how are media sets supposed to work?

[Jog_Dial]

I'm wondering if I'm using media sets correctly.

Normally, I put 4 tapes in the magazine.  I then label them.  Then I create a new media set and I drag all the tapes I just labeled from the scratch tapes, into the media set.   I do this for a full weekly backup.  We keep these backups one year, then recycle.  Now according to the help files, if I set the overwrite period to one year, then these tapes will not be overwritten for 1 year after the current backup.  I guess  current backup is a little bit ambiguous.  I haven't started a backup yet, I am creating a media set to do a backup on, but it isn't actually backing up yet.

Long and short of it is, if I put a 1 year overwrite protection on it, it won't do a backup to it at all... My backup protection Level is set to partial which help files say should ask me, and I can overwrite if I tell it to, but it doesn't .   Basically the only way to get this to work is to set my overwrite period to 0 hours and then it works. ... but if my backup was bigger than the amount of tapes I put in, would it not start to overwrite the first tape then?

This is really weird and if there was a document or simple explanation on how this is supposed to work?  Am I not supposed to drag the scratch tapes into the media set and let it do it itself?  There must be some fundemental think I am doing wrong and I just don't seem to be able to get the "how to" info from the help  files.

[Anup]

We are not supposed to move medias manually from scratch media set to user defined media set.

Backup job itself will pull the media from scratch media and will assign it to user defined media set.

 If you manually assign scratch or blank media to user defined media set , then backupexec will not be able to use it because it is already protected.

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

http://support.veritas.com/docs/298982

Once "Overwrite Protection Period" and the "Append Period" for media is over, Backup jobs can resuse those medias , but no need to move them back to scratch media.

[Hywel_Mallett]

Basically you're doing the right thing with the media set, but leave the new media in the scratch set. Once you move it to the media set, the overwrite protection period is applied immediately. If you leave the media in the scratch set BE will use it as it needs it.

Have a look at http://www.backupexecfaq.com/articles/concepts/understanding-media-sets.html

[Jog_Dial]

Thanks, I had just figured out that leaving the scratch media in the scratch media set was the way to go.

I have a related question though.

I have two robotic libraries. An SDLT drive and an LTO3 drive. So I have different types of physical media. Will Backup Exec figure out which type of media to pull from Scratch media if I label both types of tapes and leave them both in the scratch media set? Or should I have two scratch media sets one for each, or should I be having some further pool or something? Thanks very much for your help.

[Anup]

Every robotic library has its own magazine  having slots.

Even though logically all the media from both libraries will be in one scratch medi set , physically they will be in different library slots.

So when backup job runs it will automatically pick scratch media from corresponding library.

If it picks up wrong media ...It is impossible that physically media will go from one library to another libraray.

Scratch media set is system media set. You can not create another one.

However you can create user defined media set. 

[Jog_Dial]

Well, I figured it couldn't pull media between the devices... that would be a trick, but I just wanted to confirm that it wouldn't get confused about it. Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Bill