Tape Labeling out of rule

[George_Dicu]

Hi,

So I got the attached tapes log.

Strange think is why some of the tapes added have the Media ID  0501L5 instead of XO0501, as you will se most of them are with XO1234 then we have 1234L5 then again XO1234 and then again the last insertion were with 050xL5 instead of XO0501, XO0502 etc.

Out Robot control has the same rule since created:

Robot Number    Barcode Length    MID Gen. Rule

      0               8            1:2:3:4:5:6

Please see also the Media Settings img which noone changed since existed.

Obviously scripting purposes are alot harder now if I want to use media id.

Can I change the ones that are not starting with "XO" back to "XOxxxx" without "deleting" them from the library, then have alot of data on them.

//George

[RonCaplinger]

There are two things that affect what is used by NetBackup to assign the 6-character Media ID from the 8-character Barcode:

1. A setting on your tape library will determine how many characters will be reported to NetBackup when the tape is inserted in the library.
2. The barcode rules determine which of the barcode characters presented by the tape library will be used to assign a new Media ID.

You appear to have either moved tapes from one library to another in which one of them was only reporting 6 characters and the other reports back all 8, or someone has changed that setting at some point on the tape library (assuming you are correct that no one changed the barcode rules).

No, you cannot DIRECTLY change the media ID to include the correct characters because there is also a "label" that was written on the magetic tape at the very beginning of each tape the first time it was written to by NetBackup.  If you try to run the "label" command again from NetBackup, you will likely lose all the data on the tape.

However, there is an alternative:

1. Make sure the library is still reporting all 8 characters of the barcode
2. Close the write-protect door on each of the incorrect tapes
3. Duplicate the images from those tapes to new ones that have the correct media ID
4. After you are sure everything has been duplicated to new tapes, open the write protect doors on the incorrect tapes
5. Expire all the images on those tapes using the bpexpdate command (this will remove any reference to them from the NetBackup catalog
6. Either run the NetBackup Image Cleanup, or let it run at its regularly scheduled time
7. Delete the incorrect media ID's from NetBackup
8. Run an inventory of your library so it sees the tapes are there and assigns the new media id to them
9. Manually run the NetBackup label process from the right-click menu of each tape using the NetBackup GUI, but be sure to uncheck the box that tells it to verify the label first; if you don't it won't re-label the tape

I might be missing a step near the end here, but the basic idea is that you have to get NetBackup to think these tapes are new.

[Marianne]

Do you have a Windows Remote Admin server? If so, you need to add the Media ID Generation Rule to vm.conf on this machine as well. As per Ron's post, you cannot get rid of these incorrect media id's while there are valid images on them.

[George_Dicu]

Hi,

I have access to NBU Env. so I can access vm.conf from master or media.

Master vm.conf rule:

MEDIA_ID_BARCODE_CHARS = 1 8 1:2:3:4:5:6

is this correct?  Media ID should be XO1234 not 1234L5.

//George

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

if you sometimes do inventory from the media server, you need to add the vm.conf entry for Media ID Generation to media server as well.

This entry needs to be in vm.conf of EACH machine where Inventory is done. Even if you have Remote Admin Console installed on your PC.

This vm.conf entry will only apply to new media - not existing media.

[George_Dicu]

Oh, cute...didn`t even/ever think about this.

I probably Inventoried the Robot on other then set-up vm.conf file.

Thank you Marianne.