I had a problem with a batch of bad tapes. I ended up sending the tapes back to the vendor for replacements. The problem is that if a tape is actually bad then the retries are not always sufficient to get the job don in a tight window since the retrry would use the exact same tape it just reported as having an error. The question is if Netbackup detects an error when writing to tape during a backup, is there a way to make it continue the backup on a different tape?
NetBackup will resubmit a job that fails with a media error according to the Global Settings for failed backup attempts. Unfortunately it may try using the same tape that just had a media error. Create a fle /usr/openv/netbackup/MEDIA_ERROR_THRESHOLD. Enter the number of allowable errors before NetBackup will freeze a tape. If you enter the number zero then it will FREEZE the tape on the first media error and then NetBackup will be forced to use a new tape on the retry.
I did this until I was able to identify all the bad tapes and at a later time troubleshoot and unfreeze and retry that specific tape.
On another note: sometimes the NetBackup retries are not sufficient in an Oracle online backup. In addition to using the NetBackup retries you may need to set a variable within the backup scripts for the number of retries. I have seen this with using SQL-Back track.
Theres been a lot of detailed replies. Do you have further questions?