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Error 96 - What am I missing?

RBarnett
Level 3

I have an IBM system (AIX 6.1) that was relocated from another site along with a Quantum PX720 tape library. New hostname and new IP addresses and I have successfully configured it as a media server to the master server (RedHat Linux 6.5). I have configured the robot under AIX with the current scsi_id value and NetBackup now sees the 8 tape drives and the robot. NetBackup 7.5.0.7 is installed on the master server with 7.1 on the AIX system so far. I plan to update later.

I ran thru the Configure Storage Devices wizard in the NetBackup admin console which created the robot definition and the storage unit for tape then I created a test policy to try to backup one of our test AIX servers to one of the new tape drives. There are 180 tapes in the Quantum tape library which all show up in the Scratch pool, yet I am still seeing error code 96 saying that no media is available.

 

12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - Info nbjm(pid=3929) starting backup job (jobid=270) for client richsys7, policy rbtest, schedule Full 
12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - Info nbjm(pid=3929) requesting STANDARD_RESOURCE resources from RB for backup job (jobid=270, request id:{68A0A25C-79A2-11E4-825B-4308A9708AEE}) 
12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - requesting resource rmaster2-hcart3-robot-tld-0
12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - requesting resource RMaster.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.richsys7
12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - requesting resource RMaster.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.rbtest
12/1/2014 3:38:52 PM - Error nbjm(pid=3929) NBU status: 96, EMM status: No media is available   
unable to allocate new media for backup, storage unit has none available(96)

 

It seems that I have done all the hard work and I am missing something very simple. Can someone point me in the right direction?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
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To use Scratch pool as such, the 'Scratch pool' tick-box must be selected in the Volume Pool attributes.

NetBackup is the default pool. To get all new media to go to Scratch pool (instead of default), you need to create a Barcode rule (hopefully there are barcodes on the media?).

So, you need to select a non-scratch pool in the Policy. It can be NetBackup or another pool that you have created.

You may want to read up these topics in Chapter 8 of NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I 

About scratch volume pools

Adding a volume pool

Barcode Rules are covered in Chapter 9 of Admin Guide I.
In short, you can create barcode rule as follows:

barcode tag:  <DEFAULT>
media type:   hcart3
pool name:    Scratch
Max mounts:    0 (no maximum)
description:  ---

(Note that <DEFAULT> must be typed exactly as I have done above.)

Barcode Rules also only applies to new tapes - not existing ones already added to NetBackup pool. 
To move them to Scratch, either do it it manually, or delete all tapes, create the rule and run Inventory again.

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6 REPLIES 6

Marianne
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Check that all densities match:
tape drives
Media 
Storage Unit

You may also want to work through the Status 96 wizard:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=answers&type=wizard&wizardid=NBU090&wizardstepid...

*** EDIT ***

I see in Job details that the master storage unit is selected for the backup, not the media server:
master2-hcart3-robot-tld-0

You say the problem is with the new media server?

RBarnett
Level 3

Sorry, the naming convention here needs to be explained to avoid confusion. The master server is called RMaster and the media server is called rmaster2 and it is rmaster2 that has the tape library attached.

I checked the page that you referenced and for error 96 it states:

"The tape manager (bptm) could not allocate new volumes for backups. This indicates the storage unit has no more volumes available in the volume pool specified for the backup."

Where do I specify the default pool for backups? There was no Scratch pool so I had to create one manually. After I ran the inventory, the tapes were all assigned to the NetBackup pool before I moved them over. I have added 5 tapes each to the AIX and NetBackup pools but the attempted backup still fails with error 96.

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
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To use Scratch pool as such, the 'Scratch pool' tick-box must be selected in the Volume Pool attributes.

NetBackup is the default pool. To get all new media to go to Scratch pool (instead of default), you need to create a Barcode rule (hopefully there are barcodes on the media?).

So, you need to select a non-scratch pool in the Policy. It can be NetBackup or another pool that you have created.

You may want to read up these topics in Chapter 8 of NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I 

About scratch volume pools

Adding a volume pool

Barcode Rules are covered in Chapter 9 of Admin Guide I.
In short, you can create barcode rule as follows:

barcode tag:  <DEFAULT>
media type:   hcart3
pool name:    Scratch
Max mounts:    0 (no maximum)
description:  ---

(Note that <DEFAULT> must be typed exactly as I have done above.)

Barcode Rules also only applies to new tapes - not existing ones already added to NetBackup pool. 
To move them to Scratch, either do it it manually, or delete all tapes, create the rule and run Inventory again.

watsons
Level 6

Your storage unit is configured as hcart3, when you inventory the robot, did you make sure those available tapes are also picked up as hcart3? If not, change that to match the media density type.

Also..  if those tapes are not new but recycled tapes, 

1) Check if they have "volume expiration" set on the media, if they do, go to Media GUI, right click on them to change, and set "expiration date" to "never".

2) Make sure there is no "maximum mount" set on those tapes as well, this can be seen from "right click on them to change" in Media GUI as well.

RBarnett
Level 3

Both of the above comments were helpful in resolving the problem and I now have a backup running to tape.

I had created the new barcode rules but I did not delete the tapes and re-run the inventory as Marianne suggested. Then the second comment got me to look at the tapes in the media list and they were all listed as media type DLT. Only then did I delete the tapes and re-run the inventory as prompted.

Behold! All tapes are now showing media type HCART3 and after fixing a name resolution problem, everything looks to be working. Thank you both for your input.

Marianne
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Great stuff!

This is what I meant in my 1st post:

Check that all densities match:
tape drives
Media 
Storage Unit