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Matt26's avatar
Matt26
Level 3
12 years ago

need to set automatic overwriting of LTO tapes

hello all,

i currently back up a number of folders on one of our servers (over 200GB of data) on a daily basis to LTO tapes (using HP C7972A 400GB tapes).

i have 10 tapes in total that are used in a 2 week rotation.  what's happening is that i put a tape in for a nightly backup, and i come in the next day to see that the tape is ejected and another tape is required- i'm guessing because the tape being used is full.

my question- is there a way to have the backup jobs automatically overwrite the tapes so that the jobs don't require another tape to complete the job?

i thought i had this set up but now some days the backup will complete without prompting for another tape, but some will not- in both cases the tapes have data on them.

any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks for your time!

2010
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Windows Server (2003-2008)

3 Replies

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  • Donald_Eady's avatar
    Donald_Eady
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    How many backup jobs are you running at night? 

    Are the jobs set to eject the tape after the job/s complete?

    what are you OPP and APP Set to?

    And how are you jobs configured to Overwrite or append?

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    I hope you have 13 days Overwrite Protection set and not 2 weeks as the OPP is taken from the end of the previous job and the choice of what is overwriteable is made at the start of next job meaning 2 weeks would be too long for a 2 week rotation.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    When you set the OPP, check that the tapes are overwritable BEFORE the next run of the job.