Media ID / Bar code miss match of NetBackup 7.1

[imskim]

Dear Expert,

I just changed the tape and inventory this morning , the tape LT4012L5 is missing , but A00077 is appeared...(please refer the attached image)

I am pretty sure A00077 is LT4012L5, but no idea why the Netbackup displayed the wrong information .

I double check the label on the tape is in good conditon , no any damage.

Please kindly advise , thanks millions !!!

Best Regards,

Netbackup starter...

[Marianne]

This tape was previously used in standalone tape drive or else with no label in a tape library. If there are no images on the tape, you can label the tape and de-select the option to verify the label. If there are images associated with A00077, you can use vmchange to update the barcode for media-id A00077.

[imskim]

Hi Marianne,

Thanks for your reply, I try to run 
vmchange -barcode LT4012L5 -m A00077 ,than inventory but no luck , please kindly refer the attached image, thanks !

[Mark_Solutions]

It looks like a faulty barcode / reader to me

Sometime they get shiny and the camera does not read them properly

Take the tape out and give the barcode label a rub with a cloth to slightly buff it and remove any shine as well as double checking for damage - then load it again to see it is resolves it for you

[mph999]

Run robtest from the robot control host, then the command :

s s

This displays all the tapes in the robot, including the barcode.

Can you see LT4012L5 ?

Yes - the robot is reading the barcode correctly

No - the robot cannot read the barcode

[imskim]

I tried to take out the tape , clean the label and re-inventory again , now seems became worse.....have an error : Inventory Failed , media ID not unique in database (34)

please see the attached image.

and now the the robot type show "NONE" in the media too.... please help...

[imskim]

and here is the capture of robtest

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

So, not only A00077, but A00078 as well. And we don't know how many more. Can we start from scratch and you tell us how media have been used in this environment? It really seems that tapes have initially been used without labels in the robot and barcodes added at a later stage. So, there will many more A00... tapes in Media GUI if you sort by media-id, right? Now that you have labels on the tapes, it is extremely important that you get rid of the A00 media-id's. The only way is to delete them when all images have expired. You can do this for all A00 tapes that do not have a value in Assign Time field. Inventory the robot to add media with barcode labels. Next step is overwrite the internal label. If you don't do that, NBU will freeze the tape next time it is loaded for a backup. Right-click on the tape, choose Label, the de-select the option to verify media label. For tapes with valid images, you will need to run vmchange command for all of them. Better to stop using the A00 media-id's. Wait till they expire, delete and re-label them with id that corresponds with label. Pity you did not add Media Id Generation rule from scratch to use 1st 6 characters of the barcode as media-id....

[imskim]

there will many more A00... tapes in Media GUI if you sort by media-id, right? <-- You are Genius !! After I deleted all the A00xx media, it can inventory finally !!!!!!!

I try to run the manual backup and I can' t beleive that all the problem is fixed !!

Thank you all you guys to save my life and special thanks to Marianne to provide a details expenation and solution !! thanks again !

P.S. I also want to have some training but seems it is not possible , as I believe my company will not provide , lucky i have you guys and this forum , thanks millons !!

[Marianne]

Glad we could help.

PLEASE remember to re-label all the tapes with newly added labels, otherwise your next post will be about lots of frozen tapes because internal and external labels mismatch.

You will see something like this in Activity Monitor:
" Incorrect media found in drive index #, expected 40..L5, found A000##, ... FREEZING media id 40..L5"

About training:

Please have a look at the 'eLibrary' section on Veritas training site for free online training:  https://www.veritas.com/education-services

[imskim]

will do, thanks Marianne !~