Tapes are reading scratch after being inventoried (windows 2003 server)

[gmgenova]

We recently upgraded from Netbackup 6.0 to Netbackup 6.5. We have volume pools Monday, Tus, Wed, Thu, Fri, Scratch. On a normal Monday, we put 3 Monday tapes in, 3 Tuesday tapes in and 1 Scratch tape in. After we inventory the robot, it should have (under volume pool) 3 tapes with Monday, 3 with Tuesday, and 1 with Scratch. This has been the case with Netbackup 6.0. It worked for years without a problem. Ever since we upgraded to 6.5, all the tapes have Scratch as a volume pool after we inventory the robot. We have to go in and manually change the Monday tapes to Monday and the Tuesday tapes to Tuesday.

Anybody seen this or have suggestions?

[J_H_Is_gone]

1) did you do a database consistency check before the upgrade
2) did you lose your barcode rules during the upgrade

[lknishad · Accepted solution]

Gmgenova,

                       Can you please check in vm.conf what is the value for the bewow variable RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL = YES.

RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL = YES -> Media Manager returns expired and unassigned media (media that was originally from the same scratch pool) to the scratch volume pool automatically.

[gmgenova]

lknishad,

Here is what is in our vm.conf file:

DEVICE_HOST = veritas
SCRATCH_POOL = scratch
MM_SERVER_NAME = veritas


Do I need to add something to this file?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Under 6.5 the setting  RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL is stored in the EMM database on your EMM server. (For most the EMM server IS the master server.)

Find your settings out with the following command:

# nbemmcmd -listsettings -machinename <string>

Replace string with your master server and you get returned a list similar to this.

NBEMMCMD, Version:6.5.4
The following configuration settings were found:
ALLOW_MULTIPLE_RETENTIONS_PER_MEDIA="no"
DISABLE_DISK_STU_JOB_THROTTLING="no"
DISABLE_STANDALONE_DRIVE_EXTENSIONS="no"
MEDIA_REQUEST_DELAY="0"
MUST_USE_LOCAL_DRIVE="no"
NON_ROBOTIC_MEDIA_ID_PREFIX="A"
MAX_REALLOC_TRIES="1000"
DISABLE_BACKUPS_SPANNING_DISK="no"
DISALLOW_NONNDMP_ON_NDMP_DRIVE="no"
DO_NOT_EJECT_STANDALONE="no"
PREFER_NDMP_PATH_FOR_RESTORE="yes"
DONT_USE_SLAVE="no"
DRIVE_ERROR_THRESHOLD="2"
MEDIA_ERROR_THRESHOLD="2"
TIME_WINDOW="12"
SCSI_PROTECTION="SR"
NBUFS_DUP_TSU_TO_DSU="no"
NBUFS_DESTINATION_DSU="NONE"
NBUFS_RETENTION_LEVEL="0"
MPMS_DISABLE_RANK="0"
MPMS_DISABLE_EVENTS="no"
UNRESTRICTED_SHARING="no"
FATPIPE_USAGE_PREFERENCE="Preferred"
FATPIPE_WAIT_PERIOD="15"
FATPIPE_RESTORE_WAIT_PERIOD="5"
FT_MAX_CLIENT_PORTS_PER_SERVER="2"
SHAREDDISK_MOUNT_POINT="/nbushareddisk"
FT_MAX_CLIENTS_PER_PORT="2"
RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes"
VAULT_CLEAR_MEDIA_DESC="no"
SCSI_PERSISTENT_RESERVE="0"
Command completed successfully.

[gmgenova]

Stuart,

Where would I do that command from? Just from DOS? It is a Windows 2003 server.

[gmgenova]

Stuart,

Ok. I found out where to do the command from. It does say RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes".

This media has already been assigned though. None of these are brand new tapes. If I change this setting to no, does that mean the media will be assigned to Monday or whatever day it was originally assigned to?

[J_H_Is_gone]

If you have a volume pool called Monday and you put a scratch tape in that pool.
Then that tape is used - you removed it from the library
the tape expires
you put it back in the library
it will go back to the volume pool called Monday if you have the return set to NO.

[gmgenova]

If I change it from 'yes' to 'no', does the change take place right away? Or does something need to bounce?

[Anonymous]

I would recommend to restart NetBackup services to absolutely sure.

However, reading your original post just check all the media ID information in the media DB for your media that you are questioning regards it behaviour.

There is a field called Previous Pool Name:
What does yours say..
This is just another place where information is stored under the radar from the Console GUI.
Its quite a festival of info.

For example:
nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid EZX929

NBEMMCMD, Version:6.5.4
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     3b75d16a-43b8-11de-8000-eca867d184e2
Media ID:                       EZX929
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART
Volume Group:                   000_00000_TLD
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    ---
Barcode:                        EZX929
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                nb_media1
Created:                        05/18/2009 14:29
Time Assigned:                  07/24/2009 16:00
First Mount:                    05/25/2009 06:02
Last Mount:                     08/09/2009 23:02
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                09/09/2009 23:00
Last Written:                   08/09/2009 23:00
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     TLD
Robot Control Host:             nb_master
Robot Number:                   0
Slot:                           29
Side/Face:                      -
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               78
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   FULL
Kilobytes:                      3179519584
Images:                         70
Valid Images:                   70
Retention Period:               3
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      1024
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             11028386
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    nb_master
Server Group:                   NO_SHARING_GROUP
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    5
Volume Pool:                    Daily 
Previous Pool Name:             Scratch
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

[gmgenova]

The problem is fixed. After I changed it to no, the change did not take place right away. The tapes had to cycle back through before they would show the correct volume pool. Thanks to all who helped me.