Changing Retention levels on Tape

[girishnair1984]

Hi.

We are using Symantec Netbackup 7.5 on Redhat Linux with standalone tape drive .  I have created backup policies with retention level= 2 months, and all backup's have been successfully completed on allocated tape A0005.

Now, I have to change the retention levels of all backup policy to 1 year, is there any way that I can use the same tape(A0005).  Currently the backup fails when I change the retention level, it's asking for new tape .

Can I manually expire the old images on the tape and delete it.

Thank You

[RiaanBadenhorst · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please review the note on changing retention levels if you've not done so already https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000085901

Your backups are probably failing after you change the retention because your environment is set to not mix allow different retentions on a single media. You can update this on the host properties > media tab.

You'll then be able to backup multiple retentions on to one tape. Please take note though that a media will not become available if a backup with a retention is still unexpired on it.

[sri_vani]

Expiring images before the retention level met wouldnt be ideal solution.

Allow Multiple Retentions Per Media can resolve this issue. Its always suggestable to know pros and cons before doing something.

After 2 months retention is met on all the images u can disable the multiple retentions per media and can continue ..

(NetBackup Management > Host Properties > Master Server > Media) cd /...../netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbemmcmd -changesetting -ALLOW_MULTIPLE_RETENTIONS_PER_MEDIA yes/no -machinename <Media Server hostname>