Empty media despite infinite retention time

[Robert13]

Good day,

We use Netbackup 6.5.4 on a windows 2003 machine wich connects to a Fujitsu Centricstor (Backup-to-disk solution)
The monthly backup has an infinite retention time configured.

I experience the following problem.

The past two monthbackups fail because all drives are offline.
In the logs i can see that Netbackup put these offline.

Netbackup asks the Centricstor to mount a (virtual) tape which according to Netbackup does not contain any data.
The tape DOES actually contain data and the physical tape which contains the virtual tape is stored in a third party location in a tapevault.

The Centricstore knows the tape is unavailable and Netbackup responds with a DOWN Drive command.
This goes on till all virtual drives are down.

bpmedialist -mlist -m M02930 returns:
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database 

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid M02930 comes up with:
NBEMMCMD, Version:6.5.4
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     7ca014de-77d8-48cf-bbd2-671e592b7394
Media ID:                       M02930
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART
Volume Group:                   000_00002_ACS
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    CS monthly offsite
Barcode:                        M02930
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                NONE
Created:                        09/07/2012 16:22
Time Assigned:                  -
First Mount:                    10/06/2012 14:41
Last Mount:                     10/06/2012 14:41
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                -
Last Written:                   -
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     ACS
Robot Control Host:             NONE
Robot Number:                   2
AcsAcs:                         0
AcsLsm:                         0
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               1
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:                    hpbck01
Server Group:
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    14
Volume Pool:                    CS_MNTHOffsite
Previous Pool Name:             -
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

When i look in the CentricStor for the physical tape which contains de virtual tape (M02930):

(CSTORE:A)IUP0:~ # plmcmd query -V 000754
    pos PV     TL     PVG    state next-bl    LVs -  val cap/GiB valid/GiB val/%
      1 000754 I500   P_MNTH _v__  2659026      7      7  781.47    649.17  100
      pos   LV     file-Id    LVG         bl_nr   size/MiB   save request at
        1   M02927 0x00000006 L_MNTH          2  95340.132  12-10-06 15:29:48
        2   M02930 0x00000002 L_MNTH     762729  95340.051  12-10-06 15:50:06
        3   M02933 0x00000002 L_MNTH     381365  95340.279  12-10-06 15:46:12
        4   M02938 0x00000002 L_MNTH    1144095  95340.250  12-10-06 16:29:17
        5   M02939 0x00000002 L_MNTH    1525461  92706.754  12-10-06 16:44:31
        6   M02943 0x00000002 L_MNTH    1896294  95340.043  12-10-06 20:31:51
        7   M02945 0x00000002 L_MNTH    2277660  95340.187  12-10-06 21:54:12
 

Here you can see that de physical tape contains 7 virtual tapes which are all written the same day.
Two of them contains, according to netbackup, no valid data. LV M02930 and M02945.
According to the CentricStor all LV's contain valid data.
They are all written at the same day, within the same backup policy and all with Infinite retention time.

Is there a valid reason why Netbackup believes there is no valid data on these two virtual tapes (LV's)?

Thanks in advance,

Robert.

[mph999]

Hmm, yes, so there is the possibility that NBU backs up to VTKL, which then copies the 'tape' to a real tape outside NBU in order to free up it's own disk space (fair enough I guess, many VTL's do this) ...

But then we have the possibility that a script on the master server is expiring the imaages on that tape from NBU ...  if so, ouch ....

[Robert13]

Tell the CentricStor to Reorganize the Virtual Volumes.(They will be written to other Physicsal volumes)
 

This is a manual command on the centricstor. The centricstor moves virtual volumes to other physical volumes. Because a virtual volume is 20GB and a physical volume 800 (uncompressed) there are a lot of virtual volumes on 1 physical volume. Sometimes you can free up a physical volume which contains f.i. only 1 virtual volume by moving that virtual volume to another physical volume. This is a pure CentricStor action and has nothing to do with NBU. When i want to restore data, NBU asks the vtl for the virtual media cause this is the only media it is aware of. The CentricStor looks up his own database and does a request to the ptl for the physical tape.

Delete the Virtual Volumes from NBU.

This offcourse is also a manual action and can only be done when the volumes are expired.

But FACT is that NBU expires volumes with an infinite retention time.
That is the whole issue.
If Symantec claims that if volumes are written to VTL's, all problems should be solved by the vtl suppllier...pfff. That's a fine way to give customer support.

[Marianne]

But FACT is that NBU expires volumes with an infinite retention time.

FACT is NBU will NEVER expire images unless they have reached expiration date or someone (or some script) has done it manually.

[Mark_Solutions]

Are these a range of backup types or any in particular? (i.e. Windows, Standard, etc.)

Does you set of 18 affected tapes have anything in common? (policy type etc)

Are they all copy 1 or are they backed up somewhere else and then duplicated?

Still wondering if it is down to one of the many bugs in your version of NetBackup

Putting your VTL to one side for a moment tell me as much about the backups, clients and policy that are affected as possible

Thanks