Tapes in autoloader do not backup in consecutive order

[Napoleon_Garcia]

When I run a Full backup jobs with overwritable tapes (filled with data already) in the slots of my Dell LTO Autoloader, I set it so it should write to three consective tapes, for example, write to tape in Slot 1, then Slot 2, Slot 3, and so forth.

However, when the job would start, it would skip to either Slot 2 or Slot 3, then go back to the previous tape it would skip, if it had to continue using more tape. Why is it using the tapes out of order? I have the full backups set on overwrite if no scratch media or overwritable media is found, and I have differentials set to append and overwrite.

Does anyone know the optimum settings so the tapes would be filled to capacity and written to in the proper consective order for an autoloader?

Thanks.

[Michael_Smith_6]

Hi Napoleon,

In my experience, tapes are used in the order that they become available for use.... It picks (I think) the tape that has been available the longest. If you erase them in the order you want them used, it should work out for you.

~mike

[Thomas_Bianco]

i have tested this myself, and i can confirm that backup exec used the oldest tape available in the autoloader according to your OPP and overwrite order.

i.e. if you have append-scratch-overwrite set as your overwrite procedure, backup exec will search for the oldest (by allocate date) tape that is appendable, then the oldest tape in the scratch pool, then the oldest overwritable tape.

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Have you partitioned the library?

Please refer the following link:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/262055

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