How to choose myself the tape - device monitor media request

[wwurtt]

Hi all,

I'm stuck with a reccurent issue in my day to day work with Netbackup and hope someone would be able to save my day :)

First my question : when there is a media(tape) request in device monitor for a job, how can I choose the tape ? 

Any hint in GUI or command line will be welcomed 

Below my attempt to explain situation :) 

I'm working on a Netbackup 7.5.0.6 master server, with a media server using a simple drive in each different Office of the company.

Architecture was made using "Volume Pool" for Daily/Weekly/Monthly, but no setting says in advance to which media server a tape belongs to(to my knowledge).

In remote sites they often insert the tape lately, when the backup job has been waiting for a long time for its tape : in these cases Netbackup already tried another tape in the same "Volume Pool"

Result is, in Netbackup console : 

-> in job monitor, backup is pending, waiting for tape insertion

-> in device monitor, a request is asking for a tape from "random" site, which of course can't be inserted as it is not even in t he same city ;)

To formulate another way :

There is Sites A B C D E with a media server and dirve in each named mediaSrvA mediaSrvB etc

In our example error will be in physical site A using MediaSrvA

If a tape in correct Volume Pool (ie : daily/weekly/monthly) is not already inserted, after a time there is a media request in device monitor asking for a tape from a random Site : result is something like that :

Device Host : MediaSrvA

Recorded&External media ID : Some_tape_from_another _office

I have right clic options :  

-> Assign Request : no visible change

-> ReSubmit request : no visible change

After a while, if I tried options above, the tape requested changes (but from a random Site), but I don't know wich one does the change

-> Deny Request : this one cancels the backup job 

[areznik]

You can set up Media Sharing server groups for each site, put that site's media server(s) in it. Netbackup normally assigns the owner when a tape is first mounted, but you can also manually do it for Scratch tapes by right clicking the tape in the GUI and choosing "change media owner." You would have have to somehow know which tapes in netbackup are in which site but it sounds like you already do. I think you can also script this with the 'bpmedia -movedb' command if thats more convenient. 

The other thing you should probably do is increase your media mount timeout so that netbackup waits longer before asking for a new tape, I heard with standalone drives some people will set up to 24hrs. I dont really know, never used standalone drives myself.

[sdo]

Assuming you have media sharing configured, then when using standalone tape drives, the tape mount request for writing is effectively just a suggestion.  You do not actually have to mount the requested tape.  When using standalone tape drives, it is only when restoring that you have mount the requested tape.

So, if you have a very strict physical media rotation and you know which tape to use on which days, then just load the tape that you want to use - this does of course assume that the tape is actually scratch, or is of the correct pool and retention so that it can be appended to.

Or, put another way - assuming that you have media sharing enabled just load any scratch tape that you want to use - i.e. you should not have to load the tape that NetBackup suggests.

[wwurtt]

Thx a lot Areznik, I thought about a soluton like that but didn't know if a feature existed, with your answer I have a chance to get rid of this very annoying issue at last ...

Changing Netbackup architecture is above my pay grade (for now^^) but I'll suggest my Department to look into this. 

[wwurtt]

Hi sdo, thx for your answer

Actually what you describe (put an acceptable tape and it should work) is what I'm looking for : it's not what happens in my situation :(

Anyway thx ofr this answer, it says to me we're not at all in a regular situation ...

To illustrate : I had to impersonate a bit, please trust me I didn"t cheat ;) 

In Media&device Mgmt > Media

As you can see tape is in the DAILY Volume Pool

In Activity Monitor, it's actually a DAILY job :  

In device Monitor : 

But it is still asking for another tape (from another site so we can't give a favorable answer to its request ^^)

[Marianne]

With StandAlone tape drives, best is to pre-label tapes and insert a tape in the drive before new backup starts.

You may want to create different pools for the different remote offices to prevent NBU from asking for a tape from another site.

See this TN: 
About selecting media in standalone drives 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO105594

[wwurtt]

Hi Marianne

I agree with you and even proposed that change 

Unfortunately I have to find a solution/workaround in the present architecture.

I know I can't ask you to find a solution in an incorrectly tuned netbackup :

May I ask you to confirm at least "sdo" statement that it should accept any acceptable tape ?

In my point of view it can show that an issue somewhere else is preventing netbackup to accept a tape, yet correctly set for that job.

With these answers I already have several directions to explore

Thanks a lot and feel free to add any idea you can have :)

[Genericus]

You should be able to set up storage units that specify mediasvrA drive A, then specify that storage unit in the backup policy. It will only use that media server drive combination.

You would need to set up separate schedule or policies to designate the defined storage.

[Marianne]

That does not help with media selection with Standalone tape drives on multiple media servers where all media is non-robotic.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

No update in recent days... 

I cannot see how Media Sharing suggestions will work as you have StandAlone tape drives on media servers in multiple remote sites with common Volume Pools in the environment.

Media Management for StandAlone works completely different to management with robots and  is a nightmare with single master/media server and even more problematic with multiple media servers.

The only solution IMHO will be to create separate Volume Pools for each environment combined with pre-add and labelling of tapes on the relevant media servers. 
This will ensure that only local Volume pool media is requested.