Tape Rotation / Scratch Pool

[pmc214]

Hello, i am having many problems with tapes not available for backup to write to... this is windows system, with T120 library containing 50 tapes and i only have a few (*-10) extras outside the library.

of the 50 tapes, none are in a scratch pool, all are in the Netbackup pool.( keep in mind i did not set any of this up, it was just handed off to me like it is.)

right now, 42 are full - 6 Active

Non Active - 22 will expire within 1 week, 19 will expire between 1 and 2 weeks, 1 will expire in greater than 3 months.

Active - 4 will expire between 1 and 2 weeks, 1 between 3 week and 1 month, 1 greater than 3 months.

Most of my backups errored this morning not having media to write to. I can rotate in a few tapes and remove some.. but i have read that having tapes in a scratch pool is the way to go. there is a scratch pool made, but like i said there is nothing in it...

can anyone offer advice for a complete newb running blind?

TIA

[bigblockdan]

So if you go into Netbackup Admin Console- Media and Device Managment>Media>Volume Pools>scratch

If your not seeing any scratch tapes in there then you need to find some tapes or something isn't setup correctly

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

If all your tapes are in NetBackup pool, there is no need for a scratch pool. It is only useful if you have a number of backup pools and it is becoming an issue to ensure sufficient tapes in each pool.

Please help me here - it sounds like you have about 60 tapes - 50 in the library and 10 outside.
NBU knows about 48 - 42 full, 6 Active, right?

So, you have new tapes that can be put in the robot? 
If so, eject some of the full tapes and replace with the 'new' tapes.

Two other NBU report that will help you manage media:
- Tape written report - this will help you monitor daily tape usage.
- available_media  - run this from cmd (in netbackup\bin\goodies) on a daily basis to see what is available (in and out of the robot once NBU knows about all tapes).
You already know about Tape Summary report which is good to see when media will become available. Detailed info when you run with Verbose option.
 

[pmc214]

sorry for my confusion... which tapes do i pull out of the library ..the non-active with the longest time to expire or the shortest time to expire? and can a weekly rotation pulling these tapes work for this?

[Marianne]

It makes sense to eject the Full tapes with longest retention.

It will be a good idea to eject full tapes after Weekly Full backups.

If you keep an eye on Tape Summary report (in Verbose mode), you will know when they can be put back in the robot.