NBU 7 Media States Query

[Dishant]

Hi Guys,

As everyone know that there are several media states in NetBackUp.

Can anyone please elaborate the difference between a Frozen Media and Suspended Media.

What exactly happens when you freeze a media and supend a media??

Thanks and Regards,

Dishant Dhokia

[Nicolai]

If a tape is frozen it will not be reused unless the admin unfreezes it.

A suspended tape will be re-used when all bacup images on it has been expired (either manual or when the retension lifetime has been reached).

This is from the Netbackup admin manual  - about FROZEN tape (page 338):

A frozen volume is unavailable for future backups.A frozen volume never expires,
even after the retention period ends for all backups on the media. The media ID
is never deleted from the NetBackup media catalog, and it remains assigned to
NetBackup.Afrozen volume is available for restores. If the backups have expired,
you must import the backups first.

NetBackup freezes media automatically when read or write errors surpass the
threshold within the time window. The default media error threshold is 2. That
is, NetBackup freezes media on the third media error in the default time window
(12 hours).
NetBackup also freezes a volume if a write failure makes future attempts at
positioning the tape unreliable.
Common reasons for write failures are dirty write heads or oldmedia.The reason
for the action is logged in theNetBackup error catalog (viewtheMedia Logs report
or the All Log Entries report).

[Dishant]

Hi Nicolai,

1. So you mean to say if I suspend a tape which had a retention period of 2 weeks then it will not available for backups for 2 weeks even though I unsuspend it.

2. If i have a tape with a retention period of 2 weeks and size of say 600 GB then is this the scenario

1st Nov - First backup job - Used 200 GB - 1st image will expire on 15th Nov

2nd Nov - Second backup job - Used 200 GB - 2nd image will expire on 16th Nov

3rd Nov - Thirdbackup job - Used 150 GB - 3rd image will expire on 17th Nov

So I mean to say is will all the 3 images expire on 17th Nov or depending on the day the backup is written 

Thanks and Regards,

Dishant Dhokia

[Zahid_Haseeb]

Frozen: The volume is unavailable for future backups. A frozen volume never expires, even after the retention period ends for all backups on the media. This means that the media ID is never deleted from the NetBackup media catalog and remains assigned to NetBackup. (The bpmedia command can also be used to manually freeze or unfreeze volumes.) Suspended: The volume cannot be used for further backups until retention periods for all backups on it have expired. At that time, the suspended volume is deleted from the NetBackup media catalog and unassigned from NetBackup. (The bpmedia command can also be used to manually suspend or unsuspend volumes.)

[Nicolai · Accepted solution]

1: If it suspende it will not be used for two week (if RL=2 weeks). If you unsuspend a tape it will be reused. New backup will be added to it.

2: A tape will become a scratch tape again when ALL images has reached the defined life time (retension level).

15th November - First backup expire - Tape not reused because it not empty

16: November - 2nd backup expire - Same as previous

17: Third backup expire. By now the tape contain no images and become a scratch tape.

So to answer your'e qustion "depending on the day the backup is written" is the right answer.

Best Regards

Nicolai

[J_H_Is_gone]

http://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/understanding-how-netbackup-writes-tape

Though I do not talk about freeze and suspend I do explain out images are written to the tape and how they expire and when the tape becomes a scratch.

[Dishant]

Thanks Guys for your vluable comments,