backup exec with tape library

[benny_snickars]

 we have a compaq MSL5000 tape library with one tape drive installed.  it has 2 magazines.  we are using backup exec 10d to control the backups.  we recently started putting barcoded labels on the tapes because we wanted to move forward in technology. :)  the tape library has a barcode reader and scans the front of the tapes to see what was inserted.

the process we do now for backups is this:
3 tapes get loaded each day for 3 servers.  a file server, sql server and exchange server.  every day we take out yesterdays tapes and walk them to our other building across the street to a safe.  we grab the tapes for today, and place them into the magazines.  on fridays (or days before holidays), we grab the saturday or any other tapes that need to run.  the magazines are divided up for the different servers and different days.  for the file server, on weekdays we do incremental backups and saturday runs a full backup.  the other 2 servers get full backups every day.  because of holidays and/or weekends, we could have 4 tapes lined up for thebackup.  the partitions are divided like this:
0-2 file incremental
3-4 file full backup (another issue with the data not compressing correctly)
5-8 sql
9-12 exchange

the thing that gets me is that even with the barcodes on the tapes, we still have to reserve these spaces physically.  we should be able to assign a barcode to a certain job, and let the library pick the tape from whatever slot it is in.  it does a quick scan to see what tapes are inserted every time you open the door.  it should know after that what tapes are in there and which one it should pick for the job.  we just havent found a place in the software to assign the barcode numbers to the jobs.  can this not be done?

Thanks

[pkh]

The purpose of the barcode labels is make the operation of the tape library easier.  For example, if you want to identify the tape in a particular slot, you can now scan the slot, instead of inventorying it.  When you scan the slot, the barcode reader reads the barcode label.  This is a much faster than doing an inventory.  When you run an inventory job on a slot, the tape in the slot will be retrieved, placed in the tape drive and the internal label is read before it is returned to the slot.

So your problems with the tape will be the same regardless of whether you use barcode labels or not.

To ensure that the correct tape is used for the correct job, you would have to set up your jobs, slots and media sets correctly.

By the way, after you opened the magazines and re-arranged the tapes, you should run a scan for the entire library after you have replaced the magazines.  This will let BE identify which tape is in which slot.  As described above, with barcode labels, this is a faster operation than doing an inventory job on the whole library.  For example, you always put Tape 5 in Slot 5.  If you now put Tape 5 in Slot 6, BE will not know this shift until you do a scan and the slot information is updated. 

Also, since you are using partitions, you cannot cross partition boundaries.  For example, you can put your tapes for Exchange backup in any of the slots allocated to Exchange, but not in slots belonging to other partitions.  BE will not fetch tapes from partitions other than the one assigned to the job.

[kevin_c]

 Hello,

No it is not possible. BE will take the tape which ever is free. The criteria is oldest tape which is free will be taken for the backup from the Media Pool

kevin

[C_Andy]

 Hi benny.snickars,
Adding barcodes to tapes that have already been used confuses Backup Exec since the barcode label does not match the label on the media. However if you re-label them it will use the barcode label so that then it matches (this effectively erases the tape).

Once they are in scratch then as long as you have a different media set for each job and the overwrite protect is set to 1 day less than the rotation it will use the same tape again next time since it is overwritable and part of the correct media set (as long as it's in the library and you inventoried the library when you put it in). That is if you set it to overwrite media in the target set before overwriting scratch media under tools-options-media management.

Refer to figure 3 in http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265

Andy

[pkh]

> Adding barcodes to tapes that have already been used confuses Backup Exec since the barcode label does not match the label on the media

BE will not be confused because each tape has a unique media id.  You can see this media id when you right-click on the tape.  If the tape has been previously labeled and the tape label is different from the barcode label, the internal label of the tape will be different until the first time it is used.  After the first use, the internal label will be changed to match that of the barcode label.  All the statistics, like write errors, etc., will be maintained when this internal relabeling occurs.

[benny_snickars]

 when we added the barcodes, we used new tapes.  looking in the media tab of the software though, we only have one media set.  

so i think what i am reading is that i need a seperate media set for each job.  then the tapes need to be part of the media set for the job that they should run with.  the barcode lets the library identify the tape when it is loaded.  we do have an inventory job that runs before any of the other jobs start.  since we usually only have one tape from each job in the library, the software will use that tape since it is the oldest tape from the media set.  when we have holidays and weekends, it will use the appropriate oldest tape from the media set for each day.  is that all correct?

my last question about the setup then is how do i assign the slots?  do i make them all in one group?