overwrite protection is being set when allocating media to a media set

[VeloTime]

I have a media set for our Full Backups with overwrite protection set for 5 days.
When I allocate media to this media set the the overwrite protection period begins from that point. According to the admin guide, and previous versions if I remember correctly, the overwrite protection period should only be set after the first write to the tape.

I realize I can put in the scratch media set, which I will do but this seems strange to me. These are older tapes from previous jobs, but since I had to create a new DB after the 11d upgrade there is no info other then the media label after an inventory job. After the inventory it places the media in to the "backup exec and windows NT media" set with overwrite protection of infinite.

The reason I would prefer to place it in the "Full" media set is due to the fact that I have a blank tape in the drive, just in case, and I would prefer the job to write to the older media first.

I have it set to "full+overwrite recyclable media first." Since there will be no recyclable media in the targeted media set it will write to scratch media. If both the blank tape, and older tape are considered "scratch media" which tape will be written to?

Thanks

[Ken_Putnam]

previous versions if I remember correctly, the overwrite protection period should only be set after the first write to the tape.

Nope - this is the way it has worked since v7.0 (at least)

Scratch media is any volume in the Scratch Media Pool or Any other media set whose OPP has expired

if you have a loader, you can partition it so that the job will only grab a tape from a specified slot or group of slots

[perry_baker]

Adam,

This is the correct and expected behavior for BE 11.

If you check page 297 in the BE 11 Admin Guide you will see the following statement:
When you associate media with a media set, the media uses the append and overwrite
protection period properties of that media set.

I am thinking that the portion of the Admin Guide to which you reference is most likely a generic description of how the Overwrite Protection Period can be set when a backup job begins. Do you have a page in the admin guide which I can review for accuracy?

As a side note, older versions did respond in the manner you want, but BE 11 doesn't.

[VeloTime]

Thanks for the replies.

I was referencing the figure on page 261 were it states, "The overwrite protection period is measured from the time of last write to the media."

So it looks like it will be gamble as to which tape it will write to. Oh well. its more of a convenience than anything else.

So I was correct that this is a change from older versions?

[perry_baker]

This behavior is a change from previous versions.

The figure on 261 would be more of an example of a piece of media that is already in a backup cycle, but I can definitely see why you would come to the conclusion you did.

[perry_baker]

After thinking about it for a couple more minutes you could try this...it's not perfect but it "should" work if you want to invest the time.

For the media you want to utilize, move them into the media set in the order in which you want them to be used but space the "moving" out over the period of say 30 minutes to an hour. Example: Tape-1 and Tape-2 exists and you want to write to Tape-1 first and Tape-2 second. Move Tape-1 into the media set now; wait 30 minutes to an hour and then move Tape-2 into the media set. In that method the tapes will become "overwritable" in the order in which you want them to be written to. Then, based on default rules, BE should pull the tape that has been "available" for overwrite operations for the longest period of time and use it in the backup job...by virtue of Tape-1 having been available for overwrite operations for the longest period of time it should be the media selected for backup first.

Thats really the best I can come up with for your scenario and like I said it's not perfect but it can work depending on when the overwrite protection period will expire and when you want the backup operation to take place. Meaning the overwrite protection period would need to expire before the backup operation takes place.

[VeloTime]

Thanks Perry.

The fix you suggested should work for next weekends backup job. I'll put the tapes in Monday, and then by Friday when the full job starts the overwrite protection will have expired.

Does the same theory apply to the scratch media set as well? Will backup exec write to the tape that was first allocated to the scratch media set? So if I allocate the older labled media to scratch first, and then load the blank tape an hour or so later it should write to the labled media first.

[perry_baker]

I had to do a bit of testing to see what happened with Scratch Media. I used B2D files, but I believe the same will be true for Tape Media.

What I found was that BE was selecting the media from Scratch Media based on Allocation Date. Technically this should be the same behavior as what I had described for your other media set but since there is no basis for scratch media to recycle media based on the most stale data, it appears to be taking action based on allocation date.

You might want to make sure you coordinate your media allocation date with the timing of when you move the media into your desired media set. Meaning if Tape-1 has an allocation date earlier than the allocation date for Tape-2 make sure to move the media in that order; move Tape-1 first and Tape-2 second just to be safe. As I understand it you had to start with a fresh database which put you in this position...so you may want to delete the media from BE (but be warned this will delete restore selections from display so you may need to re-catalog tapes if this is necessary) and then re-inventory media based on the order in which you want the media to be used. Once inventoried in the order of desired use, move them into your desired media set in that same order so overwrite protection time will expire in the same order.

That process should get the allocation dates and expiration dates sync'd for the order you want...I think that is as close as you will be able to get to setting this up in advance with the media already in the media sets in the order you want them to be selected for backup operations.

[VeloTime]

Sounds good Perry, thanks for your help on this.