append period

[Toni_Churchill]

I need clarification on the append period. We have 31 tapes that we use for rotation and we have decided not to append to them. I have the media set to allow append and to overwrite after 1 week. If the overwrite protection period has expired and I have the append set to "do not allow append", will it overwrite the existing data on the tape? I want to be able to load a tape each day without having to check how much space is available on the tape.
Thank you for your help.

[Jamie_Tatum]

The append period is part of the equation. Your append period specifies whether a job is allowed to append to a tape or not. Similarly, the overwrite protection period controls whether a job is allowed to overwrite a tape. The job settings then dictate what the job will actually do.

In the case where the append period is none (append not allowed) and the overwrite protection is none (protection expired), a job can overwrite the tape. A job cannot append to the tape. If the job is configured as the default (append first, then overwrite), the job will first "try" to append to the tape (which won't be allowed), and then it will "try" to overwrite the tape (which will be allowed).

[Varsha]

In addition, refer to the following documents:



http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/192265.htm




http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/237374.htm

[Toni_Churchill]

I changed the setup in tools under the overwrite protection options from append to media to overwrite media.
Media management is set to partial.
The properties of the media set is set for 1 week for the protection period and the append period is allow append.
Will these settings overwrite the tape when it gets full or will it overwrite from the beginning of the tape when the job runs each night. (The protection period on the tapes I use have expired) I do not want the job to look for another tape to append to if the current one becomes full. So, do you think these settings will work? I appreciate all your help!
Thanks

[Toni_Churchill]

I changed the setup in tools under the overwrite protection options from append to media to overwrite media.
Media management is set to partial.
The properties of the media set is set for 1 week for the protection period and the append period is allow append.
Will these settings overwrite the tape when it gets full or will it overwrite from the beginning of the tape when the job runs each night. (The protection period on the tapes I use have expired) I do not want the job to look for another tape to append to if the current one becomes full. So, do you think these settings will work? I appreciate all your help!
Thanks

[Toni_Churchill]

I just wanted to add that we are using a stand alone drive.
Thanks

[Zerene_Sangma]

The tape will be over-written when the over-write protection period expires. In your case it is already expired, hence the tape will be over-written.

It is not necessary that the tape will be over-written when it is full. The tape will be over-written only when the over-write protection on the media set it belongs to expires.

If you wish to over-write the tape when it is full then you will have to set the over-write protection period accordingly.

[Toni_Churchill]

Thank you so much for responding to my question! I have one more question in my mind. I loaded a tape tonight which the overwrite protection has expired but, there is some space available on the tape. The space left on the tape is not enough to cover the whole backup. My question is, Will the backup use the remaining space on the tape then continue on by overwriting at the beginning of the tape?
I am just a little confused on how that works.
Thanks again!

[Toni_Churchill]

The backup from last night did not complete. It wanted another tape because it was full. The tape status was over write when I loaded it last night and allow append. I changed it to not append after 1 week. Now the status of most of the tapes are over write and do not allow append. Does this mean that the job will now over write the existing data on the tape.
Thanks for your help!

[Jamie_Tatum]

Any time a backup spans tapes (continues a job from one tape onto another), it must overwrite the tape. Things would get very messy if this did not happen.

When you say the status is "over write", does that mean that the overwrite protection time remaining is none or that there is overwrite protection time remaining? This can be viewed in the media window. There is a column that shows time remaining in the overwrite protection period and appent period. Tapes that are overwritable also show up in blue.

[Toni_Churchill]

Thank you again for responding. The tapes that I am using are in blue. I have the overwrite protection on the media set for 1 week and the append period set for one week also. I changed the append period today, from allow append to allow append for one week. After making the change the expired protection tapes are still in blue and the append status is "do not allow append." Does this mean no more data can be written to the tape or will it overwrite the current data on the tape? I was a little reluctant to test it tonight for our backup so, I did a quick erase on the tape for tonight's backup. I really appreciate your assistance on this. I have the training CD but, sometimes that is just not enough. Having a one on one really helps in resolving this issue and you are excellent in doing just that!
Thank you!

[Toni_Churchill]

Jamie,
I was wondering if you read my response? If you have the time, I would like to hear your feed back on the last change I did with the Veritas program.
Thanks

[Toni_Churchill]

I solved the problem by changing the append period and the overwrite protection for 1 week. I also changed the backup tool options to overwrite media. Now when I use the tapes over, the append period has expired along with the overwrite protection. The backup job overwrites the tape.
Thanks for helping me resolve my issue.