"Please insert overwritable media..." But there's plenty!

[Neal_C]

This has been plaguing me for days, and I can't figure it out.  I'm hoping someone here can help.  First, the vitals:

BE: 10d (10.1 Rev 5629) Service Pack 3
Windows: Server 2003 Standard SP2
Library: Quantum PX502

For the last several days, our daily backups have been getting delayed, if they start at all.  Turns out it's because Backup Exec was waiting for overwritable media.  No problem, I said.  Reduced the retention times, added some tapes, and moved a couple into the Scratch Media pool.

But it's still happening.  Came in this morning, and last night's backup was still waiting for overwritable media.  However:

*) There are 2 overwritable tapes in the scratch media pool
*) There are 4 overwritable tapes in the media set associated with the job
*) There are 2 more overwritable tapes in other media sets

I've read the "How BE Selects Media" and "Understanding Media Sets" FAQs, and from what I can tell, by all rights BE *should* be seeing available media.

*) Media Overwrite Protection Level is set to Partial
*) Media Overwrite Options is set to "Overwrite recyclable media contained in the targeted media set before overwriting scratch media"
*) The targeted media set contains four available, overwritable tapes.  All were allocated over 4 months ago.  The media set has an overwrite protection period of 132 hours (5.5 days).
*) As mentioned, the scratch set contains two available, overwritable tapes

We have a different job that runs daily, a differential that appends to a tape, which has been running without a hitch.  So I know the hardware's fine.

What the heck is going on?

[Neal_C]

It's done it again.  Came in this morning, and the backup has been waiting for 14 hours in the "Loading Media" state, with a "Please insert overwritable media..." alert.

There are still 4 overwritable tapes in the media set it uses, and two overwritable scratch tapes.  No settings have been changed.  The backup from yesterday ran OK, so I really don't understand what the problem is.

This is the most ridiculous problem.  From everything BE is telling me, this shouldn't be happening.  I'm tired of not having backups.  What can I do to diagnose and/or fix this?

[Ken_Putnam]

Sounds like you are using a library/loader?

If so have you partitioned it, or do the jobs just point to "ALL POOLS"?

[Neal_C]

That's right, we're using a Quantum PX502 32-slot library.  It hasn't been partitioned at all, jobs are free to take tapes from anywhere.

[Ken_Putnam]

Only other thing I can think of is:

Have all the slots been inventoried?  and do all the tapes show as Blue?

if so, I have no idea what's going on

[Neal_C]

Did a fresh inventory just last night, in fact, and the listing of tapes didn't change, so I know the info's good.  All the tapes I'm calling "available" are listed in blue, and are in the "Online Media" list so I know they're physically there.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't know what's going on with this.  I'll gladly offer up any configuration info that might help diagnose this, but I have no idea what might help at this point.  I feel like I've covered all the bases pretty well.

[Ken_Putnam]

All that is left before digging out the credit card and calling Symantec is VooDoo tech support

Create a new job and a new media set, and let that combination run through the available scratch tapes and see it if will keep working after that

[Armin_Hennecke]

I've had similar problems. If you are sure to use the correct drivers for your SCSI-adapter and for you tape-library try to check the SCSI-IDs first (see https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=103&message.id=53235&query.id=12514#M53235), then try to re-install the changer (https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=103&message.id=56993&query.id=12532#M56993). Finally check if you have selected the correct media-type in the configuration of your drive.

These things solved my problems.

Armin