Partition Configuration is ignored on some jobs

[shawn_reinhard]

In BE 2010 R2, tape library option is used with Scalar i80 and 2 drives. I created 3 partitions and assign drive 1 to partition with slots 1-10 and drive 2 to 2nd partition and slots 11-13. Partition 3 is drive 2 and slots 14 - 50. I am seeing jobs assigned to use partition 2 or 3 using tapes from the device but using the other drive. I have also seen jobs assigned to device 1 using the correct tapes but using both drives and also using tapes from device 2. Am I missing something in the config, or is there a fix for this? The normal drive assigned to the device is not busy so I can't see why some of these jobs do this and media is LTO 5 so it isn't full media issues either.  

[Munir2Fast]

Hi Shawn,

Partitions are nothing but device pools, please check in the device are added properly in the pool from devices option & refer the below link correct configration of the tape library partitions :

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH6576

Adding device to partitions (pools) :

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH64663

Re-configure the partitions if required, restart all BE services & check..

[Ken_Putnam]

Hmm

Partitions have nothing to do with drives.  They are specified in the job properties.  Any drive in a multi-drive loader can grab a tape from any partition, if the job using that drive specifies that partition

Now a job specifying one partition grabbing tapes from another partition is a whole 'nother thing.   That is not happening, is it?

[shawn_reinhard]

The partitions or device pools I created containg a single drive. A jub running in the device Quantum [0014-0050] only has drive 2 available to use, yet has run a single job using either drive. The jobs are set up to only use a single device but for some reasnare using either drive.

[Ken_Putnam]

I think we may be running into a semantic problem, here

Device Pools for tape drives are in no way associated with loader partitions.

When you create/edit job properties, you can specify either as the target of the job.

If you specify a drive pool or specific drive, then BackupExec will grab that drive, or the first available drive in that pool and will then grab a tape from the entire loader that matches your global overwrite settings, either an expired tape in the target media set or the oldest overwriteable tape not in the media set that it can see

If you target your job to a partition, then the first available tape drive will be grabbed, and Backup Exec will select a tape from that partition and that partition only, that matches your global settings

[Ayush]

In backup exec by creating robotic library partitions we can target a backup job to specific slots e.g. if we create robotic library partitions 1st partition  slot 1 to 5, 2nd partition  6 to 10 , 3rd partition slot  11 to 15 then we can target backup job to specific slots 1 to 5 or 6 to 10 or 11 to 15 , however we can not target backup jobs to specific Tape drive at the sae time.

Please refer the following Note from Document  : Redefining robotic library partitions 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO11861

If a job is targeted to a particular robotic library drive (or a device pool that is not a partition drive pool), the job defaults to the first partition in the robotic library.

In Backup exec Using Robotic Library we can either target the backup job to a specific Tape Drive By selecting it under Backup Job properties >> Device and Media >>Under Device or specific slot or  a group of slots by selecting that specific partition containing that perticular slot or number of slots (in sequence). We can not configure a backup job to go to a specific Tape Drive and a specific partition at the same time.

If you target a backup job to 1st partition on slots 1 to 5 and if the backup job picked up tapes from 2nd partition on slots 6 to 10 then it is an Issue.

[pkh]

I think your problem is because you target the partitions as the device in your job properties.  Try targeting the tape drives instead.

Before this, you need to create different media sets for each of the partitions. These media sets should be used for the Media set property of the job.

[shawn_reinhard]

I target the job to the device which is associated with a particular drive and specific slots. It appears that possibly if the drive is busy with another job scheduled through another device, rather than queue up and wait it may go to a drive not assigned to the device the job is supposed to use.

[CraigV]

Hi Shawn,

You don't target your drive...target the jobs to the partitions rather, as this is what is required to ensure that jobs don't move into other partitions.

In this case, your media is located in those slots, and no other jobs can gain access to them. This also means that any drive can be used.

Laters!