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Questions on how NetBackup handling tape rotation for offsite?

sungpillhan
Level 3

Hello, 

As a part of DR plan, I just removed today's 4 server storage backup tapes from tape library by doing 'Eject Volumes from Robot'. What I expected was, NetBackup will mark or show 'inactive' or any other once the tapes are not present, but there's nothing changed. 

*Volume Pool image attached.

Questions;

  1. Is there any indication NetBackup show whether active tapes are removed and show changed status?
  2. 4 tapes in BCV volume were removed to offsite. How NetBackup handles next backup schedule? Will NetBackup automatically bring another 4 scratch tapes or is there any I have to do? 
  3. After 1 week later, when i put back the 4 removed tapes from offsite, will NetBackup automatically detect and put back to BCV volume pool or is there any I have to do like inventory robot? So, then BCV will have total 11(3 Full, 4 from offsite, 4 newly added from scratch)? How NetBackup will handle existing 4 tapes active and added 4 tapes returned from offsite? 
  4. Now I have to define cleaning tape which were not defined for some reasons. Since I removed the 4 tapes to office, if I do inventory, what will happen to the removed tapes? Will they disappear or stay? What's the consequence of running inventory at this state?

         When I preview inventory change, it shows that the removed tapes for offsite will result to being moved to standalone volume pool, not to their original volume pool. So, if I run inventory, I need to move manually to correct volume pool and do this every time when I remove volume and reinsert? 

 


Proposed Change(s) to Update the Volume Configuration
=====================================================
Logically move media ID 0010L7 (barcode LS0010L7) from slot 10 to standalone residence.
Logically move media ID 0030L7 (barcode LS0030L7) from slot 30 to standalone residence.
Logically move media ID 0031L7 (barcode LS0031L7) from slot 31 to standalone residence.
Logically move media ID 0032L7 (barcode LS0032L7) from slot 32 to standalone residence.
Logically move media ID 0033L7 (barcode LS0033L7) from slot 33 to standalone residence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

When you remove tape from the library one step that has to occur is to update the robot inventory. When this occurs, NetBackup will be informed that the tapes you removed are now not in the library (and will be moved to a standalone residence as you showed). As to your questions:

1. If a tape has been removed and robot inventory updated, the tape will not be associated with a robot in the GUI (this column will be blank).
2. NetBackup will manage tape automatically. Depending on what tapes are available it may use existing (partially full) tapes, unassigned ("empty") tapes or pull tapes from the sratch pool. Difficult to say what without understanding more about your environment.
3. Agfain, after you have inventoried the robot to update NetBackup, the tapes will now be assocaited with the robot. Which pool they return to will depend on a number of factors. First, if the tapes/backups have not expired, then the tapes will remain in the same pool. If the tapes/backups have expired, the the tapes will either be returned to the same pool as unassigned (i.e. available) media or be retuirned to the scratch pool - this is configurable.
4. Tapes do not disappear when you inventory the robot. They will either be found in the slot of the library or if they are not in the library they will be marked as "standalone" or not in the library. Running the inventory is the expected action you should be taking after removing or adding media (in fact if you change the slot a media resides in you should also re-inventory the robot).

HTH

View solution in original post

For Media setting you should be able to leave these as the default settings you show. If you don't have volume groups, this is not relevant - refer to the Admin Guide volume 1 for more details on volume groups. 

For barcode rules, if your actual barcode and meida ID are the same, then there is no requirement for a rule, unless you want to move particular media directly into a speicifc volume pool (so barcodes prefrixed with XX go to volume pool X) - note this is only for new media.

For media ID generation, often the barcode has a suffix L4 or L5 etc. indicating the media type LTO4,  LTO5 etc. and the barcode on the media is 8 characters. In this case a rule is required to use the first 6 digits of the barcode rather than the last. If your media ID and barcode are matching, there is no requirement to change anything here.

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

When you remove tape from the library one step that has to occur is to update the robot inventory. When this occurs, NetBackup will be informed that the tapes you removed are now not in the library (and will be moved to a standalone residence as you showed). As to your questions:

1. If a tape has been removed and robot inventory updated, the tape will not be associated with a robot in the GUI (this column will be blank).
2. NetBackup will manage tape automatically. Depending on what tapes are available it may use existing (partially full) tapes, unassigned ("empty") tapes or pull tapes from the sratch pool. Difficult to say what without understanding more about your environment.
3. Agfain, after you have inventoried the robot to update NetBackup, the tapes will now be assocaited with the robot. Which pool they return to will depend on a number of factors. First, if the tapes/backups have not expired, then the tapes will remain in the same pool. If the tapes/backups have expired, the the tapes will either be returned to the same pool as unassigned (i.e. available) media or be retuirned to the scratch pool - this is configurable.
4. Tapes do not disappear when you inventory the robot. They will either be found in the slot of the library or if they are not in the library they will be marked as "standalone" or not in the library. Running the inventory is the expected action you should be taking after removing or adding media (in fact if you change the slot a media resides in you should also re-inventory the robot).

HTH

OK. So I need to do inventory, but new to NetBackup and not quite sure what options to choose for inventory. 

  1. RC on Media and Device management>Robots> TLD(0)
  2. Select Inventory Robot
  3. Select Update volume configurations 
  4. click Advanced Options

Now I'm in Advnaced Robot Inventory Options, can you tell me what options to choose?

 

Media Settings:

Media which been removed from the robot should be assigned to the volume group: 

currently DEFAULT selected, does this mean the 5 removed tape medias will fall into 'Standalone' volume group? Next week, I'll put the tapes back to tape library. How do I move to BCV volume group? What does DEFAULT mean?

New media section:

I don't think I need to worry since the removed medias are not new. 

 

Barcode Rules:

There's no barcode rules currently. But our tape media has barcord and Media ID is the same as Barcord number. Should I create new Barcode rule?

 

Media ID Generation:

Media ID generation rule is empty.

'The default method genertes a media ID using the last six characters of the barcode'. 

So Just leave it blank? 

*Screenshots attached. 

 

 

For Media setting you should be able to leave these as the default settings you show. If you don't have volume groups, this is not relevant - refer to the Admin Guide volume 1 for more details on volume groups. 

For barcode rules, if your actual barcode and meida ID are the same, then there is no requirement for a rule, unless you want to move particular media directly into a speicifc volume pool (so barcodes prefrixed with XX go to volume pool X) - note this is only for new media.

For media ID generation, often the barcode has a suffix L4 or L5 etc. indicating the media type LTO4,  LTO5 etc. and the barcode on the media is 8 characters. In this case a rule is required to use the first 6 digits of the barcode rather than the last. If your media ID and barcode are matching, there is no requirement to change anything here.

Jim_MD
Level 3

As part of offsite rotation I would consider auto suspending tapes. 

Why use: If you have to recall a tape from offisite for a restore there is the potential of NBU using it for a backup. Suspending a tape stops this happening.  I don't like using the physical locking mechanism on tapes as NBU is no aware of it and I forget to unlock tapes.