  Say, you want to keep your data for 1 week, set the OPP to 1 week.  1 week after the data is written, BE again can write to the media and thus re-use it.  If you set your OPP for too long, BE will not be able to find any overwritable media, For example, you have 4 tapes and you set the OPP to 1 week, on the 5th day, your backup job will not be able to overwrite the 4 tapes because they are still write protected.  In this case, you will get that prompt to insert overwritable media.  If you fail to insert any overwritable media, your backup job will fail because BE cannot write the backup set anywhere.

[Gautamj90]

Hi pkh,

Now I understood BE backup process clearly.

Thanks for your post friend.