LTO-4 Media question

[flavor4real]

Good Morning,
       It might be a crazy questions, so forgive me.  Our tape library takes 98 LTO4 tape medias.  I see the media used under Media and Device Management > Media > ... How do I know that a tape is full and need to be replaced?  I'm asking because my coworker uses a older tape library LTO2 and she runs 25 jobs, and replaces her 7-8 tapes every day.  On my side, the LTO4 hold way more but I can't find any information about how to find out when the tape is full and need to be replaced.

thanks

[Andy_Welburn]

1) the GUI - column "Media Status" (***EDIT*** within Media & Device Management/Media that is!)

2) the command bpmedialist. (***EDIT*** options are available but not necessary here)

The removal of media from your library will come down to your business requirements & how you have NetBackup configured.

e.g. our daily tapes remain in the library at all times. Our weekly & monthly offsite tapes are removed when those scheduled jobs are completed - they are not necessarily FULL. Our main requirement is to ensure there are enough Scratch tapes available as opposed to removing FULL tapes.

[flavor4real]

oh ok, thanks.

see the issue I'm having is this.  I have 3 jobs running where the incremential runs monday to thursday, and on friday the full backup runs.  Now, when i look onder the GUI Media and Device Management > Media, I see 8 tapes in sporatic order and i do not really know what is on these tapes. 

I can go to the restore feature and let me display the tapes used for the spedcific full backup for that server and take these out. 

Is there a way for me to say to use new/ blank media for each full backup job per server?

[Andy_Welburn]

Do you really want to micro-manage NetBackup?

Is there a real necessity to keep serverA tapes separate from serverB? & Mondays separate from Tuesdays etc?

We did to a certain extent - split volume pools by O/S &/or day of the week. I'm trying to cutting out that habit now & am down to just a few VPs - mainly those kept in the library & those removed (weekends) - plus the standard catalog, scratch etc. But I know some do not even go that far, they stay with the default VPs that NB provides & let it manage the tapes - that's esssentially one of its mai reasons for being.

[flavor4real]

hmm, u right.  I guess its just a thing of me being in control, lol.

Will netbackup put incremential backups and full backaups on the same tape? or will will NB separate them on different tapes then?

[Andy_Welburn · Accepted solution]

NB will mix your incrementals & fulls IF the retention periods are the same.

If you have different retention periods e.g. 2 weeks for incrementals & 4 weeks for fulls, then they will go on separate media. You can also see this in the retention period column in the media GUI etc.

[flavor4real]

oh ok,.. that makes sence and i should have thought about it.  I guess i'm still tired.  Andy, I've learned a lot from your post and i really appreciate your input.

I have many other questions but I'll post them later.  thanks again

[Andy_Welburn]

It can be a steep learning curve, but it will all make sense .... eventually!

[Marianne]

I fully agree with Andy - when you install an Enterprise product you need to trust the product to take care of 'what's on the tapes'.
Tape Written report can tell which tape was written when.

You can eject tapes on a daily basis and send off-site for security reasons. This practice will require extra media - lots of tapes will be removed from the robot that are half full.