Media ID A00013 requested for new tape write?

[Oestec]

Greetings,

I'm simply trying to backup a server share to a tape. The share is local to the NBU 7.1 server, and the backup tape drive is a single drive unit attached directly to the backup server.

When executing the backup, the job is paused with the following message:

6/5/2015 11:27:46 AM - requesting resource LTO4_Tape
6/5/2015 11:27:46 AM - requesting resource bkpsvr01.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.bkpsvr01
6/5/2015 11:27:46 AM - requesting resource bkpsvr01.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.Tape_DEV_FFO_Daily
6/5/2015 11:27:48 AM - awaiting resource LTO4_Tape A pending request has been generated for this resource request.
     Operator action may be required. Pending Action: No action.,
     Media ID: A00013, Barcode: --------, Density: hcart, Access Mode: Write,
     Action Drive Name: N/A, Action Media Server: N/A, Robot Number: N/A, Robot Type: NONE,
     Volume Group: ---, Action Acs: N/A, Action Lsm: N/A

I am not trying to retrieve data from a specific tape, just to write to the tape that is in the drive. This happens no matter what tape I insert, even if its brand new.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris.

[GulzarShaikhAUS · Accepted solution]

Many things to look at - 

1. You run inventory after you insert the tapes.

2. The newly available medias are available in either the volume pool you are targetting the backup or in the scratch pool.

3. The media density matches. e.g. HCART 1 media in HCART1 robot and so on.... You can check it by going to media options and check the type column

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

NBU will try to append to a previous tape that was used that is not yet Full. To prevent previous tape request, you will have to Supend A00013 (and other used, 'non-full' tapes).

[sdo · Accepted solution]

With standalone tape drives, NetBackup will request as Marianne has stated.

The thing is that when using standalone tape drives, the media that NetBackup requests is nothing more than a suggestion.  If you insert a different media, which is also writable, i.e. either scratch OR of the correct pool and retention and which is not full - then NetBackup will use either of them.  i.e. when using standalone tape drives, you do not have to load the media that NetBackup requests - you can load any media - and so if NetBackup deems/determines that the media that you load is writeabe/appendable then it will simply use that media - i.e. you do not need to suspend or freeze media to stop certain media being requested.  Just load whatever you want - remember it's a standalone tape drive, so you are in control of whichever media to use.

.

Here's a tip (not related to your question) (but possibly useful to know and/or implement):  To avoid the situation where NetBackup has exhausted all possible media, and so a job will fail with status 96 - what I like to do is to create a dummy media, which does not really exist and which will never exist, of the correct media type and density (matching the storage unit) - and just leave this dummy entry forever assigned the scratch pool.  This way, if all real/actual/physical existing media are all used up, then NetBackup will request this 'dummy' media (which NetBackup thinks exists - but you know that it doesn't) - and so the job will sit there waiting for you to load this dummy media - which means that you now have the opportunity to either cancel the job yourself - or better still, suspend it, then create a new standalone media volume, and label it (logically, and physically with a sticker), and then resume the suspended job - and the job will continue when it sees the new media.

Of course, if you have two standalone drives, and all real/physical media are exhausted, and both of the standalone drives need media - then you need two dummy media entries, because the resource broker needs to lock media that is requests/suggests - so if you only have one dummy media, then one drive/job will lock that, and a second standalone drive won't have a dummy media that it can lock and so the job (for this second drive) will fail.  So, if you have three standalone drives, then it's best to create three dummy media - this way no job will ever fail due to pool out of media, and they'll all sit there waiting for you to load any new media (and of course not the dummy numbers which don't actually exist).  HTH.

[sdo]

I should also add that NetBackup requests media based upon a set of rules, e.g. least mounted, or volume pool max partial media, and other rules... so, if you do create dummy media for your standalone drives (storage unit(s)), then just because NetBackup requests one of your dummy media id's, then this does not necessarily - but it might - mean that your media pool has been exhausted.  Obviously, this is NetBackup has no idea of what your intentions are regarding manual media management and manual media selection and manual media mounting.

[Marianne]

Some reading matter regarding media selection:

How NetBackup selects media  

 

 

 

 

 

About selecting media in standalone drives