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Need to free tape space

JanS
Level 3
I recently ran out of space on my tapes.

I use NetBackup 6.5 on Windows in an NDMP test environment. Once a test is finished, I'd like to immediately delete the backup data from tape so that the space can be reused.

What I'm doing right now is that at the end of a test I get the backupids with:
bpimagelist -U -idonly -client client_IP -hoursago 90

Then I set the expiration date of each backupid to 0:
bpexpdate -backupid BACKUP_ID -d 0

Are you SURE you want to delete BACKUP_ID y/n (n)?y

So now I assumed that the space would be freed and can be reused. Can someone confirm if this is the right way to free the tape space?

However, my subsequent backups show some errors now. This one seems directly related to the tape space issue:
4/7/2009 12:11:27 PM - Error nbjm(pid=1140) NBU status: 96, EMM status: No media is available   
unable to allocate new media for backup, storage unit has none available(96)

So I assume that I'm missing a step in freeing the tape space.

In one other backup I got the following error. I don't know if this error is directly connected to deleting the backup data:
4/7/2009 11:55:34 AM - started process bpbrm (4360)
4/7/2009 11:55:35 AM - connecting
4/7/2009 11:55:35 AM - connected; connect time: 00:00:00
4/7/2009 11:55:38 AM - mounting DX0037
4/7/2009 11:56:08 AM - Error bptm(pid=460) block read is not a NetBackup or Backup Exec media header, len = 0, media id DX0037, drive index 0, data is ANSI-format
4/7/2009 11:56:08 AM - Error bptm(pid=460) non NetBackup media found in drive index 0, FREEZING DX0037  

Can anyone help me with that?

Regards,
Jan
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Will_Restore
Level 6
bpexpdate -d 0 -backupid backup_id   expires the image but not the volume
bpexpdate -d 0 -m media_id   expires the volume and deassigns it

The second one appears to be media from another system (data is ANSI-format). 
You'd have to relabel it in Netbackup via Media, Actions, Label or Allow media overwrite in Host Properties, Media Server, Media.

Make sure you are expiring or labeling the correct tape lest you lose important data!!!

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2

Will_Restore
Level 6
bpexpdate -d 0 -backupid backup_id   expires the image but not the volume
bpexpdate -d 0 -m media_id   expires the volume and deassigns it

The second one appears to be media from another system (data is ANSI-format). 
You'd have to relabel it in Netbackup via Media, Actions, Label or Allow media overwrite in Host Properties, Media Server, Media.

Make sure you are expiring or labeling the correct tape lest you lose important data!!!

JanS
Level 3
Thanks for your help.

It seems to work now. I ran bpexpdate on all the media_ids that I was using.

It's only a test system so I don't need to wory about any data that is lost.

The other issue with ANSI-format data came up again but this time it just overwrote the data (I didn't change any settings):
4/7/2009 1:32:49 PM - Warning bptm(pid=3168) overwriting ANSI-format data on media id DX0039, allowed by host property settings