Can we restrict a Policy not to use Scratch

[Venkatesh_K]

Hi All, is it possible to restrict a backup policy from not using tapes from scratch volume pool, basically what my requirement is, Backup policy must use only the tapes present in specified volume pool(defined in backup policy) and if that volume pool doesnt contain any free tapes then the backup should not go to scratch pool but it should fail (with status 96 ) also is there any settings to redirect the policy to go diffrent pool other than scratch pool once specified volume pool is empty. NB version : 6.5.4 Master server OS : Solaris Thnkx in advance, Venki

[Andy_Welburn · Accepted solution]

by 'switching off' the scratch pool - but that wouldn't help for all your other jobs.

Your other question also result in a no - that's what the scratch pool is for.

A possible alternative that comes to mind, but I'm not sure of its feasability, is to use different 'sets' of media i.e. if you can have one set configured as HCART media type & the rest as HCART3 say & then only have those of one type in your scratch pool. Then when your volume pool is exhausted it cannot take media out of scratch as they are of the incorrect media type.

Just a thought (& not a very pretty one at that!) Someone else may have a much more workable solution........

[Deepak_G]

You can delete the scratch pool. But when you are allocating/inserting new media, you need to immediately assign them to a volume pool other than scratch.

[Marianne]

I do not agree that Scratch should be deleted to prevent ONE single policy to draw from Scratch.

The answer is as per Andy's post - you either have a scratch pool or you don't. No way to configure different 'scratch' rules for policies.
The answer to the second question is also a 'NO'. There can only be one scratch pool in an environment.

I'm curious to know the reason for this request........ Maybe we can suggest a different workaround if we understand the situation.

[Venkatesh_K]

hi,

i know my request sounds very starnge but here is what im into

there are 2 backup environment  (diffrent location)say ABC and XYZ, ABC uses ABxxxx tapes and XYZ uses XYxxxx tapes, so basically everything was fine and no issues.


now we have shutdown XYZ and moved all servers of XYZ to ABC site and also all XYxxxx tape to  ABC site, basically we have single environment with both ABC servers and XYZ servers and ABxxxx and XYxxxx tapes in single library,

requirement : XYZ servers should write only on XYxxxx tapes. and ABC on ABxxxx tapes vice-versa not allowed.

to restrict XYZ servers backup to run only on XYxxxx tapes we created a saparate volume pools and policies, when new tapes are loaded all XYxxxx tapes are moved to XY volume pools (more than one pool created depending on requirement), and scratch pools contains only ABxxxx tapes.

so when XYZ server backups starts it searches for XY pools and if all tapes within it are FULL then it will go to scratch and pick ABxxxx tapes and writes data to it. and this is againest my requirement. and i want to prevent it with out having much manual work of allocating tapes to XY volume pools and monitoring the pool for min tapes requirement.


hope it is clear...........

[Andy_Welburn]

Only thing I can think of is to ensure your XY volume pools don't run out of tapes.

My earlier suggestion about different media types will not necessarily work as you would also need to dedicate tape drive(s) to each type.

***EDIT***
Is it a definite corporate policy that requires these to be kept separate?

[David_McMullin]

Some versions of netbackup have issues with setting the max number of partially full tapes as a pool parameter.

ET1947054 in NetBackup 6.5.4
  
= = = = =
BUG REPORT: NetBackup 6.5.4. The maximum number of partially full media settings is exceeded during backup.
 
Detail/Symptom(s): During a backup the maximum number of partially full media setting is exceeded during the backup. If the setting is two (2) a maximum number of partially full media will exceed two (2) and use three (3) or four (4) media.
= = = =

Also, it is default behavior to add a new tape into pool to complete a backup instead of finishing it on another tape already in pool.


....from the SYMANTEC NetBackup Support Center regarding the media selection algorithm. Yes, the issue would still apply in your case, with NetBackup continuing to go to the Scratch pool for media once it hits the EOM mark on the tape. This was the case in all previous versions of NetBackup, and is not yet corrected in NetBackup 6.5.4 (nor 6.5.5, nor 7.0)


I have an infinite pool - and I would like it to fill each tape up before starting another one, I end up with 40 or 50 partially full tapes. I resiolved this be removing it from my daily vault and only setting up a monthly vault of that pool as a seperate vault - and only vault tapes 90 days old.

[Andy_Welburn]

Seems more suited to this earlier post:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/media-allocationuse-nbu-60mp5-solaris-10

[Marianne]

Thanks for the explanation Venki - your request makes absolute sense now.
Nice challenge - let's see if we can sleep on this one and come up with a workable solution (cannot think of one right now... other than ensuring pool XY never run out of tapes)

[Marianne]

Just thought of pool ownership, but seems this option is no longer available.

Until NBU 5.1, a list of Media Server names could be specified. Only these hostnames would have access to the pool.


**** EDIT *****
Seems this is still possible in 6.5.

Screenshot from 6.5 Admin Guide I:

[Andy_Welburn]

***EDIT*** Let me change that to "could possibly help Marianne! "
(end of EDIT)

@ Venki - can you spare any drives to restrict to only specific 'environments' i.e. 3 drives to AB & 1 to XY ?

If so it may be possible to expand or refine what I touched on earlier regarding different media types?

[Andy_Welburn]

Can't see it on my 6.5.4 Java Console - appear to only have max no. partially full in its place.......

[cviniciusm]

Hello,

So, I think the media type are the same and you are sharing the same tape library and you want to keep the separate organizations structures. If this the case, does your tape library supports Partitions/VTL? If so, you can create two or more virtual tape library and distribute your policies and media between them, right?


Regards.

[Andy_Welburn]

similar to this one:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/idea/scratch-volume-pool

if it cannot be resolved by other means.

[J_H_Is_gone]

Can you change your library to have 2 virtual library's.

One virtual library has ABC tapes. (libA)
One virtual library has XYZ tape. (libX)

Setup both virtual libraries on the same master.
( I don't know if using SSO if that crosses libraries?  Anybody know if you have two virtual's can any of the tape drives be shared by both Libraries if you have SSO for you media servers?  I am thinking not, and you would have some drives on A and some drives on X)

Then when tapes go into the scratch pool , some are in libA and some are in libX.

Now when a job in libA needs a new tape from the scratch pool it can ONLY choose a scratch tape that is also in libA.

You would have to make sure your storage units and policies are labels and used so they also keep things separate.

Its just a thought, and I may have have thought it all the way through but that was the first option that came to me.

[Ron_Cohn]

Before the site consolidation, you had 2 distinct backup environments (master server, media server, and clients).  If you have a VTL or a physical device that allows you to partition it, what is stopping you from doing that and still run 2 distinct environments in the same location?