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Explanation of Media - How to resuse a tape asigned to a MP

Wayne_Maranduik
Level 4

Hi,

Exuse my newbie question, but I come from a BeckupExec background where things are much different...how can I reuse a tape that has at least one image on it and is assigned to a media pool other than Scratch? I tried to expire the media and then move it to the Scratch media pool, but NB wouldn;t let me saying the tape is already assigned or has images on it.

Please explain...in BE all I had to do was drag the tape from the media pool to the Scratch pool and done!

Thanks

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

revarooo
Level 6
Employee

I'm not going to repeat what's already been wrote before, read this post:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-expire-backup-images-move-media-scratch-pool

 

Cut N Paste:

 

 have gone through a scenario when some of backup images were no longer required and we decided to discard those images and reuse the media. This is how we achive it.
 
  1. Verify if there are valid images on the tape.
  2. Expire images.
  3. Verify if the tape is assigned or not.
  4. De-assign media
  5. Change volume pool
 
Verify if there are valid images on the tape.
The bpmedialist command can then be used to determine if there are valid images still on the tape. If there are valid images still on the tape, then the tape cannot be moved to another volume pool until all valid images have expired.
 
 <Install_Path>\Program Files\Veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpmedialist -m <media_id> 
 
Expire Images
If a media has valid images, but that images are no longer desired, the following command may be run:
 
 bpexpdate -m <media_id> -d 0 -force 
Verify if the tape is assigned or not
 
The vmquery command can be used to determine if the tape is assigned or not. Check the "assigned:" entry to see if an assigned time has been set. If an assigned time has been set, the tape cannot be moved to another volume pool until all valid images have expired.
 <Install_Path>\program files\veritas\volmgr\bin\vmquery –m <Media_Id> 
 
De-assign media
In case where the tape is listed with an assigned date, but where NO valid images exist on the tape, the following command can be run:
  
 C:\Program Files\Veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -deassignempty -m <media_id>   
 
Change volume pool
Now backup images are expired, media de-assigned, now we can change volume pool
 vmchange –p <destination_pool_number> -m <media_id> 

 

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3 REPLIES 3

revarooo
Level 6
Employee

I'm not going to repeat what's already been wrote before, read this post:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-expire-backup-images-move-media-scratch-pool

 

Cut N Paste:

 

 have gone through a scenario when some of backup images were no longer required and we decided to discard those images and reuse the media. This is how we achive it.
 
  1. Verify if there are valid images on the tape.
  2. Expire images.
  3. Verify if the tape is assigned or not.
  4. De-assign media
  5. Change volume pool
 
Verify if there are valid images on the tape.
The bpmedialist command can then be used to determine if there are valid images still on the tape. If there are valid images still on the tape, then the tape cannot be moved to another volume pool until all valid images have expired.
 
 <Install_Path>\Program Files\Veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpmedialist -m <media_id> 
 
Expire Images
If a media has valid images, but that images are no longer desired, the following command may be run:
 
 bpexpdate -m <media_id> -d 0 -force 
Verify if the tape is assigned or not
 
The vmquery command can be used to determine if the tape is assigned or not. Check the "assigned:" entry to see if an assigned time has been set. If an assigned time has been set, the tape cannot be moved to another volume pool until all valid images have expired.
 <Install_Path>\program files\veritas\volmgr\bin\vmquery –m <Media_Id> 
 
De-assign media
In case where the tape is listed with an assigned date, but where NO valid images exist on the tape, the following command can be run:
  
 C:\Program Files\Veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -deassignempty -m <media_id>   
 
Change volume pool
Now backup images are expired, media de-assigned, now we can change volume pool
 vmchange –p <destination_pool_number> -m <media_id> 

 

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

How are you trying to expire the tape?

There are 2 expiration dates associated with a tape - 
1) hardware expiration date - meaning tape is too old to be used anymore
2) image expiration - when all images have expired, the tape can be overwritten.

Expire images on tape with:
bpexpdate -m <media-id> -d 0

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited
Just adding to the excellent posts - the 'hardware' expiration date is not set by default, this has to be set manually if you wish to use it. M