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Curious media selection for catalog

jim_dalton
Level 6

7504 on Solaris10 master with remote windows 2008r2 media server, also 7504, LTO4, robotics.

I run a catalog backup to my windows server: I have a pool for this purpose and I have 5 tapes in the pool. The image last for 7 days so I can just cycle thro the tapes day1=tape1, day2=tape2 etc. The catalog is about 75Gb, so with one tape capable of holding 1.2Tb lets say, you would expect this to run smoothly so long as one remembered to put a catlog tape in the robot. Even if a tape was left in there for a few days , it would get appended to, theres plenty capacity on a single media.This has been the way for years....

However this week four days in a row its changed: the catalog tape has not been selected, its just picked one from scratch. The "time assigned" is blank.

Mounts is 120-130 give or take, and isnt limited, no expiraton date,....its all normal/sensible.

So how can I figure out why its now doing this?

I presume the media selection logic is the same for catalog tapes, but I'm struggling to believe it is.

 Despite all the tools to examine data tapes, catalog tapes seem to have been left out.

Thanks in advance,Jim

12 REPLIES 12

RamNagalla
Moderator
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anything chaned in this week...?

what is the Retenction level showing for the tapes...? does the same for old tapes and the new tapes that is picking from the Scratch?

also does it using the same media server?

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Jim

In the admin console - media section go to the tape pool where you catalog tapes are and make sure your column layout shows the "Media Status" column - just to see what that says in case those tapes do have a problem - espeically the one that is in the library.

I am thinking it may have been frozen (or suspended) as i would expect it to use the existing tapes before scratch if it could

Marianne
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Please show us output for one of the tapes that you feel should have been appended to:

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id>

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited
Also, please run the available_media script.

jim_dalton
Level 6

# nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 000004
NBEMMCMD, Version: 7.5.0.4
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     9f483c3c-200b-11e1-8000-d5907051ed47
Media ID:                       000004
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART3
Volume Group:                   000_00001_TLD
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    Original tape got eaten
Barcode:                        000004
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                NONE
Created:                        12/06/2011 12:57
Time Assigned:                  -
First Mount:                    12/13/2011 00:22
Last Mount:                     10/24/2013 17:41
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                -
Last Written:                   10/24/2013 17:40
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     TLD
Robot Control Host:             whorchxxx
Robot Number:                   1
Slot:                           37
Side/Face:                      -
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               129
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   ACTIVE
Kilobytes:                      0
Images:                         0
Valid Images:                   0
Retention Period:               -
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             0
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    wunxxx
Server Group:                   -
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    51
Volume Pool:                    CatalogBackup_CHN
Previous Pool Name:             -
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
Media on Hold:                  0
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

Last written 24th sounds about right

 

Heres the one it didnt use the previous day:

NBEMMCMD, Version: 7.5.0.4
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     9ec1ce2c-200b-11e1-8000-d5907051ed47
Media ID:                       000003
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART3
Volume Group:                   ---
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    New media
Barcode:                        000003
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                NONE
Created:                        12/06/2011 12:57
Time Assigned:                  -
First Mount:                    12/08/2011 00:22
Last Mount:                     10/23/2013 17:41
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                -
Last Written:                   10/23/2013 17:40
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     NONE
Robot Control Host:             -
Robot Number:                   -
Slot:                           -
Side/Face:                      -
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               121
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   ACTIVE
Kilobytes:                      0
Images:                         0
Valid Images:                   0
Retention Period:               -
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             0
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    wunxxx
Server Group:                   -
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    51
Volume Pool:                    CatalogBackup_CHN
Previous Pool Name:             -
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
Media on Hold:                  0
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.
 

Its not in my robot now, apart from that , its unchanged (sadly).

Last written 23rd, also about right.

The media are active...

Nothing has changed in the environment. Nothing (really!).

It could be just a timing issue and repeat coincidence, as it does happen occasionally, once every so often but four days in a row is unusual. I suppose if for some reason my backup started taking a lot longer then the image could be expiring later, and so if its on the end of the media it might not be available, but that would mean I need to buy a few lottery tickets.

Avail media shows:

000005  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       0  241614485     ACTIVE
005011  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       0   87104165     ACTIVE
005042  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       0   82847078     ACTIVE
005051  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       0   78658389     ACTIVE
005092  HCART3   TLD      1       45      -       0   78084691     ACTIVE
000001  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       -          -  AVAILABLE
000002  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       -          -  AVAILABLE
000003  HCART3  NONE      -        -      -       -          -  AVAILABLE
000004  HCART3   TLD      1       37      -       -          -  AVAILABLE
 

but of course this is as it is now , not how it was yesterday.

Thanks so far,Jim

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

It may be worth doing a nbrbutil -dump just in case any of your catalog tapes have MDS reservations which could stop them being used

Apart from if different retention periods are being used then from what you have said so far it shouldn't use the scratch tapes as far as i can spot (will look through it all again though)

jim_dalton
Level 6

Good info MarkS nbrbutil is very useful...it shows 14 items, matching whats currently running, nothing pertaining to what Im looking for. Good idea tho'.

Jim

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Could you show us the output of bppllist catalogpolicyname -U

Just wondering.....

jim_dalton
Level 6

What are you thinking there MarkS...?

BTW, its back to normal now, selecting media just as I would expect.

Jim

Marianne
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Both media-ids that you used with nbemmcmd are expired/blank/unassigned.
So, 00004 will only be selected when there are no Assigned tapes that can be appended to.
00003 not in robot and will not be selected.

005092 has data already written to it and looks like the most likely candidate to be appended to.

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

I was wondering if your catalog backup ran close to midnight and the media was in the process of being de-assigned when the policy ran - which could actually lock that media as being in use at the time so causing scratch media to get used

It was just a thought

jim_dalton
Level 6

This remains unexplained, my policy is back to selecting the media I expect it to select.

Jim