Unable to get rid of an unexisting tape - cannot configure catalogue backup

[crookie]

Hi all.

I've been struggling with this problem for quite a while and couldn't find an appropriate procedure to help me solve my problem.
First, it began with errors while performing Catalogue backup :

05/19/2009 17:00:07 - Error bpbackupdb (pid=9416) catalog backup to media id QG9816 FAILED
05/19/2009 17:00:05 - requesting resource QG9816
05/19/2009 17:00:05 - Error nbjm (pid=6051) NBU status: 95, EMM status: Media does not exist
media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database (95)

Then I realized that tape belongs to some strange Volume Group named "-" and not to my robot.
Checking inventory on my robot showed that tape is not there so I decided to remove it following
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/300927.htm
actually not knowing if what I was doing was correct.
I also deleted Volume Group "-".

So, I removed the "ghost" tape, assigned another tape to Volume Pool "CatalogueBackup" and hoped that now the new tape was gonna be used.
But to my great surprise - no. Catalogue backup is still trying to use the old tape and still complains as seen in error log above.

So, I tried to reconfigure offline catalogue backup and there under Attributes I saw "ghost" tape under Removable Media 2. Then I tried to reassign Removable Media to another tape and failed with
"Could not deassign media due to Media Manager error (Status 177)".

I cannot see that tape in nbemmcmd output or in vmquery either.

Looking forward to any help

[J_H_Is_gone]

1. Are you trying to do a HOT Catalog backup or a Cold catalog backup?
2. The pool that you removed "CatalogBackup" is used for HOT, if you no longer have that then you can no longer do a hot.  In conjunction with the pool you should have a Policy named something like HOT_Catalog_Backup ( or some such) that uses the pool you removed.
3. As to the Volume Group - do you really use them?  I do not, I only use Volume Pools - there is a difference.
4. When you removed Volume Group '-' did you lose any other tapes?
5. Cold catalog - when you right click Catalog and go to Configure offline backup - on for the schedule does it say Only when manually initiated? If it says something else then you still have cold configured to run.
6. If you go to Attributes - do you have 2 tapes listed?  Or only one?

Answer these questions to give us a better understanding of your issue.

[crookie]

Hello.

1.Are you trying to do a HOT Catalog backup or a Cold catalog backup?

The hot catalog backup is constantly failing by itself, due to trying to use an unexisting tape. As for the cold backup, I'd like to configure it, but I can't  because of the unexisting tape again.

2.The pool that you removed "CatalogBackup" is used for HOT, if you no longer have that then you can no longer do a hot. In conjunction with the pool you should have a Policy named something like HOT_Catalog_Backup ( or some such) that uses the pool you removed.

I didn't remove "CatalogBackup". As for the policy for hot CatalogBackup, I don't have one, but I can see in Activity monitor that CatalogBackup is being attempte every 45 min or so, but always fails for reasons mentioned

3. As to the Volume Group - do you really use them? I do not, I only use Volume Pools - there is a difference.

There is one Volume Group, it was there by default and it belongs to the robot. The other one was there before and  I deleted it, I don't know what it referred to regarding devices (not any robot), it was named "_" and it contained the tape which causes this mess. However, as  I said, that tape does not exist.

4. When you removed Volume Group '-' did you lose any other tapes?

No, only the "guilty" one

Thanks for helping

5. Cold catalog - when you right click Catalog and go to Configure offline backup - on for the schedule does it say Only when manually initiated? If it says something else then you still have cold configured to run.

It's "After each session of sheduled, user, or manula backup", I haven't touched it. However, I believe it's not being performed

6. If you go to Attributes - do you have 2 tapes listed? Or only one?

To tapes. In "Removable media 1" in dropdown list, there are 3 tapes that can be selected, let's call them Q15, Q17 and Q18. All these3 belong to the volume pool "Netbackup"
"Removable Media 2" is assigned to the unexisting tape Q16. In the drop down list, Q15,16,17 and 18 are possible selections.. However, when I try to select different tape, say Q18 and apply changes , it fails with aforementioned fault "unable to deassign media due to media manager error (status 177)"

[J_H_Is_gone]

If you have the catalog set to "after each session of scheduled, user, or manual backup" then YOU ARE TRYING TO DO A COLD catalog backup.

If you do not have any policy set up that has catalog in its name where Policy type is NBU-Catalog, then YOU ARE NOT doing a HOT catalog backup.

So this brings us down to the issue of the config of the catalog.
Have you placed a call with support about the error?

I found this and this might help
seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/294806.htm
seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/283322.htm

[crookie]

Well, regardless of the fact that there is no policy configured for hot catalogbackup, the system is constantly trying to perform one. what am I missing here?
As for the links, my problem is not associated with bpexpdate. My problem is that somehow both catalogbackup Volume pools refer to an unexisting tape. How to delete it from everywhere? Where that reference still exists if the tape is not physically present in the robot and it's not listed neither by nbemmcmd nor vmquery?

[crookie · Accepted solution]

this helped