Expiration Issues

[pjtee]

Netbackup 7.0.1

Windows 2003 Server

Hi, I inserted two tapes last night which were last used on 18th April and their retention was set for 3 weeks. So the retention should have lapsed on the 9th May (i.e. yesterday). Doesn't seem to have happened though and half of my backups failed with status 96 "unable to allocate media" errors. I had no scratch tapes inserted.

What I don't really get is that the other half did backup ok. Backups that include Flash file and SQL which spanned both 9th and 10th May completed successfully (without wiping the April contents) but then the other half all failed.

I'm just having a bit of trouble understanding why some did backup? As I understand it the whole lot should have failed because the tape retention had not expired in time

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Zahid_Haseeb]

The backup policy which did trigger and failed have the properly Volume Pool assigned ? 

[pjtee]

All backup policies are configured the same....

Volume Pool - ENCR_Daily

Retention - 3 weeks

Thanks

[Zahid_Haseeb]

What is the result of Available_media command?

[Andy_Welburn]

the others didn't - tapes didn't expire (as you are probably aware!) but they also weren't FULL. The first few backups therefore had space to complete before they did become FULL.

Really needed to check exactly when they were due to expire before loading them in the library & if necessary manually expiring them - it will all depend upon the expiration date & the actual date of the last images written to them.

Maybe worth checking next time so you don't encounter your 96 errors again.

[watsons]

If you never had this problem in earlier version of NBU.. probably this bug:

As stated in 7.0.1 Late Breaking News:

(ET2106924)  Duplications fail with a Status Code 191/233/44, Image expiration also does not occur on Windows Master servers
 http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH138266

[pjtee]

Ok ...I checked the kilobytes in the "Tape Written" report and both tapes come in well under 1.6Tbytes. So they don't appear to be full, unless its not counting the previously held backups. Which is a bit useless...

But yeah, if true I guess that makes sense.

[Zahid_Haseeb · Accepted solution]

As I have asked you what is the result of available_media command. The STATUS must not be FULL See the command for reference:

C:\Program Files\VERITAS\NetBackup\bin\goodies>available_media.cmd

media   media   robot   robot   robot   side/   ret    size     status

 ID     type    type      #     slot    face    level  KBytes

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

CatalogBackup pool

DataStore pool

NetBackup pool

A00038  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       9     21481418 ACTIVE

A00044  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       9     22841324 ACTIVE

A00056  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       9     21911831 ACTIVE

A00059  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       9     27126231 FULL

A00046  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       -     -        AVAILABLE

A00047  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       -     -        AVAILABLE

A00048  4MM      NONE     -       -      -       -     -        AVAILABLE

If the STATUS is FULL then its a different question that why the Images are not being expired. 

[pjtee]

Hi, you're right. They are full

0025L4  HCART    TLD      0       4      -       2     1392525174       FULL/MP
/ENCRYPTION
0026L4  HCART    TLD      0       1      -       2     1920156055       FULL/MP

Ok, that answers my question. Thats everyone for their help, some good tips for the future.

[Zahid_Haseeb]

Good to head that your problem is resolved

[Andy_Welburn]

backups!

Further to your original post & attachment, are you aware that these details are also available in the GUI? The columns in the media output you attached can be "customised" to suit what info you believe is most relevant (e.g. you could include status, due expiration etc etc):